What is a nota de corte?

It is the admission mark of the last applicant who got a place on a particular degree at a particular university in a particular round. It is not a requirement set in advance: it is what falls out of ordering applicants by mark and handing out places until they run out. That is why it changes every year and differs between universities.

How is the Spanish admission mark calculated?

In two parts. The access mark, from 5 to 10, combines the Bachillerato average (60%) with the general phase of the entrance exam (40%). On top of that come up to 4 points of ponderaciones: two further subjects, each multiplied by 0.1 or 0.2 depending on the university and the degree. The maximum is 14.

What are ponderaciones, and who decides them?

They are the coefficients, 0.1 or 0.2, applied to subjects a university considers relevant to a degree. Each university sets its own rather than the ministry, so the same subject can weigh differently for the same degree in two places. They are published in advance, and they are worth checking before subject choices are made rather than after.

What does a cut-off of 5 mean?

That everyone who met the requirements was admitted, because there were enough places. It says nothing about the quality of the degree, its difficulty or where it leads. More than a quarter of the degrees at Spain’s public universities are in that position.

Why does the cut-off change every year?

Because it depends on two moving things: how many people apply for that degree at that campus, and how many places there are. A degree that becomes fashionable rises without anything else changing, and one that adds places falls. That is why a cut-off without its year attached is not much use.

What can I do if I do not reach the cut-off?

Before dropping the degree: look at every public university that offers it, because the gap between them is usually several points. Check whether you are weighting the two subjects that add most for that degree. And remember the figure you are looking at is last year’s, not this year’s.

Spain's notas de corte: what a cut-off mark is

In this article

What a nota de corte actually is
What Spain’s public degrees asked for, by field
The three misreadings that cost degrees
The mark that counts is not the one you think
How to use them well
Common questions

What a nota de corte actually is

A nota de corte is the mark of the last applicant who got a place. Nobody sets it in advance, it is not a pass mark to clear, and no university chooses it to signal the standard it wants. Everyone who applied for that degree at that campus is ordered by admission mark, places are handed out until they run out, and the mark of the last person in is the figure that gets published afterwards.

Two consequences follow, and almost nobody allows for them. The first is that it describes last year rather than next: if twenty fewer people apply this year, it falls on its own. The second is that it only exists where applicants outnumbered places. Where places were left over there is no real cut, and the figure sits at the floor of 5.0.

That 5.0 is the most misread number in the Spanish system. It does not mean the degree is easy, or weak, or a dead end. It means one thing only: everyone who met the requirements got in. More than a quarter of the degrees at the public universities are in that position, and almost none of them come up in the March conversations where a student decides what they can and cannot study.

What Spain’s public degrees asked for, by field

The median for each field and the distance between its most and least sought-after degree, across the public universities. The third column is the one that matters: a field with a low median and a high ceiling is not an easy field, it is a field where the answer depends entirely on which university you are asking about.

Field of study	Median	Lowest to highest	Degrees
Health and welfare	10.80	5.00 – 13.34	312
Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics	9.50	5.00 – 13.23	263
Information and communication technologies	9.08	5.00 – 12.78	123
Education	7.55	5.00 – 10.26	200
Social sciences, journalism and information	7.36	5.00 – 12.48	221
Engineering, manufacturing and construction	7.04	5.00 – 13.30	481
Business, administration and law	5.84	5.00 – 12.21	307
Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary	5.46	5.00 – 12.08	56
Services	5.38	5.00 – 12.08	118
Arts and humanities	5.00	5.00 – 11.66	369

The three misreadings that cost degrees

All three turn up in any guidance office in spring, and all three lead a student to cross off something they would have been admitted to.

Reading it as a minimum mark
“I need an 11.2 for that” is the usual sentence, and it is false. You needed an 11.2 to be the last person on last year’s list at that particular university. This year the list is different, and at the university down the road it is different again.
Looking at one university
The same degree, with the same curriculum and the same qualification, can run from a bare pass to well over eleven depending on the campus. A student who checks only their home city and concludes they fall short often did not fall short at all, fifty kilometres away.
Mistaking it for quality
A high cut-off measures demand, and demand moves with fashion, inherited prestige and above all the number of places. There are degrees with very high cut-offs and high unemployment, and degrees at the floor with immediate hiring. If what you care about is where you end up working, the cut-off is not the figure you are looking for.

The mark that counts is not the one you think

The mark you compete with is neither your school-leaving average nor your entrance-exam result on its own. It is the admission mark, and it is built in two storeys.

The first is the access mark, from 5 to 10: the Bachillerato average counts for 60% and the general phase of the entrance exam for 40%. The second is the ponderaciones: up to two further subjects, each multiplied by 0.1 or 0.2 depending on how relevant that university considers it to that degree. That is why the real ceiling is not 10 but 14, and why a student with an 8 average can compete for degrees that appear to “ask for” a 12.

The ponderaciones are where most people lose ground, for two reasons. Each university sets its own, not the state, so the same subject can be worth 0.2 in one place and 0.1 in another for the same degree. And they are published in advance, which means a subject choice made in the first year of Bachillerato is already deciding, without anyone saying so out loud, which degrees are realistically open two years later.

That is the moment guidance changes an outcome, and it is usually the moment when least of it happens.

How to use them well

Treat them as last year’s weather map, which is exactly what they are. They are useful for knowing what to expect and useless for knowing what will happen.

With a degree in mind, look at every public university that offers it rather than only the one at home, and look at the distance between the highest and the lowest. That distance is your real room for manoeuvre, and it is almost always wider than it first appeared.

Then check those universities’ ponderaciones before subject choices are locked in, because more marks are won there than in many months of studying. And check that the figure you are reading carries a year, because a cut-off without one is a rumour.

Finally, the question a cut-off never answers: where the degree leads. That needs different data, and it is worth finding before choosing on a number that only describes how many people applied.

Common questions

What is a nota de corte?
It is the admission mark of the last applicant who got a place on a particular degree at a particular university in a particular round. It is not a requirement set in advance: it is what falls out of ordering applicants by mark and handing out places until they run out. That is why it changes every year and differs between universities.
How is the Spanish admission mark calculated?
In two parts. The access mark, from 5 to 10, combines the Bachillerato average (60%) with the general phase of the entrance exam (40%). On top of that come up to 4 points of ponderaciones: two further subjects, each multiplied by 0.1 or 0.2 depending on the university and the degree. The maximum is 14.
What are ponderaciones, and who decides them?
They are the coefficients, 0.1 or 0.2, applied to subjects a university considers relevant to a degree. Each university sets its own rather than the ministry, so the same subject can weigh differently for the same degree in two places. They are published in advance, and they are worth checking before subject choices are made rather than after.
What does a cut-off of 5 mean?
That everyone who met the requirements was admitted, because there were enough places. It says nothing about the quality of the degree, its difficulty or where it leads. More than a quarter of the degrees at Spain’s public universities are in that position.
Why does the cut-off change every year?
Because it depends on two moving things: how many people apply for that degree at that campus, and how many places there are. A degree that becomes fashionable rises without anything else changing, and one that adds places falls. That is why a cut-off without its year attached is not much use.
What can I do if I do not reach the cut-off?
Before dropping the degree: look at every public university that offers it, because the gap between them is usually several points. Check whether you are weighting the two subjects that add most for that degree. And remember the figure you are looking at is last year’s, not this year’s.

This is half of the decision

The other half is where each path leads, and no admission figure answers that. If you guide students who are in the middle of this right now, tell us how you do it today.

Talk to us

Spain’s notas de corte: what a cut-off mark is, and what it is not