school terms

[coldshadows24.livejournal.com]

When discussing (US school - university level) grades, GPA, semesters, etc., what are the Russian translations or equivalents of these expressions?
For example to say, "I received my grades for the last semester and I did very well." How would this be translated?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Grades = оценки/отметки/баллы. A = 5, B = 4, etc. GPA = средний балл. Semester = семестр. "Я закончил(а) этот семестр весьма неплохо." Formally "I received my grades for the last semester" would be "я получил(а) оценки за семестр", but since we usually have oral exams, we usually know the grades right away, so for us "receiving a grade" and "passing an exam" is really the same event.

[coldshadows24.livejournal.com]

I see, thank you very much.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

I take it back about GPA. It is an average of grade*hours over total hours of all classes you've taken, right? Since we don't have "credit hours", we don't have GPA either. Instead, sometimes people use an average grade, which is simply an average of all grades you have. It is called "средний балл". For a chit-chat I guess, GPA is more-less "средний балл", but for a legal papers it is not exactly that.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

sorry, I corrected myself about GPA in the next post

[khathi.livejournal.com]

The problem here is that the education systems are quite different. The curriculum in Russian universities is generally defined by faculty, not by the student. That is, there are several fixed programs, from which the student chooses, and then follows it. There generally are no credits either. Each subject is commonly terminated by graded oral exam or (also oral) final pass-fail test. There's also common requirement that student should pass all the required tests (basically, practical study, like lab work or seminars) before being allowed to take exams.

All these testing is commonly done at the end of each semester, during a period of time called "exam session"/"test week" ("экзаменационная сессия"/"зачётная неделя"). If student has failed even one of these tests, student simply isn't allowed to the next semester. In practice, that failed student (in Russian it is said that "one has tail" "у него/у неё хвост") is usually allowed to study, but should retake all the exams with satisfactory results during the semester. If one fails session twice in a row, this unfortunate fellow is expelled "for academic unsuccess" ("за академическую неуспеваемость")

Thus, there isn't really stuff like GPA in Russian higher education, and grades doesn't really mean that much until they are all satisfactory. There is an average grade ("средняя оценка") but it usually only determines if the student receives a distinguished status ("диплом с отличием" or "красный диплом"/"red diploma" -- it has a reddish-brown cover unlike common blue one) or not. So your phrase would be translated like "я получил(а) оценки за этот семестр, и они очень хороши" if you want to be literal, but as the oral exams in Russia are graded immediately after answer, this certainly will give an impression that you are speaking NOT about Russian university.

You can use also less literal translation like "я очень хорошо закончил(а) этот семестр", and this is usually the way it is said in Russia, but this doesn't convey a meaning that you have written all the tests and finally received the grades.

[oryx_and_crake]

The highest GPA possible is 4.0, while the highest possible average of all the grades is 5.0. You see how this can lead to mutual misunderstandings. This article in Wikipedia can be helpful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPA - it compares grading systems of different countries, including those that do not have GPA as such, like Russia.

[oryx_and_crake]

I would say something like Мне прислали/сообщили мои оценки за прошлый семестр. Результаты очень неплохие. (прислали and сообщили conveys the meaning you need - that you did not receive the results straightaway and had to wait for them to be known).

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot! This topic is important for me as well, since I study in USA. You are right about maximum of 4.0. This is because the lowest grade for them is 0 and for us is 1. So if all classes are 3 credit hours (which is not true generally :)), GPA_USA=GPA_Rus-1.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

Зачётная неделя is simply the "finals week" in USA. Failure usually means you have to take the whole class again (and pay for it again!). There are also pass/fail classes in USA and they're also called "seminars" (although [in Physics] they're not necessarily a supplementary class for theoretical classes).

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Yes, but my point is that failing one class doesn't make you ineligible for all other, while in Russian university it usually does.