College Grading System in the Philippines
How Philippine colleges grade your work, what each number means, and how the big universities — NU, PUP, UP and more — apply the same 1.00–5.00 scale in their own way.
The 1.00–5.00 scale
Most Philippine colleges grade on a 1.00–5.00 scale, in steps of 0.25. Unlike the American 4.00 GPA scale, lower is better: 1.00 is the highest grade and 5.00 means you failed the subject.
| Grade | Percentage (typical) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | 97–100% | Excellent |
| 1.25 – 1.75 | 88–96% | Very Good |
| 2.00 – 2.25 | 82–87% | Good |
| 2.50 – 2.75 | 76–81% | Satisfactory |
| 3.00 | 75% | Passing |
| 4.00 | — | Conditional |
| 5.00 | Below 75% | Failed |
Per-university sections
National University (NU) grading system
NU uses the 1.00–5.00 scale, with 1.00 as the highest grade. NU students search for the NU grading system most often for two reasons: grade equivalents and Dean's Lister requirements. Both are set in the NU student handbook for your campus (Manila, MOA and others can differ), so confirm the current handbook rather than relying on a generic table.
PUP grading system
PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) also uses the 1.00–5.00 scale. PUP's grade equivalents follow the common table above, and its Latin honors and Dean's Lister rules are published by the university. If you are computing a PUP GWA, the GWA Calculator uses the same formula PUP uses — grade × units, divided by total units.
UP grading system
UP (University of the Philippines) uses the 1.00–5.00 scale: 1.00 Excellent, 3.00 the passing mark, 4.00 conditional, 5.00 failure. UP Diliman and other UP campuses publish the same scale, and UP's Latin honors cutoffs (1.20 / 1.45 / 1.75) are the ones most often quoted as the Philippine standard — see the Latin Honors Calculator.
Other schools (RTU and more)
Rizal Technological University (RTU) and most other Philippine colleges use the same 1.00–5.00 framework with their own percentage tables. The pattern is consistent: 1.00 is best, 3.00 passes, 5.00 fails. What changes between schools is the percentage attached to each grade and the honors rules — never the direction of the scale.