I am an international Student from USA. What is AAA grades?

I am applying colleges in UK. Some courses I am applying require AAA grades.
However, I don't know what are AAA or AAB?
Does Grade AAA mean that I have to get all A's in all high school subjects?
If I got all 5s of 7 subjects in AP exam tests, is it mean AAA???

(edited 6 months ago)

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by cutejyjy05

In the UK, most university applicants will have taken 3 A level(or "Advanced Level") qualifications. These are typically taken in the school year in which the student turns 18 and are graded from A* (best) to E (worst). Given that this set of qualifications is most common, universities tend to quote their entry requirements in those terms. So when they say AAA they mean that they want applicants to have achieved a grade A (or above) in each of their three A levels.

Many students from the UK don't take A levels. They take Advanced Highers, BTECs, the International Baccalaureate, or a myriad of other qualifications. When we factor-in international students, such as yourself, then the list of acceptable qualifications becomes even longer.

Rather than trying to map grades in dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of different qualifications to the equivalent in 3 A levels, universities almost always quote the grade requirements in terminology which is specific to the candidate. So when you look up entry requirements in each university's web site, scroll down a little and look for something which refers to international students.

For example, if I look-up the entry requirements for Politics and International Studies BA on the University of Warwick web site, here, I can see that it says: "A level typical offer: AAA". However, just beneath that it has a drop-down list entitled "international qualifications". If I pick United States of America from that list it says:

"For students who have completed the US High School Diploma, we would typically require a combination of 3 APs and/or SAT Subject Tests in separate subjects including any subject requirements. Full details can be found on our page of USA entry requirements."

There is then a link to their USA entry requirements page. It provides a table which equates AAA at A level with AP 5,5,5 and SAT II 700,700,700.

Unfortunately, you would need to do the equivalent of the above for each course / university to which you wanted to apply, as the equivalencies are determined by each individual university - so may not be consistent.

If things are still not clear, contact the admissions team of the universities concerned.

Reply 2

Artjen

Most people going to uni in the UK study A levels in the two years before they go to uni. Most people do 3 A levels, so universities express what grades they are looking for from prospective students in those terms, literally AAA means "we usually offer students a place based on them getting three grade A A levels". Some universities, especially when it comes to Clearing after results are out, will express their offers based on a points tariff, so students might get an offer where doing better in one subject can make up for slipping a grade or two in another.

If you look on the course details pages for individual universities they will have a section on "entry requirements" which will explain how international students can meet the requirements for the course.