Grading system in Canada

Canada does not follow a uniform grading system across its ten provinces. Instead, it varies depending upon the area you are in, the university you have enrolled in or the form of education you have opted for. The grading scale followed can range from a 4.0 grading scale to a 9.0 grading scale. And you can find variations as well as combinations of alphabetical grades, numerical scores and percentages being followed in each region or university. 

Alberta, for instance, follows a teacher-centric grading system where the teacher gets to decide whether your grade ‘A’ equals 4.0 or 4.3. The same is true for British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Labrador – each teacher gets to decide the grading scale and system they want to follow. Saskatchewan follows a relatively simpler percentage-based grading system. 

While each university, department or even professor may have their own grading system to follow, here are the two grading scales most commonly followed in Canada:

As a North American country, the Canadian grading system has some common points with the one followed in the US. Each course you take in a particular semester has a specific number of hours assigned to it. These are known as semester hours or credit hours. Credits are the reward a student earns for utilising the credit hours to the grader’s satisfaction and completing the course successfully.

Credits and credit hours are used to calculate your overall grade. This is known as Grade Point Average (GPA). It indicates your average grade across courses through the academic semester.
So, the final GPA that you graduate with, is not a mere average of your scores. Rather, it is a weighted average with the weight being the number of credit hours.

The final GPA = letter grade value * credit hours

The number of credit hours per course are predetermined by the faculty and even mentioned in the course schedule. Typically, for a bachelor’s degree you will need to earn 15 credit hours per semester to do well. This may go up to 24 credit hours per semester for masters. Any shortfall can be made up for in the summer break or independent study.

While there are many variants of these, here is roughly what each grade means:

It is always a good idea to understand the grading system followed at your particular university well in advance. It helps you set clearer goals for yourself during a semester. Understanding the grading system can feel overwhelming at first but over time, it becomes easier to follow. Don’t worry if you are still confused, you can always reach out to us and our international education specialists will be happy to guide you.