Senior Exam Results Comparison Page

At the end of every school year, senior students from around the world sit their senior examinations. These vary from country to country, and the grading systems used can often confuse non-natives to said country. With that in mind, here is a page comparing the scores for exams in Britain, America (both SAT and ACT), and Australia (SACE), from best to worst scores. If your state or country has not been mentioned, feel free to add it.

Australia
Australia's end of year high school exams vary from state to state. But a new system called ATAR has been introduced to standardize the final high school scores of students from all states except Queensland. Scores are based on percentiles. The highest score is 99.95, which indicates that the student has achieved a total score which is higher or equal to 99.95% of the total student population. The minimum score is 30.00, indicating that the student has achieved a total score which is higher or equal to 30% of the total student population. Anything below that is considered as below 30 rather than given an exact percentile, since it does not indicate anything other than that the student didn't bother to study for the exam at all, and can be quite de-motivating. As a guide, the University of Melbourne requires around 95.00 or above to study Commerce there, 87.00 for Science and 98.00 for Biomedicine. A less demanding university might require only 60.00 for entry into its Engineering program.

QCS (Queensland Core Skills Test)
The result is an Overall Position, or OP, that ranks the students against every other student in the state based on their academic results and their school's overall ranking in the QCS test. OPs range from 1 to 25, with one being the best and 25 being 'did you even attend school.'

General Certificale of Secondary Education (GCSE):
There are three tiers to GCSE, foundation, intermediate, and higher, however intermediate isn't used for all subjects, just Maths and the like, just like some exams don't have any tiers, such as History, Geography, etc. The best grade for higher is A*, and the best grade for foundation is C. Where it exists, intermediate tends to range to B.

It must be be noted by the reader that A* is not the near unattainable distinguisher that "Best. Score. Ever." seems to represent. It is not particularly hard for an academic student who studies to get an A*. All A*s however, is seriously impressive.

A-levels: Graded A* to E. You can guess which is the best and the worst.

Highers and Advanced Highers:
Highers are somewhere between GCSE and A level, and most people sit 5 in their second-to-last year; Advanced Highers are considered better than A-levels in most subjects, the maximum number of Advanced Highers most people would sit is 3, in their last year. Highers are all you need to get into Scottish unis; English unis, however, will often ask for at least one AH because Highers are generally given less value than A-levels. Some, such as Oxbridge, will ask for up to 3 As at Advanced Higher. The grading system is the same for both.

Standard Grades or Intermediates are usually sat before the Highers, but most unis don't care about those; SGs are graded 1- 7, with 1 being the highest, 6 the lowest pass and 7 a fail; Intermediates are graded A-D.

SAT ( Scholastic Aptitude Test Scholastic Assessment Test SAT Reasoning Test)
Broken down into Math, Critical Reading, and Writing, each with a mean score of 500 and standard deviation of 100.

ACT
Subcategories are English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science Reasoning, each with a mean of 18 and standard deviation of 6. There's an optional Writing section that's scored out of 12. The composite score is standardized with the same boundaries as the four main sections.

Please note that these are not secondary graduation exams, but post-secondary admission ones. It's quite possible to graduate high school and get your diploma without taking either of these; what is required varies from state to state and even to some extent from one school to another.

Ireland
Leaving Certificate examination. Students (aged 16-19) sit between six and eight exams -- English literature, the Irish language and mathematics are mandatory.

For Ordinary Level exams, subtract 40 from each point number (e.g. Ordinary B3 = 45 pts, Ordinary D2 = 10 pts)

France
Baccalaureate, colloquially known as the "bac". 20 is the best, 0 the worst (you didn't show up). You are tested in different subjects, and then the grades are weighed to get an average grade. 0 in any subject means you fail.

Finland
Matriculation exams. You have to take four of them to pass high school, and everyone has to take an exam in Finnish.

New Zealand
NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) is the main secondary school qualification system in New Zealand, although some of the more prestigious schools offer IB or IGCSE exams as well. There are three levels - one, two and three - and are completed in the last three years of high school. Students take five to six subjects at each level, with Mathematics and English (or Te Reo Maori) compulsory at Level One. English is usually compulsory at Level Two, as it is required for University Entrance.

Assessments ("standards") are assessed on either a simple pass/fail scale or a four-level scale, and each passed assessment earns a certain amount of points ("credits").

To pass the respective level, you need 80 credits at Level One, or 60 credits at Level Two or Level Three (20 credits from the previous level carry over). You can pass with an endorsement by getting 50 or more credits at Merit or Excellence for a Merit endorsement, and 50 or more credits at Excellence for a Excellence endorsement.

Russia
ЕГЭ (Единый Государственный Экзамен or the Unified State Exam) is the obligatory graduation exam since 2009, which everyone has to take to obtain a matriculation certificate. There are 14 possible subjects to take the exam in, but only the Math and Russian Language are mandatory, other are elective. The exam also doubles as an entrance exam to the university, so that's where elective exams enter the play: universities set their acceptance levels in three of four subjects, and candidates must obtain the required score in them. The exam is notorious for its complicated and difficult to understand grading system, which has two separate scales -- primary score, which depends on the type of test, and test score which is a weighted average of a primary score mapped to a 100 points scale. Passing score differs, but usually hovers around 20-40 test points.

