Convert French 0–20 marks to US GPA, UK class, and ECTS
French universities and grandes écoles grade on a 0 to 20 scale that is notoriously strict — full marks are almost never given and even top students rarely exceed 16. A naive “multiply by 5 for a percentage” badly understates a French transcript. This tool maps your mark onto the mention system and converts it to a US 4.0 GPA, US letter grade, UK degree class, and ECTS band using standard admissions equivalences.
How it works
French marks are grouped into honour mentions:
- 16–20 → Très Bien (with distinction)
- 14–15.99 → Bien
- 12–13.99 → Assez Bien
- 10–11.99 → Passable (lowest pass)
- below 10 → Insuffisant (fail)
Each band maps onto a US GPA window that reflects the harshness of French marking — for example, a 14/20 (Bien) corresponds to roughly a 3.7 US GPA / A-, far higher than 14 × 5 = 70% would suggest. The tool reports the mention, US letter grade and GPA, UK class, and an approximate ECTS grade.
Why French marking is strict
French academic culture values precision over encouragement. Professors typically treat a 14 or 15 as genuinely excellent work and rarely award marks above 16 except for outstanding research or near-perfect examinations. The phrase “le 20 n’existe pas” (the 20 does not exist) reflects a widespread convention that perfect marks are reserved for the divine, not students. This cultural compression means that a foreign admissions committee using raw percentages (14/20 = 70%) would badly misread the transcript.
The mention system exists partly for this reason — it communicates relative achievement in a form that is legible across institutions without requiring knowledge of individual professors’ marking habits.
Grandes écoles versus universities
The French higher education system has two tracks that outsiders often conflate:
Universités are the public universities attended by the majority of French students. They use the 0–20 scale and the mention bands described above. Entry is relatively open (after the baccalauréat), and selective programmes like law, medicine (PACES/PASS), and Sciences Po use competitive examinations and rankings after the first year.
Grandes écoles (École Polytechnique, HEC Paris, Sciences Po, ENS, CentraleSupélec) are elite graduate schools entered through highly competitive two-year preparatory classes (classes préparatoires, or “prépas”). They may use the same 0–20 scale internally but their prestige is conveyed by the school name itself rather than just the GPA. A 12/20 from Polytechnique means something very different from a 12/20 at a provincial université.
When converting a French transcript for graduate admissions abroad, it is important to include context about which institution type and programme the marks came from.
Conversion table
| French mark | Mention | US GPA approx. | UK class |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16–20 | Très Bien | 4.0 | First |
| 14–15.99 | Bien | 3.7 | First / high 2:1 |
| 12–13.99 | Assez Bien | 3.0–3.3 | 2:1 |
| 10–11.99 | Passable | 2.3–2.7 | 2:2 |
| below 10 | Insuffisant | 0 | Fail |
Tips and notes
- Use your overall average (moyenne générale), not a single course, for diploma-level comparisons.
- A French 16+ is genuinely exceptional and reliably maps to a US 4.0 and a UK First.
- ECTS letter grades officially depend on your rank within the cohort; the band here is a numeric approximation.
- 10/20 is the universal passing line in France; below it a module must be retaken or compensated.
- For a licence (3-year undergraduate) or master’s degree, the transcript will show your annual moyenne and the overall mention awarded at the diploma ceremony — use the diploma mention for general comparisons.