Academic grading in Australia

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This article is a summary of academic grading in Australia.

Contents

[edit] Schools

Australian primary and secondary schools are currently migrating to a common reporting and assessment format. Primary and secondary education is the responsibility of the states in Australia. However, in 2005 the Federal Government introduced a universal common assessment and reporting standards legislation which all states had to adhere to in order to receive federal funding for their schools. The grading system is now structured as follows, though the percentages are only an approximate guide:

Grade Percentile
A (Very High Achievement) 85 and above
B (High Achievement) 70-84
C (Sound Achievement) 50-69
D (Low/Limited Achievement - Fail) 25-49
E (Very Low/Limited Achievement - Fail) 0-24

In order to complete high school studies, students complete coursework to attain the Cetificate of Education for their respective state:

  • Australian Capital Territory Year 12 Certificate
  • Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) in Queensland

These certificates are administered by an education body in each state. The results in subjects studied is used to calculate the students' university entrance score, or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.

[edit] Tertiary Institutions

Australian universities issue results for each subject based on the following gradings:

ACU[1], ACS[2], Adelaide[3], Bond, Canberra[4], CQU[5], CSU,
Flinders[6], MQ, Newcastle[7], QUT[8], Swinburne, SCU,
UNE, UniSA[9], UNSW[10], USyd[11][12], UOW[13], UTS[14], UWS[15]		 UWA[16] , ANU[17], Curtin[18], Deakin[19], ECU[20], Monash,
Murdoch[21], RMIT[22], UTAS[23], VU[24]		 USQ[25] La Trobe Melbourne
100 High Distinction (HD) High Distinction (HD) High Distinction (HD) A First Class Honours (H1)
95-99
90-94
85-89
80-84 Distinction (D) A
75-79 Distinction (D) B Second Class Honours Div A (H2A)
70-74 Credit (C) B Second Class Honours Div B (H2B)
65-69 Credit (C) C Third Class Honours (H3)
60-64 Pass (P) C Pass (P)
55-59 Pass (P) D
50-54
< 50 Fail (N) Fail (N) Fail (F, FNP, FNS, FNC or FLW) Fail (N) Fail (N)

Note that the numbers above do not correspond to a percentile, but are notionally a percentage of the maximum raw marks available. Various tertiary institutions in Australia have policies on the allocations for each grade and scaling may occur to meet these policies. These policies may vary also according to the degree year (higher percentages for later years), but generally, only 2-5% of students who pass (that is, who achieve raw marks of 50 or more) may be awarded a High Distinction grade, and 50% or more of passing students are awarded a basic Pass grade. Raw marks for students who fail are not scaled and do not increase the allocations of higher grades. Some universities also have a Pass Conceded (PC) grade for marks that fall in the range of 45-49 inclusive.

[edit] University of Sydney

In 2000, the university-wide academic board for The University of Sydney approved a policy of using Norm-referenced assessment for all faculties (although not all faculties use the official policy[26]). In Section 3.2 of the academic board assessment guidelines (Distribution of Grades), the percentages are stated as follows:[27]

Percentage grade distributions of passing students
 %HD  %D or HD  %Cr, D or HD
First Year 3 14 42
Senior/Upper 4 18 50

This may be alternatively stated by percentile as follows:

Grade distributions by percentile of passing students
Grade First Year Senior/Upper
High Distinction (HD) 97-100% 96-100%
Distinction (D) 86-96% 82-95%
Credit (Cr) 58-85% 50-81%
Pass (P) 0-57% 0-49%
Fail (F) not scaled not scaled

Note, however, that Section 3.2.2 cautions that this distribution "may vary from unit of study to unit of study, and from year to year", and that "the proportions should apply [only] at highly aggregated levels".

Many courses also have Non-Graded Pass (NGP) and Non-Graded Fail (F), where it is considered more appropriate to have qualitative than quantitative assessment.

[edit] University of Queensland

The University of Queensland usually award numbered grades for subject results from 1 (fail) to 7 (high distinction). Generally these are based on the raw marks.

University of Queensland grade scores
UQ Grade Equivalent Raw mark range
7 High Distinction (HD) 85-100%
6 Distinction (D) 75-84%
5 Credit (CR) 65-74%
4 Pass (P) 50-64%
3,2,1 Fail (F) < 50%

Further information on these and other supplementary gradings for UQ can be found at http://www.uq.edu.au/myadvisor/index.html?page=1158

[edit] Grade point average

Grade point averages are not generally used in Australia below a tertiary level. They are calculated according to a more complicated formula than in some other nations:

Grade Point Average (GPA) = Sum of (grade points × course unit value) / total number of credit points attempted

Where grade points are as follows:

Grade CSU [28], SCU USQ[29] Monash [30] Macquarie [31] Bond [32],RMIT [33] Flinders [34] UWS, QUT [35]

,Griffith, [36]

 UTS [37] UWA [38] Adelaide[39]
High Distinction
5
7
4
4
4
7
7
4
7
7
Distinction
4
6
3
4
3
6
6
3.5
6
6
Credit
3
5
2
3
2
5
5
2.5
5
5
Pass
2
4
1
2
1
4
4
1.5
4
4
Conceded Pass / Near Pass / Fail Level 1
1
3
0.7
1
0
n/a
3
0.5
4
3
Fail
0
1.5
0.3
0
0
0
2
0.5
0
1.5
Withdrawn Fail
0
1.5
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0

A conceded pass is a pass for a course that has been awarded only after supplementary assessment has been undertaken by the student.

Where a course result is a Non-Graded Pass, the result will only be included if the GPA is less than 4, and will be assigned the grade point of 4, otherwise NGP results will be disregarded. The term course unit values is used to distinguish between courses which have different weightings, for example between a full year course and a single semester course.

