A Tool to Translate Scores Across Different Systems

One of the main consequences of the globalization process of education is the mobility of students between different countries. It is vital for the success of mobility programs that the work done by a student could be easily accredited in other countries. Calculation of equivalences is also crucial in any competitive process in which one has to compare average scores across all candidates.This paper presents a general method to translate scores based on the percentile distribution of grades achieved by students in the different countries. The objective is to provide a tool to assess a student's academic record regardless of the evaluation system, avoiding imbalances in student scores from different countries. The method is illustrated with an application, where equivalences are obtained between two different grade systems. The question of whether areas of knowledge should be considered is also addressed. This method could be easily extended to any country where information about distribution of grades is available.