How do you translate 高考into English grades

[Scoobyqueen]

Just interviewed a Chinese for a graduate job. He graduated from a European university but had done A-levels in China. He proceeded to "translate" the 高考grades into A,B,C,D etc. However, I thought this was not so straighforward. I also thought that 高考分数 was different from region to region. So for example the highest possible grades in one region might not be the same in another region which uses a different calculation. Can anyone shed any light upon this?

[studentyoung]

In China, universities and collages can be roughly classified as 重点本科(一本) First Class universities (like Tsinghua University, Peiking University, Zhongshan University, etc.), 非重点本科（二本）Second Class universities (other common universities), 省大专 Provincial collages in the student’s province (the courses are non- BA degree courses), 市大专municipal collages (the courses are non- BA degree courses).

In each region, the marks a student need to entrance the each class universities and collages are depended on the regional average mark level that year, which is different from region to region. According to this average mark level and the amount of students to apply to a university, the lowest entrance mark of each university or collage is made. For example, if this year the lowest mark in Guangdong province to enter Tsinghua University is 710, that means a student in Guangdong province needs at least 710 (高考分数) to apply to Tsinghua University. But whether this student can enter Tsinghua University or not is totally another long story.

In China, the educational level in some regions is definitely higher than in others. Nowadays, in China, it puts all regions with different educational levels under the same text of高考. Some students try to move from a high educational level place to a low level place right before 高考, so that they might get higher marks in this region, avoid the keen competition in his original region and have more chance to apply to those first class universities which have a quota to enroll students in different regions.

Cheers!