Poland vs Saudi Arabia Grading System

How does the Poland grading system work?

Polish universities use a 2–5 scale where 3 is minimum pass. Plus grades (3.5, 4.5) are common.

How does the Saudi Arabia grading system work?

Saudi Arabian universities use either a 5.0 or 4.0 GPA scale. The 5.0 scale is most common at major institutions.

⚠️ Saudi universities may use 5.0 OR 4.0 GPA scales. A 4.0/5.0 is NOT equivalent to 4.0/4.0. Check your transcript.

Do Poland and Saudi Arabia mark to the same standard?

No — and it is the difference in marking culture, not the arithmetic, that makes a direct comparison mislead. Here is how each country actually uses its own scale.

What a good grade means in Poland

The usable range runs from 3 to 5, so only two points separate a bare pass from the maximum and each half-step carries real weight. A 4.0 is a good, solid degree rather than the mediocre "80%" it becomes under proportional conversion. Polish universities are increasingly familiar to admissions offices across Europe through Bologna and ECTS, but a transcript sent outside Europe benefits from the grading key that explains what a 4.5 actually represents.

What a good grade means in Saudi Arabia

The descriptors do more work than the number in Saudi Arabia, and they are set high: Mumtaz begins at 4.51 on the 5.0 scale, so the exceptional band is genuinely narrow. Our own data previously started Mumtaz at 4.25, which over-credited grades by roughly a quarter of a band until it was corrected against the published scale. For an applicant, the practical consequence is that a 4.3 is Jayyid Jiddan — very good — rather than the near-perfect result it looks like when read against a 4.0 maximum.

Will a grade from Poland get you into Saudi Arabia?

We do not yet hold published entry requirements for Saudi Arabia, so we do not compare your grade against a bar we cannot cite. The conversion above still tells you how your result reads in Saudi Arabia terms.

Bardzo dobry (5.0) → 4.0 GPA. Dobry plus (4.5) → approximately 3.5 GPA.

What goes wrong converting grades from Poland to Saudi Arabia?

The pass marks differ — 3.0 in Poland against 2.00 in Saudi Arabia — so the two scales have different usable ranges and the middle of one is not the middle of the other.

Mistakes specific to Poland grades

• Converting proportionally to a percentage. With a usable range of 3 to 5, proportional conversion misrepresents what the grade means.
• Reading a 3 as an average result. It is the minimum pass, so the middle of the Polish scale sits around 4.
• Ignoring half grades. A 4.5 is meaningfully better than a 4 on a scale with so few steps.

What should you do next, applying from Poland to Saudi Arabia?

1. Check the course, not the country. Entry requirements are set per programme and revised every cycle. We hold no published national bar for this destination, so the course page is the only figure that binds.
2. Check whether an evaluation is even required. Unlike the US and Canada, Saudi Arabia universities commonly assess foreign transcripts in-house. Confirm on the course page before paying for a report you may not need.
3. Get your documents moving early. Universities normally require your transcript sent directly by your institution rather than as a copy from you, which takes longer than most applicants expect.
4. Read both systems in full. How Poland grading works · How Saudi Arabia grading works

What do these grading terms mean?

GPA (Grade Point Average)

The US way of expressing an overall grade, on a 0–4.0 scale where 4.0 is the top — so a 4.0 is roughly what a 90–100% or a First Class would be elsewhere.

Percentage scale

A 0–100 marking scale — but the numbers are not comparable across countries: 70% is an outstanding result in the UK and a modest one in India.

Credits / credit hours

A measure of how much a subject counts toward your degree — bigger subjects carry more credits and pull your average further.

Transcript

The official document from your university listing every subject you took and the grade you got — not the same as your degree certificate, and universities abroad want both.

CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average)

The same idea as a GPA but covering your whole degree rather than one term — the scale differs by country (India 10, Nigeria 5.0, Pakistan 4.0), so the number alone means nothing without its scale.

Credential evaluation

A paid report from an approved company that restates your foreign qualification in local terms, which many US and Canadian universities require before they will assess you.

Frequently asked questions