Grade conversion

[canucker]

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Hi,

Before I fire off an email to the various Aus unis or ACER I thought I'd post my question here first. Does anyone know how they convert North American grades to the Australian scale? Is it a straight fraction conversion from a 4 point scale (which my school uses) to their 7 point scale, or are our individual percent grades from each course (which my school also uses) converted to a 7 point value via the ACER guidelines/chart and then averaged to get a value under the 7 point scale? I've calculated my own GPA using both methods and there is a relatively large difference between the two. Thanks.

Cheers, canucker

 

[deleted59964]

Hi,

Before I fire off an email to the various Aus unis or ACER I thought I'd post my question here first. Does anyone know how they convert North American grades to the Australian scale? Is it a straight fraction conversion from a 4 point scale (which my school uses) to their 7 point scale, or are our individual percent grades from each course (which my school also uses) converted to a 7 point value via the ACER guidelines/chart and then averaged to get a value under the 7 point scale? I've calculated my own GPA using both methods and there is a relatively large difference between the two. Thanks.

Cheers, canucker

i think you should ask ACER, but when I applied as a domestic student they wanted GPAs calculated using % scores whenever possible.

 

[pitman]

Yeah, but I think the schools may still use straight conversions for int'l students -- did at least when I applied for starting 2004. In fact, if I recall correctly, I think ACER merely forwarded my grades to the schools to do their own calculations! And I had already sent my grades separately to the schools to ask them how they'd scale them, which turned out to be the straight conversion method (followed by possible weighting by year, depending on the school).

So yes, ask ACER, or better yet, the schools themselves 😛

Then of coure report back here!

 

[banana k]

voodoo and tea leaves, as far as i can tell.

 

[canucker]

Ok, I got word back from Uni Melbourne: They don't directly convert N. American GPA's to the 7 point scale; instead they will use Column A in the ACER conversion table and convert individual course percentage grades to a GAMSA value and then determine the corresponding Australian GPA (as per the ACER instructions). I haven't emailed any other schools regarding N. American to Australian GPA conversion but I'd assume it's the same.

Cheers, canucker

 

[pitman]

UQ uses gpa merely as a cutoff. In the prospectus for 2007, the cutoff is stated as 5/7 or 2.67/4 (not a straight fraction conversion, sorry for that, it's been a few years and there have been independent raises to both Aussie and int'l cutoffs since I applied).

All years are weighted equally, and I'm fairly certain the calculation is straight forward and not done via the ACER sheets or some such, but will check up on it.