Morocco Grading System Explained
0–20 Scale (French system) · pass mark 10.0
How do grades from Morocco convert to US GPA?
A Bachelor's / first-degree grade — for graduate (Master's) admission or employment
Got a school-leaving qualification instead — A-levels, Class 12, WASSCE, the Abitur? Here's what actually happens to those.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
⚠️ Pass mark is 10/20, not 50%. A 13–14 is a good result.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
Enter a grade above to see what it means in the United States
You'll get the classification it corresponds to, the range it falls in rather than a single false-precise number, and how firm that answer is.
How does the Morocco grading system work?
Morocco follows the French 20-point grading system. Pass mark is 10/20. Grade compression mirrors France.
Moroccan universities use the French 0–20 scale with 10 as the pass mark, and the French mentions with it: Très bien from 16, Bien from 14, Assez bien from 12 and Passable from 10.
This is a direct inheritance of the French system, so a Moroccan transcript reads much like a French one and is assessed similarly by evaluators.
Results are usually reported to one or two decimal places, and the mention on your diploma matters more than the decimal.
⚠️ Pass mark is 10/20, not 50%. A 13–14 is a good result.
What does each grade mean in Morocco?
| Range | Classification | ≈ US GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 16.0 – 20.0 | Très bien | 4.0 |
| 14.0 – 15.9 | Bien | 3.3 |
| 12.0 – 13.9 | Assez bien | 2.7 |
| 10.0 – 11.9 | Passable | 2.0 |
| 0.0 – 9.9 | Insuffisant (Fail) | — |
The table runs to 20.0, but in practice Morocco rarely awards above 18.0. That is the ceiling the converter anchors to, which is why it will never output a grade almost nobody in Morocco actually receives. Why we do that.
What does a good grade actually look like in Morocco?
Twenty-point marking is severe in a way that catches out anyone reading it as a percentage out of 20. Moroccan professors rarely award above 17 or 18, anything above 16 is exceptional, and a 20 is treated as theoretically unattainable rather than a realistic target. A 14 out of 20 is a genuinely good degree — Bien — and converting it as 70% badly misrepresents it. This is the single most important thing for a Moroccan graduate to explain on an application to a percentage-marking country.
How do WES and other evaluators read grades from Morocco?
Evaluated similarly to French credentials by WES.
Credential-evaluator source: Scholaro — Morocco grading system (credential-evaluation database) · cross-checked against Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, Morocco · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
Is a degree from Morocco accepted abroad?
Morocco follows the licence–master–doctorat structure, with the licence running three years after the baccalauréat. As with other three-year degrees, this can raise the 16-year question for US graduate admission, and is often paired with a master's to resolve it.
What do people get wrong about grades from Morocco?
- Converting a 20-point score to a percentage by multiplying by five. A 14/20 is a good result; "70%" understates it in US terms and overstates it in Indian ones.
- Expecting marks near 20. Above 18 is essentially never awarded, so the usable top of the scale is far below the theoretical maximum.
- Omitting the mention from the application. Très bien and Bien are recognised terms that do the explaining for you.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Morocco?
Each destination below publishes its own typical entry requirement for a taught master's — a one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes. The last column restates that bar in Morocco's own grading terms, so you can hold it against your actual transcript instead of converting in your head.
The last column is a double conversion — the destination's bar onto the US 4.0 scale and then onto Morocco's, so its uncertainty is wider than a single conversion and it is shown as a range for that reason. Treat it as orientation, and check the course page for the bar that actually binds. How this is worked out.
Only destinations whose entry requirement we have read and cited appear here. Several countries publish no numeric bar at all — France admits on the dossier, Japan by entrance examination — and others we simply have not researched yet. An absent row never means “no requirement”.
The last column links the organisations that maintain each country's programme data — we hold none of it ourselves, and none of them can tell you whether you will be admitted. Several countries have no single national directory for postgraduate study at all: master's applications go straight to the university, so the course page is the authoritative source.
How do grades from Morocco compare, side by side?
Each of these sets Morocco against one destination in detail — the two grading cultures, the traps specific to that direction, and the converter preset for the route:
- Morocco vs United States grading system
- Morocco vs United Kingdom grading system
- Morocco vs Canada grading system
- Morocco vs Germany grading system
- Morocco vs Australia grading system
Applying to the US or Canada? Read the WES credential evaluation guide before you order — choosing the wrong report type is the most common (and costly) mistake.
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.
- 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.
- 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
Is a good grade in Morocco still good abroad?
Twenty-point marking is severe in a way that catches out anyone reading it as a percentage out of 20. Moroccan professors rarely award above 17 or 18, anything above 16 is exceptional, and a 20 is treated as theoretically unattainable rather than a realistic target. A 14 out of 20 is a genuinely good degree — Bien — and converting it as 70% badly misrepresents it. This is the single most important thing for a Moroccan graduate to explain on an application to a percentage-marking country.
Is a degree from Morocco accepted for a master's abroad?
Morocco follows the licence–master–doctorat structure, with the licence running three years after the baccalauréat. As with other three-year degrees, this can raise the 16-year question for US graduate admission, and is often paired with a master's to resolve it.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Morocco?
It depends on the destination, and the spread is wide. Stated on Morocco's own scale, the typical taught-master's bar works out at roughly: Australia 11.4–12.6 / 20, Netherlands 11.4–12.6 / 20, New Zealand 11.4–12.6 / 20. Across the 12 destinations whose entry requirements we have read and cited, the lowest bar is Australia at about 11.4–12.6 / 20. These are typical requirements, not guarantees — selective programmes ask for more, and each figure is a conversion, so treat it as orientation and check the course page.
Can you study abroad with a low grade from Morocco?
Often yes, but be specific rather than hopeful about it. The lowest published bar among the destinations we hold data for is Australia at roughly 11.4–12.6 / 20 on Morocco's scale, so a result below that clears no destination on our list on grades alone. Below the bar the route is not closed — conversion, qualifying and pre-master's programmes exist in most countries and are designed for exactly this — but expect to need one, and expect grades to matter more where the programme is competitive. Convert your own grade above to see which bars it actually clears.