School reports and marking scale

Marking scale

A new marking system was introduced in Secondary in 2018. The marking system is competence-based, and students are assessed on several subject-specific attainment descriptors. These are laid out in the different syllabuses for each subject. Subject teachers will introduce the subject syllabus and attainment descriptors for the students, and they can also be found here.

The marking system goes from 0 to 10 and 5 is a passing mark. The mark 5 corresponds to “a performance corresponding to a minimum of the competences required by the subject”, while the mark 10 corresponds to “an excellent though not flawless performance entirely corresponding to the competences required by the subject”.  

Students receive different marks throughout the year.  

In S5 and S6, students receive four school reports. In all these school reports, students receive an A-mark (class mark). The focus of the A-mark is the process of learning and has a strong focus on formative assessment. It accounts for the ongoing observations of the student’s competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) through a variety of tasks including but not limited to oral and written work, consistency in work and sign of initiative.  

Students in S5 and S6 sit a test in each subject each semester. For each of these tests, the students are awarded a B-mark.  

Thus, throughout the school year students receive four A-marks and two B-marks. At the end of the school year, the subject teacher will award an annual mark based on these six marks. This mark, the C-mark, is not an average mark. 

In S7, students only receive two school reports. Please read here for more info on the S7 year. 

Conversion 

The European Baccalaureate is recognized in all member states of the EU and many other countries. Upon applying to a tertiary education, the students’ final marks are converted to the marking scale used in that country.  

In Denmark, students apply by the “Kvote 2” deadline irrespective of whether they want to apply by Kvote 1 or Kvote 2. When the students receive their baccalaureate diploma, they upload it to optagelse.dk. The institution that the students apply to will then do the conversion from EB-mark to stx-mark.  

The conversion table is updated in March every year.  

It is important to note that the conversion can only be done at the end of S7, and it is not possible to convert neither an average mark nor single marks from other year levels using this conversion table.