Portugal Grading System Explained
0–20 Scale (10 to pass)
How do grades from Portugal 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.
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 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.
Portuguese universities mark on a 0–20 scale with 10 as the pass mark, following the same pattern as France but with its own descriptors: Muito Bom from 16, Bom from 14 and Suficiente from 10.
Higher education adds honours distinctions at the top — the range from 18 to 20 corresponds to Excelente and the equivalents of magna and summa cum laude.
Portugal uses ECTS credits and the Bologna structure, so transcripts are readable across Europe alongside the numeric mark.
What does each grade mean in Portugal?
| Range | Classification | ≈ US GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 18.0 – 20.0 | Muito Bom (Excellent) | 4.0 |
| 15.0 – 17.9 | Bom com distinção (Very Good) | 3.3 |
| 13.0 – 14.9 | Bom (Good) | 2.7 |
| 10.0 – 12.9 | Suficiente (Sufficient) | 2.0 |
| 0.0 – 9.9 | Reprovado (Fail) | — |
What does a good grade actually look like 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.
How do WES and other evaluators read grades from Portugal?
Muito Bom (18–20) → approximately 4.0 GPA.
Credential-evaluator source: Scholaro — Portugal grading system (credential-evaluation database) · cross-checked against Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES), Portugal · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
Is a degree from Portugal accepted abroad?
The Portuguese licenciatura runs three years under Bologna, followed by a two-year mestrado. The three-year length can raise the 16-year question for US graduate admission, as it does for other Bologna-structure degrees.
What do people get wrong about grades from Portugal?
- 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 grade do you need to study abroad from Portugal?
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 Portugal'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 Portugal'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 Portugal compare, side by side?
Each of these sets Portugal against one destination in detail — the two grading cultures, the traps specific to that direction, and the converter preset for the route:
- Portugal vs United States grading system
- Portugal vs United Kingdom grading system
- Portugal vs Canada grading system
- Portugal vs Germany grading system
- Portugal 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.
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
Is a good grade in Portugal still good abroad?
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.
Is a degree from Portugal accepted for a master's abroad?
The Portuguese licenciatura runs three years under Bologna, followed by a two-year mestrado. The three-year length can raise the 16-year question for US graduate admission, as it does for other Bologna-structure degrees.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Portugal?
It depends on the destination, and the spread is wide. Stated on Portugal's own scale, the typical taught-master's bar works out at roughly: Australia 12.1–13.6 / 20, Netherlands 12.5–13.3 / 20, New Zealand 12.5–13.3 / 20. Across the 12 destinations whose entry requirements we have read and cited, the lowest bar is Australia at about 12.1–13.6 / 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 Portugal?
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 12.1–13.6 / 20 on Portugal'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.