"I heard grading is on a 5-tier system now." It comes up constantly among parents, but few people can actually explain what changed the moment the report card is in hand. Since 2025 the system has already applied simultaneously to 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, so no matter what grade your child is in right now, the way the report card reads has already changed.

What changed -- from 9 tiers to 5

The old relative-grading rank system ran from tier 1 to tier 9, nine bands in all. Under the 2028 university admissions reform, that relative-grading tier system was cut to five bands, tier 1 through tier 5. Fewer tiers means more students bunched into the same tier -- and it can also mean a bigger score gap between tiers.

How the tier bands break down

The new relative-grading tier proportions are Tier 1: 10%, Tier 2: 24% (cumulative 34%), Tier 3: 32% (cumulative 66%), Tier 4: 24% (cumulative 90%), Tier 5: 10% (cumulative 100%). Compared with the old 9-tier system, where Tier 1 was the top 4%, the threshold for Tier 1 has widened considerably. That said, a wider tier doesn't erase the discriminating power of the raw score itself -- a student's raw score and subject average within a tier still matter and should be checked together.

Why absolute grades (A-E) and relative tiers (1-5) are both printed

The new system prints absolute-grading achievement levels (A-E) and relative-grading rank tiers (1-5) side by side on the transcript. Absolute grading alone raises concerns about grade inflation, since achievement-level standards differ school to school; relative grading alone distorts small-enrollment courses more heavily. Printing both values is designed so no single number is read in isolation. Exactly how a university converts these into a score for its academic-record-based admissions track is set separately in each university's own admissions guidelines.

It already applies to every current grade -- this wasn't phased in by cohort

Unlike most curriculum reforms, this grading system wasn't rolled out starting with one entering class and phased in year by year. Starting in the 2025 school year, the same evaluation system applied at once to all of grades 10, 11, and 12, across every subject. Applying different grading methods by grade level within the same school would have created confusion, so the change was made across all grades in a single step. That means a child who is a senior right now, and a child who just started 10th grade, both get the same kind of report card.

When does this first count toward actual admissions

The name comes from the 2028 admissions cycle, referring to the class that entered high school in 2025 and reaches its senior year for that cycle's exams. As of September 2026, that's the current 11th-grade class. But as explained above, the grading system itself already applies across every grade regardless of cohort -- so "starting with the 2028 cycle" refers to when these grades are first actually used in admissions decisions, not to when the grading method itself changed.

What actually shows up on the transcript

The academic performance section of the record lists raw score / subject average (standard deviation), achievement level (with number of students), and rank tier together. That means the absolute-grading achievement level (A-E) and the relative-grading rank tier (1-5) print side by side, with the raw score and subject average alongside them so a student's actual standing in the class and grade level can be gauged. Some courses -- small-enrollment ones -- don't get a rank tier at all; courses completed through shared curricula or online schools are the clearest example.

What parents should check right now

First, check on your child's report card what the achievement level and the rank tier each actually show. If the achievement level looks good but the relative tier is lower, look first at who else was enrolled in that course and how difficult it was. Second, check the admissions guidelines of any university your child is considering for how it converts these tiers within its academic-record-based track. Universities differ on whether they weight absolute or relative grading more heavily, and on how they space the score gap between tiers. Third, keep in mind that the credit-completion requirements (two-thirds attendance, 40% achievement rate, etc.) are a separate set of rules from this grading system. If you're preparing an early-admissions application, the school record's data cutoff date is another date worth tracking at the same time.

Order of operations

1. Check whether both the achievement level (A-E) and rank tier (1-5) print together on your child's report card.
2. Use the tier proportions (10% for Tier 1 through 10% for Tier 5, with cumulative marks at 34%, 66%, and 90%) to gauge where your child stands.
3. Check the admissions guidelines of any university you're considering for how it converts tiers.
4. Separately check whether any of your child's courses -- small-enrollment or shared-curriculum ones -- don't receive a rank tier at all.
5. Compare notes on how to read the report card with your child's homeroom or college-counseling teacher each term.
How tiers convert and how they're weighted in admissions varies by university and by track, so some of this is hard to judge from this article alone -- for a final answer, check each university's own admissions guidelines and your school's college counseling office.