Post by Haaris Jilani

Today I received a Distinction from Imperial College London for my master's in bioengineering, the highest grade offered. The cutoff? 70%. Coming from the US, that number shocked me. Maintaining the equivalent 4.0 GPA requires near-perfection, 90s or above across the board. A 70% is barely passing. But studying in the UK revealed a very different philosophy of assessment. In the U.S., grades often reward accuracy and consistency. Did you solve every problem correctly? Did you check every box on the rubric? Success is defined by precision and error minimization. In the UK, marks are distributed on a narrower curve. A 70% doesn’t imply mediocrity; it reflects mastery. The expectation isn’t that you’ll achieve perfection, but that you’ll demonstrate depth of understanding, originality, and the ability to apply concepts creatively. Neither system is inherently “better,” but each trains a different mindset. - The American model pushes for relentless effort, completeness of understanding, and perfectionism. - The UK model emphasizes synthesis, critical thinking, and acceptance that not every detail will be flawless. For me, the shift (and the first time I had an exam grade curved down) was eye-opening. It highlighted how much our sense of “success” is shaped by the systems we move through. Maintaining a 4.0 at Georgia Tech taught me discipline. Striving for a 70 at Imperial taught me perspective.