TL;DR: There is no national college grading scale in the Philippines. For private schools, CHED Memorandum Order No. 40, series of 2008 — the Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education — says the grading system "shall be based on existing institutional academic policies," and fixes exactly one number: a final grade of at least 75 percent or its equivalent to earn credit toward graduation. State universities set their own rules through their governing boards. In practice you will meet two families of scale: 1.00 to 5.00 where lower is better (UP, UST and most state universities) and 4.0-point scales where higher is better (Ateneo, De La Salle). They are not interchangeable, and no conversion table works for every school.
If you moved from senior high school to college and the grades suddenly stopped making sense, this is why. Basic education runs one national system. Higher education does not.
What CHED Actually Requires
Three provisions of the Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education of 2008 do the work. They bind private higher education institutions; state universities and colleges operate under their own charters and board resolutions.
Section 107, Basis for Grading. "The grading system of any higher education institution shall be based on existing institutional academic policies." The final grade "should be based solely on his scholastic performance in any subject/course." Adjustments for co-curricular activities, attendance or misconduct "shall not be allowed, except otherwise provided by an institutional academic policy, and provided that the adjustment is relevant to the subject content and requirement." Any final grade may be reviewed through the school's own academic processes.
Section 108, Requirements for Promotion. Credit toward graduation requires a final grade "of at least seventy-five per cent (75%) or its equivalent." Promotion into advanced or specialised subjects requires having passed the prerequisites. Scholastic records for each term must be kept on file at least until the close of the next term, so a grievance can be checked.
Section 109, Requirements for Grading. No provisional, conditional or temporary final grade may be issued. Where a student misses a final examination or requirement and their standing does not merit a pass, the school may give a permanent no-credit mark such as NC or NG, which "cannot be subsequently changed." Where the miss was for an excusable ground — sickness, emergency, accident — an INC may be given instead, provided the school allows completion examinations, and "in no case shall an incomplete or 'INC' mark remain for more than one (1) academic year." Schools must publish whichever of these policies they adopt.
Everything else — the numbers, the descriptors, the rounding, the withdrawal marks — is the school's.
The Two Families of Scale
The 1.00 to 5.00 scale, where lower is better
University of the Philippines publishes this scale for course work, citing the Revised UP Code, Article 369:
| Grade | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1.00, 1.25 | Excellent |
| 1.50, 1.75 | Very Good |
| 2.00, 2.25 | Good |
| 2.50, 2.75 | Satisfactory |
| 3.00 | Pass |
| 4.00 | Conditional |
| 5.00 | Fail |
| INC | Incomplete |
Two features are worth flagging. 4.00 is Conditional, not a failure — UP's rules on scholastic standing say a grade of 4 is counted until it is removed, and once removed only the resulting 3 or 5 is counted. And UP attaches no percentage bands to these numbers in the published grading system. Some subjects are instead graded P for Pass and F for Fail, and special or audit students may be reported as S or U; UP states those qualitative grades are not used in computing GWA and serve only to break ties in ranking.
University of Santo Tomas does publish percentage equivalents. Its Faculty of Arts and Letters academic policies give:
| Grade | Percentage | Descriptor |
|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | 96–100% | Excellent |
| 1.25 | 94–95% | Very Good |
| 1.50 | 92–93% | Very Good |
| 1.75 | 89–91% | Good |
| 2.00 | 87–88% | Good |
| 2.25 | 84–86% | Good |
| 2.50 | 82–83% | Fair |
| 2.75 | 79–81% | Fair |
| 3.00 | 75–78% | Passed |
| 5.00 | — | Failed |
Alongside the numbers it uses FA for failure due to absences, WP for withdrew with permission and WF for withdrew without permission, plus INC for a missed final examination or major requirement due to illness or another valid reason, and INP for work still in progress.
Note that UST and UP use the same numbers to mean different things at the edges: UST has no 4.00, and its 5.00 covers everything below 75 percent.
