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2026-06-09
Meritvärde for gymnasiet: how it is calculated and what you can influence
Your meritvärde (merit rating) is the figure that determines which upper secondary programmes you can compete for. It is built from your grades from compulsory school and follows a fixed national scale, but it is easily confused with concepts such as admission points (antagningspoäng) and meritpoäng. This guide explains how the meritvärde is calculated, which grades are included and what you can actually influence before you apply.
What is meritvärde?
The meritvärde is the total points sum of your grades from compulsory school, converted from letters into numbers. It is the value you compete with when applying to the national programmes at gymnasiet (upper secondary school): the higher your meritvärde, the greater your chance of getting into a programme with many applicants.
In the admission process, your autumn term grades from year 9 are used first for the preliminary admission round, and your final grades then for the final round. The rules are national and set by the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket), which means the calculation itself looks the same wherever in the country you live. What differs between places and years is how high a meritvärde has been required to get in.
How your meritvärde is calculated
The meritvärde is based on a fixed scale where each letter grade corresponds to a number of points. The scale is national and follows Skolverket's regulations:
- A gives 20 points
- B gives 17.5 points
- C gives 15 points
- D gives 12.5 points
- E gives 10 points
- F gives 0 points
Your meritvärde is the sum of your 16 best grades. If you have, for example, a C in every subject, your meritvärde is 16 times 15 points, that is 240 points. The highest possible meritvärde with 16 subjects is 320 points, which corresponds to an A in everything.
If you have fewer than 16 grades, the meritvärde is calculated on the grades you actually have. If you have more subjects than that, only the 16 highest count. The weakest grades beyond those do not affect the total.
How modern languages affect the meritvärde
This is the part most students and parents misunderstand, so it is worth reading carefully.
If you have studied a modern language (for example Spanish, French or German) as your language option (språkval), that grade may be counted as a seventeenth grade on top of the 16. This raises the meritvärde and means the highest possible score becomes 340 instead of 320. A C in French therefore adds 15 points to your total, so that 240 becomes 255.
What matters is how the language appears in your final grades. If you studied the modern language as your language option, it counts as the seventeenth grade. If you instead studied the language within the school's choice (skolans val), or studied mother tongue studies, the grade can be among your 16 best but cannot be added as an extra seventeenth. It is the placement in your final grades that decides, not merely the fact that you have studied a language.
This should not be confused with the meritpoäng (merit points) that exist for admission to universities and university colleges after gymnasiet. They are two different systems, and languages do not work the same way in them. This article is solely about the meritvärde from compulsory school to gymnasiet.
The difference between meritvärde and admission points
The meritvärde is the value you yourself bring into the application. The admission points are something else: the lowest meritvärde that was required to get into a particular programme at a particular school in a particular year.
Admission points are not set by a rule but by competition. They vary considerably between programmes, between schools, between places and from year to year, depending on how many people apply and what grades they have. A programme may require 280 points one year and 250 the next. That is why it is never possible to say exactly what meritvärde is needed in advance; you can only look at how things stood in previous years and use that as guidance.
In Skoolie you can see your eligibility and how your meritvärde compares with previous years' admission statistics for the programmes you are interested in, giving you a realistic picture of your chances. If you want to dig deeper into how to read those figures, see our guide to interpreting admission points and admission statistics.
Eligibility is not the same as a high meritvärde
A high meritvärde helps you in the competition, but it is not enough on its own. To be eligible for a national programme at all, you must have a passing grade, meaning at least an E, in a number of specific subjects. Which subjects are required differs between vocational programmes and higher education preparatory programmes.
This means you can have a good meritvärde and still lack eligibility if you have an F in a subject required for the particular programme you want to apply to. Always check the eligibility requirements for the programme in parallel with calculating your meritvärde. Read more about how the eligibility requirements for gymnasiet work in our separate guide.
How you can influence your meritvärde
The meritvärde is not set in stone until the final grades are awarded, and especially in year 8 and early in year 9 there is time to act. Every single grade counts. The difference between an E and a C in one subject is five points, and several such steps can together move you across an admission threshold. Since only the 16–17 best grades count, those are the subjects that build the value, but the weaker subjects can still decide your eligibility if you have an F in subjects required for a particular programme. Most students only take 16–17 subjects, so for most people every subject they study is used in the calculation.
In Skoolie you can explore programmes and see how your current grades compare with the requirements, which makes it easier to know where an extra effort will have the greatest effect. Plan in good time, too: see our guide to key application dates for different types of school so you do not miss when applications open.
Programmes with aptitude tests and special requirements
For most programmes, admission is decided by the meritvärde alone. But some programmes have special requirements that can affect or replace the usual calculation.
Arts programmes in, for example, music, dance or visual arts may have aptitude tests or auditions whose results are counted in. National sports upper secondary schools (RIG) and nationally approved sports programmes (NIU) have their own selection criteria linked to the sport. Advanced specialist programmes (spetsutbildningar) may have special tests. For these programmes it is not enough to look at the meritvärde; you need to check the specific admission conditions with each school, since they vary between programmes.
Frequently asked questions about meritvärde
What is the difference between meritvärde and meritpoäng? Meritvärde is the sum of your compulsory school grades, used when applying to gymnasiet. Meritpoäng is a separate system for admission to universities and university colleges, where you can receive extra points for certain courses taken at upper secondary level. The terms are similar but belong to different school levels and are calculated differently.
How many grades count towards the meritvärde? Your 16 best grades count. If you have studied a modern language as your language option, that grade may be added as a seventeenth, which raises the highest possible meritvärde from 320 to 340 points. If you have fewer than 16 grades, the ones you have are counted.
Can I raise my meritvärde in year 9? Yes, as long as the final grades have not been awarded, every grade affects the total. Raising a grade from E to C adds five points, and several such improvements can together make a difference in the competition. The earlier you start, the more time you have to influence the outcome.
What happens if I have not studied a modern language? Then your meritvärde is calculated on your 16 best grades and the highest possible value is 320 points. You can still apply to and get into gymnasiet, since modern languages are an opportunity to add an extra grade, not an eligibility requirement.
What is a good meritvärde for gymnasiet? It depends entirely on which programme and school you apply to, and on who applies the same year. Since admission points are set by competition, they vary between places and years. Look at previous years' admission statistics for the programmes you are interested in to get a sense, and remember that it is guidance, not a guarantee.
