Hi Jessica,
A somehow related question. As a law graduate from a university in the EU, I was wondering if adding percentages would help in this case. At my uni to get a first somebody has to be in the top 5% of the class (we were about 400 students per year). Does a first also mean top 5-10% of the class in the UK? I was in the top 20% and got an upper 2.1 (UK equivalent). I usually add this percentage, but I am not sure if it helps or makes my grades look worse.
Indicatively, Oxbridge accepts students from my uni with a high 2.1 so I assume they are somehow aware of this (but perhaps GR teams are not?).
It is still a percentage, it is just the percentage is capped. UK universities don’t have a standardised bell curve type method of marking students where only so many people get X mark.
You have to be careful with “translating grades”. I have actually withdrawn an offer because someone recalculated their grades on the basis of a 90% cap. (Eg a module grade of 64 was put down as 71% on their application).
Just put your grades down as you know them. Most recruiters are aware of international grading systems, and there’s easy ways to find out if they don’t.
You can always add additional details like “At my uni to get a first somebody has to be in the top 5% of the class” to help quantify things, but I would try to translate grades yourself - just put them down as you know them.