This form of examination is quite new and was introduced to remove subjectivity and make it harder to rig the exam results, as all students are supposed to sit them in designated exam centers, not their own schools, and test questions are mainly multiple-choice and single-answer types, with the intent to grade them automatically. Still, the accusation of mass cheating and outright rigging (especially in the Caucasus) abound, and many Russian teachers dislike multiple-choice tests with a passion to boot, arguing that they are dumbing the students down. Universities also dislike that system, as it gives them a very little say in the selection of prospective students: they must accept everyone with a passing score, even if they have grounds to suspect a fraud.

Before that Russia used old Soviet system where matriculation and entrance exams were separate, and every exam was taken in the students home school. Grading was in the Four Point Scale, and the results of the exam bore little relation to the university entrance. Though if the student got excellent grades in all subject he would get a Gold Medal, which allowed him or her to enter an university of choice without the exam, and if his or her grades were a bit lower, then the medal was Silver, and it required only one entrance exam. Other candidates must then sit the exams of university's choice, as Soviet universities were free and thus could use only entrance examinations as a measure to regulate the influx of students.

Old Russian grading system, still used in schools and universities for other purposes than graduation exams:

The International Baccalaureate
The IB Diploma Programme, known as the IB. The most wide-spread IB program, it is two years of insanely brutal work with massive final exams at the end. You are tested in 6 subjects (three at "Higher" level, which are even more indepth than your 3 "Standard" subjects. Four Highers is not unheard of, albeit damned impressive), with a 7 being the highest score possible. A 4 is the lowest passing score. All candidates worldwide are graded by a central board which assigns scores based on a bell curve. The ones who scored highest on whatever exam they were taking get a 7, then the next percentile get a 6 and so on. 42 points are available in the subjects, although there are three bonus points based on the Extended Essay (in a subject of the candidate's choice) and the Theory Of Knowledge (like philosophy, but mainly focuses on logic and critical thinking skills) essay. In practice, all passing candidates get at least one of the bonus points due to the overlap in various requirements for passing.

Candidates are also required to do 150 hours of what is known as CAS (Creativity, Action, and Service, fifty of each). Creativity means taken part in some artistic endeavour, typically learning an instrument. Action means doing some kind of sport, in most schools this is covered just by going to P.E. (Gym class, for Americans). And Service generally means community service, some form of volunteer work.

The global average score is around 30 points (i.e. 5 of 7 points in each subject, give or take the +1 or 2) with a 'pass' being 24. "Good" scores are HIGHLY subjective. Australia's top university will take you on something as low as 24 (stipulating that you get 776 on your higher subjects, which is no mean feat.) whilst Oxford or Cambridge require at least a 40 to look at your application (although that can be lower, depending on course - oversubscribed courses (like History) can easily ask for upwards of 40, whilst more specialist subjects, such as Music, asking for the high 30s).

This American troper, however, doesn't remember anyone's specific scores mattering in the long run; colleges stateside tend to be more impressed just that you took and completed IB courses.

Although 38 points is the absolute minimum for Oxbridge, in reality they will not take a second glance at anyone who is predicted with less than 40. The points you need for admission not only depends on the university but also on the subject you want to take. As an example of how extreme this is, I received an offer conditional on my getting 36 points to study History at Exeter. Meanwhile, a friend of mine received an offer conditional on getting 26 at the same university because he wanted to study robotics (or some similar field). However, as a general rule assuming you're not applying to a vastly undersubscribed course, a pass (24 points, not including bonus points) will get you into a good, if not great university. 34 points will get you into the likes of Essex and Birmigham. Both extrememly good universities, but founded more recently and thus considered less prestigious. 38-40 is enough to get into the older, more prestigious universities such as Durham or Exeter. And a predicted grade of 40 will at least get you an interview at either Oxford or Cambridge. (Keen eyed tropers will notice that the points scores here have changed. Recently, due to grade inflation in the Native A-Level system, British universities have been increasing their askings for all courses, much to our chagrin.) Meanwhile, across the pond, from what my American friends tell me most US unis don't care about the IB and will look mainly at your SAT/ACT results.

This American troper can confirm that. However, to all of the stateside IB diploma candidates, don't be disheartened by that! Even if you don't get the IB diploma itself, depending on your individual test scores, you can get a certain amount of credit hours in university per exam, allowing you to shave off quite a bit of time spent in university- and money, by extension. Here is one example. If you know you can handle it and your college of choice will accept a certain score on the IB exam for a given amount of credit hours, then by all means, take that exam and do your best!

The IB is seen very differently from country to country. What is important though is that it is seen in most countries around the globe, as opposed to certain internal examination systems in different countries.

The AP
AP normally is in competition with the IB, however the AP is Advance Placement by subject, so it's quite possible to only take it in one area. Getting a good score on the AP placement exam can give college credit in many universities. However if you want to go to say Harvard, the credit may not be accepted. Thus there is the AP subject test. With a Scale of 1-5, the ranking is simple. 1 is bad, 5 is awesome. Nearly every academic subject has an AP test, and what Colleges require vary. Some schools might accept a 3. Nearly all a 5. This will waive requirements for students upon entry to college and reduce their mandatory requirement in some fields, while letting them skip to the good stuff in others. For example, a Physics Student who passes the B/C Calculus test with a 5 will be able to skip right to vector calculus and likely take a full semester or more off their schedule.