Portugal vs Thailand Grading System

How does the Portugal grading system work?

Portuguese universities use a 0–20 scale inherited from the French tradition. Pass mark is 10. Grades of 18–20 are rarely awarded.

How does the Thailand grading system work?

Thai universities use a 4.0 GPA scale aligned with US conventions.

Do Portugal and Thailand 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 Portugal

As with other 20-point systems, the top of the Portuguese scale is barely used: marks above 17 are uncommon and 20 is effectively unattainable, so a 15 or 16 represents a strong degree rather than the mediocre 75–80% it resembles when converted arithmetically. The honours labels at 18 and above are worth stating on an application precisely because the number alone does not communicate how rare they are.

What a good grade means in Thailand

The 4.0 scale converts cleanly, so Thai transcripts need little translation — the substance is in the honours conditions rather than the number. First-class honours in Thailand normally requires not only a high GPAX but completion within the standard duration and no repeated subjects, which makes it a stronger signal than the average alone conveys. State the honours designation, because an admissions office abroad will read the GPAX at face value and miss the rest.

Will a grade from Portugal get you into Thailand?

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

Muito Bom (18–20) → approximately 4.0 GPA.

What goes wrong converting grades from Portugal to Thailand?

The pass marks differ — 10.0 in Portugal against 2.00 in Thailand — so the two scales have different usable ranges and the middle of one is not the middle of the other.

Mistakes specific to Portugal grades

• Converting a 20-point mark to a percentage by multiplying by five. A 15/20 is a good Portuguese degree; "75%" reads as unremarkable in the US.
• Expecting the top of the scale to be reachable. Above 18 is very rare, which compresses the meaningful range considerably.
• Omitting the honours designation where you hold one — it is quota-like in practice and communicates more than the mark.

What should you do next, applying from Portugal to Thailand?

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, Thailand 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 Portugal grading works · How Thailand grading works

What do these grading terms mean?

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.

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.

Grade compression

Where a marking culture rarely uses the top of its own scale, so the highest grades anyone actually earns sit well below the theoretical maximum.

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.

Frequently asked questions