Academic grading in India

The grading system in India varies somewhat as a result of being a large country. The most predominant form of grading is the percentage system. An examination consists of a number of questions each of which give credit. The sum of credit for all questions generally counts up to 100. The grade awarded to a student is the percentage obtained in the examination. The percentage of all subjects taken in an examination is the grade awarded at the end of the year. The percentage system is used at both the school and university. Some universities also use the grading system and a CGPA on a 4 or 10 point scale. Notably, all the IITs,IT-BHU, NITs, IIITs, BITS Pilani (Pilani, Goa campuses), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and most of the State run Technical Universities follow this system. DA-IICT, Gandhinagar used to use a 4 point scale, but they too have switched to a 10 point system while Symbiosis Institute of Technology still uses it . However, the grades themselves may be absolute (as in NITs like Rourkela, Durgapur), exclusively relative (as in BITS Pilani, NITs at Surathkal,NIT Warangal, NIT Calicut, NIT Trichy, Surat and Manipal University), or a combination of absolute, relative and/or historic, as in some NITs, IITs, DA-IICT, and IIIT Hyderabad.

There are several universities and recognized school boards in India which makes an "objective" comparison of percentage grades awarded by one examination difficult with those for another, even for an examination at the same level. At the school level percentages of 80-90 are considered excellent while above 90 is exceptional and uncommon. At the university level however percentages between 70-80 are considered excellent and are quite difficult to obtain. It should be pointed out that the percentage of marks at university vary from one to another which makes direct comparison of percentages obtained at different universities difficult. Indeed, the differential between universities in terms of marking scale can be as much as 20%, with some of them requiring a 85% plus for the award of distinction while yet others would award distinction at anything above of 70%. In instances like the latter, a score close to 90% can be very rare or virtually impossible. Much of this can be reconciled in the backdrop of the minimum pass score. In a university with a 90% plus for distinction, 60% may be the minimum passing mark. The university awarding distinction at 70% may have a passing mark of 40 or 45%. This makes the comparison of GPA quite difficult for Indian students elsewhere. A student with 95% will be close to 3.9 on the GPA scale. So should a student with a 75% from a 70% cut-off-for-distinction institution. The best yardstick seems to be, apart from the base passing mark, the very classification of the awarding university as to where a given range would fall (distinction, first class, second class, or fail).

That being said, attempts to move to a GPA system have been made by most modern universities, but older ones tend to continue to rely on percentage marks. Some of these institutions have an obvious disinclination to marking generously at the 90s and continue to keep the threshold for distinction quite difficult at the early 70s. Especially, universities like these tend to narrow the gap between the minimum passing mark and distinction so as to make it difficult for every student to pass a course in the first place, and making distinction all the tougher.

Official Grading System
Official Grading System for Government/Autonomous/Deemed Indian Universities. However, there is a significant variation among Universities.
Percentage RangeGradeU.S. Grade (Unofficial)Class/Division
70%+A+4.3Honours/Distinction (awarded to 1, rarely 2 students out of 100-200)
65-69%A4.0First Division
60-64%A-3.5-3.7""
55-59%B+3.3-3.5Second Division
50-54%B/B-3.0-3.3Second Division
45-49%C+2.1-2.7Third Division
40-44%C/C-1.5-2.0""
Less than 40%F0Fail