Written by Dena
29 Sep 2015
Some students in Sweden are having exams these days. I am so not jealous of them! 🙂
Jokes aside (good luck, exam-taking people), I think it’s the perfect time to talk about the grading system(s) here in Sweden.
As you might know, Sweden has been part of the Bologna system since 2007. The purpose of the system is to harmonise educational systems in Europe and make it easier for students to go study abroad. One of the tools of harmonisation that this system uses is the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) – meaning your grades are most likely given in the form of A, B, C, D, E, F.
Where I come from it’s done this way as well, and I thought it has become quite usual for universities to grade that way these days.
And then I came to Sweden. 🙂
Some Swedish programmes/ study areas use the ECTS grade distribution* system, but not law.
In law schools across Sweden, you will stumble upon a different kind of grading, as you can see above from the photo showing my results from the first year of my LL.M.
So, there are four grades (in order highest to lowest):
AB = Pass with Distinction
BA = Pass with Credit
B = Pass
U = Fail
This took a little getting used to, and it is definitely a challenge when people who don’t know this ask you about your grade. Whenever I say I got an AB people think it’s a grade between B and A (ECTS). Wrong!
Lund University, for example, has five grading scales. Students of Medicine have Pass-Fail grades only, Engineers have a Five-Four-Three-Fail system, to name a few. Curious, isn’t it? 🙂 Head out to your (preferred) university’s website and check what would be the grading system for your field of study.
*edited 4.11.2015.
