What a ten-question test can and cannot express
A ten-item test or a ten-point rubric. Every item carries a full ten percentage points, so the grade jumps a whole letter or more at a time and there is no such thing as a borderline score.
Every question on a ten-question paper is worth 10% of the grade, so the only grades that exist are the 10 multiples of that figure. That is coarse enough that 7 of the thirteen plus/minus bands — A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D — cannot be hit at all: the score that first clears the floor overshoots straight into the band above.
The practical consequence is that a borderline case on a ten-question test is decided by a single question. Going from 6 correct to 5 moves the grade by10% — the difference between 60% and 50%, or between a D- and an F on a 60% pass mark. 5 out of 10 is the highest score on this test that still fails.
What each letter needs out of 10
| Letter | Starts at | Lowest score out of 10 | Which is |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97% | 10 out of 10 | 100% |
| A- | 90% | 9 out of 10 | 90% |
| B- | 80% | 8 out of 10 | 80% |
| C- | 70% | 7 out of 10 | 70% |
| D- | 60% | 6 out of 10 | 60% |
Clearing the 93% A cut-off takes 10 out of 10, which allows no wrong answers at all — on a test this short an A means a clean paper; that score actually lands on100%, an A+. A pass at 60% takes 6 out of 10, allowing 4 wrong. Those cut-offs are the common US ones and your school's may differ by a point or two — the percentage column is the part that transfers, and the letter grade to GPA page gives the full band table with grade points on the 4.0, 4.3 and 5.0 scales.
Every score out of 10
10 rows, highest first: the score, the percentage it produces, the letter it lands in on a standard plus/minus scale, and how many questions that leaves wrong. Each score links to a page working that grade out in full, including what the next letter up would take and what the same percentage looks like on a test of a different length.