Some other universities, such as the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney and the University of Wollongong[40], use a Weighted Average Mark (WAM) for the same purpose as a GPA, however this is based on the raw percentage grades, or marks, achieved by the student rather than grade points such as High Distinction or Distinction.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Assessment and Grades". Australian Catholic University. http://www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/publications/handbooks/2009/general_information/2009_academic_regulations/assessment/#Anchor_Assessment_Grades. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  2. ^ "Computer Professional Education Program: Subject Grading". Australian Computer Society. http://www.acs.org.au/cpeprogram/index.cfm?action=show&conID=examgrade. Retrieved 2011-06-30. 
  3. ^ "Results". Adelaide University. http://www.adelaide.edu.au/student/exams/results.html. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  4. ^ "Grading Scheme". University of Canberra. http://www.canberra.edu.au/student-services/examinations/grading-schema. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  5. ^ "Grading and Results Policy". CQ University. http://policy.cqu.edu.au/Policy/policy_file.do?policyid=437. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  6. ^ "Assessment Policies and Procedures". Flinders University. http://www.flinders.edu.au/ppmanual/student/assessment2.html. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  7. ^ "Grades". Newcastle University. http://www.newcastle.edu.au/study/examinations/grades.html. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  8. ^ "QUT grading scale". Queensland University of Technology. http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_02.jsp#C_05_02.03.mdoc. Retrieved 2010-07-19. 
  9. ^ "How is a grade point average (GPA) calculated?". University of South Australia. http://www.unisa.edu.au/campuscentral/faq/academic%20review/faq/acadrev_faq03.asp. Retrieved 2011-06-05. 
  10. ^ "Explanation of UNSW Grades". UNSW. https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/Results.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01. 
  11. ^ "Grades". USyd. http://www.usyd.edu.au/future_students/study_abroad/study/grades.shtml. 
  12. ^ "University of Sydney Academic Board Resolutions: Assessment and Examination of Coursework" Approved by the Academic Board 2000-12-13, link verified 2008-07-05
  13. ^ "Legend of Grades". University of Wollongong. http://www.uow.edu.au/student/examinations/legendofgrades/. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  14. ^ "Grading Schema". UTS. http://www.sau.uts.edu.au/assessment/results/grades.html. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  15. ^ "Grades". UWS. http://www.uws.edu.au/currentstudents/current_students/sitting_exams/results/grades. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  16. ^ "Grades and marks". University of Western Australia. http://handbooks.uwa.edu.au/undergraduate/poliproc/StudentProcedures/AssessmentandExamination/GradesandMarks. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 
  17. ^ "ANU - Results - Student Administration Services (SAS)". Australian National University. http://www.anu.edu.au/sas/results/index.php. Retrieved 2010-07-25. 
  18. ^ "Grading". Curtin University. http://examinations.curtin.edu.au/students/grading.cfm. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  19. ^ "Study Information". Deakin University. http://www.deakin.edu.au/current-students/study-information/exams-assessment/key.php. Retrieved 2009-03-01. [dead link]
  20. ^ "Grading Schema". Edith Cowan University. http://www.ecu.edu.au/student/assessment/results/grades.php. Retrieved 2009-03-01. [dead link]
  21. ^ "Assessment Policy". Murdoch University. http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/policies/assessment.html#11. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  22. ^ "Higher Education Grading". RMIT University. http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=yhbhsddxqou9. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  23. ^ "Legend of Results". University of Tasmania. http://www.studentcentre.utas.edu.au/examinations_and_results/forms_files/legend_results.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  24. ^ "Academic Results Codes". Victoria University. http://www.vu.edu.au/Current_Students/Student_Administration/Examinations/Academic_Results_Codes/index.aspx. Retrieved 2009-03-01. [dead link]
  25. ^ "Grading". University of Southern Queensland. http://policy.usq.edu.au/portal/custom/detail/assessment/Assessment.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-26. 
  26. ^ "Grading, Marking and Assessment in the Linguistics Department of the University of Sydney" link verified 2008-10-21
  27. ^ "University of Sydney Academic Board Resolutions: Assessment and Examination of Coursework" Approved by the Academic Board 2000-12-13, link verified 2008-07-05
  28. ^ "Calculating your Grade Point Average" Link verified 2007-08-15
  29. ^ "Grading". University of Southern Queensland. http://policy.usq.edu.au/portal/custom/detail/assessment/Assessment.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-26. 
  30. ^ "Grade Point Average and Weighted Average Mark" Link verified 2007-08-29
  31. ^ "Calculating Your Grade Point Average"
  32. ^ http://www.bond.edu.au/degrees-and-courses/study-abroad-student-exchange/study-abroad/grading-scale/index.htm
  33. ^ http://www.rmit.edu.au/students/gradingbasis/gpa
  34. ^ [1]
  35. ^ "QUT grading system" Retrieved 2010-07-19
  36. ^ http://www62.gu.edu.au/policylibrary.nsf/alldocscat/33caa8054dfaee5e4a256bc80062f6f1?opendocument
  37. ^ "Calculating grade point average" Retrieved 2010-07-29
  38. ^ "[2]" Link verified 2011-07-18
  39. ^ "Grade Point Average". University of Adelaide. http://www.adelaide.edu.au/enrol/acadprogress/. Retrieved 2011-12-09. 
  40. ^ University of Wollongong (2008). 2008 Course Handbook: Assessment. Accessed on 2008-12-24.

[edit] See also

Academic grading in Oceania
Sovereign states
Dependencies and
other territories
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