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Academic grading in India

This is an article about the kind of educational grading that is being currently used in the country of 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. However, the grades themselves may be absolute (as in NITs like Rourkela, Durgapur), exclusively relative (as in BITS Pilani, NITs at Surathkal, Surat and Manipal University), or a combination of absolute, relative and/or historic, as in some 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.