The 4.0-point scales, where higher is better
Ateneo de Manila College uses letter grades with quality point values:
| Letter | Description | Quality points |
|---|---|---|
| A | Excellent performance | 4 |
| B+ | Very good performance | 3.5 |
| B | Good performance | 3 |
| C+ | More than satisfactory | 2.5 |
| C | Satisfactory | 2 |
| D | Fulfilment of the minimum requirements | 1 |
| F | Failure | 0 |
| W | Withdrawal without permission | 0 |
Ateneo's non-computed marks are WP (withdrawal with permission), INC, NE (no final examination), AUD, and S or U for formation, bridging and basic courses. The important trap: W carries 0 quality points and is included in the QPI, and a lettered course is automatically marked W once absences exceed 20 percent of total meetings. Attendance does not otherwise form part of the grade.
De La Salle University uses a numeric 4.0 scale:
| Grade point | Description |
|---|---|
| 4.0 | Excellent |
| 3.5 | Superior |
| 3.0 | Very Good |
| 2.5 | Good |
| 2.0 | Satisfactory |
| 1.5 | Fair |
| 1.0 | Passed |
| 0.0 | Failed |
| 9.9 | Deferred (thesis or practicum only) |
DLSU's 9.9 has a deadline attached: it "is automatically changed to 0.0 after one term if the thesis or practicum is not completed or the faculty failed to apply for a Change of Grade." Special and non-academic courses may instead use PASS and FAIL with no grade point equivalence, and those are excluded from the GPA.
The Comparisons That Do Not Work
Numbers across scale families. A 1.75 at UP or UST is a strong grade. A 1.5 at DLSU is a weak pass. Same digits, opposite meaning. Always state the school before quoting a number.
Percentage conversion charts. UST publishes bands; UP does not. A chart claiming to convert any Philippine numeric grade to a percentage is extrapolating from one school's table.
"Failing" marks. UP's 4.00 is conditional and removable. Ateneo's W is a zero that stays. UST's FA is a failure caused by absences, not by performance. DLSU's 9.9 is a placeholder that decays into a zero. These are four different objects, and none of them is the same as the others.
Grade point average and general weighted average. Both are units-weighted means, but the inclusion rules differ by school — DLSU counts only academic courses, Ateneo excludes NSTP, INTACT, bridging and basic courses. Our GWA computation guide works through the arithmetic and the exclusions.
Why Any of This Matters Before You Enrol
Grading rules quietly decide three outcomes that students only discover late.
Whether you keep your place. Ateneo publishes yearly QPI floors by year level and separates students who miss them, with probation available once. UP triggers warning, probation, dismissal or permanent disqualification based on the share of units graded below 3. Neither rule is about a single bad subject; both are about a pattern.
Whether you graduate with honors. Cutoffs, residency requirements and no-failing-grade clauses vary widely — see Latin honors requirements for the published numbers, and dean's lister requirements for the term-by-term version.
Whether credits survive a move. Schools that exclude outside grades from the average may still credit the units. If you are transferring, our college transferee guide and how to transfer schools cover what actually carries over.
If you are still in senior high school and comparing systems, the basic education rules are genuinely national and work differently — see the DepEd grading system guide.
Questions Worth Asking Your Registrar
- What is the exact scale, and which descriptors go with which numbers?
- Is there a percentage equivalence published, or only descriptors?
- What marks exist besides the numbers — conditional, deferred, withdrawn with and without permission — and which of them enter the average?
- How long may an INC stand, and what is the completion procedure?
- Does a repeated course replace the earlier grade or sit alongside it?
- What is the appeal window for a grade you believe was miscomputed?
Get these in writing from the handbook. Every one of them is a published rule at a well-run school, and a warning sign if nobody can produce it.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools and compare academic policies across hundreds of Philippine colleges and universities on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- Commission on Higher Education — CMO No. 40, series of 2008, Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education of 2008 (official PDF)
- UP Diliman Office of the University Registrar — Grades and Grading System
- UP Diliman Office of the University Registrar — Rules on Scholastic Standing
- University of Santo Tomas, Faculty of Arts and Letters — Academic Policies
- Ateneo de Manila University — College Student Handbook Volume 1, 2025 Edition
- De La Salle University — Student Handbook
