Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, everyone.

The words Grade and Level are a little confusing to me.

I understand Grade 1 is normally better than Grade 2. For example, the beef with best quality is sometimes called Grade 1 beef, and the most prestagious horseraces are called Grade 1 races.

However, people start studying in the first grade and then go up onto the second grade. In this case the grade with bigger number is better.

And the same goes for Level . In my country, there are two English schools that use the word "level" totally different ways. At one school, the introductory level is called Level 1 and students go up to Level 2, 3, 4 as they advance. At the other school, on the other hand, the advanced students are placed on Level 1, and the beginners on Level 7.

In general, which should be better, Grade/ Level with bigger numbers, or with smaller ones?

yoshi-pooh

[Lorikeet]

My school has level 1 through level 8, with level 1 being the beginning level and level 8 the most advanced. I suppose you could do it the other way, but to me it makes more sense this way, as there are many people whose
English puts them out of our levels (they could be 9, 10, 11, etc!) whereas there is no place lower than 1.