University of London Grades

U of L grading is absolutely brutal, at least in the econ/finance programs. I'm an excellent student, A's in calculus etc and I could barely crack a 60 or a B in the Msc in Econ.

I attended U of Southern Cal for BA, I'm in Mensa and I really have no idea what they were looking for to award a 68-70.

My at home assignments were all 65+ but on the big kahuna, the final essay exams, I hovered around low sixties and I felt I aced them as well as the at home essays.

I thought it was a great program, but they are ball busters with the grading. I found it to be pretty disconcerting and puzzling frankly.

 

As a former on-campus graduate of a UK uni, and another uni that follows the same system, i can give my 2 cents on grading.

grading in the UK systems, as with other countries, have many variables. those that i know of are issues such as grades according to semester attained.

for example, in my uni, even if you get straight As and an a strong A overall for your second semester, but say, an almost straight A for 1st semester except for one module which is shy of 1 mark towards an A, then it doesn't merit an A graduation.

so it's minor information such as these that makes it difficult to generalise. the best bet is to look for a specific grading system for the uni that you are applying to first, as even within UK, the system differs, particularly between institutions from two different ends of the league ranking spectrum.

 

I'm not intending to scare anyone off however... I had my grades converted and ended up with a US 3.3 final GPA. Not tragic but not great.

But that's having really crushed the exams I thought and having previously received A's at USC which wasn't a cakewalk.

I think it was a good experience overall, but just don't underestimate the difference between UK and US grading and be prepared to work hard with little guidance and only one real shot at your grades which is your final essay exams.