What does 'APR' mean on a Brazilian academic transcript, and what should a translator do when it shows up instead of a numeric grade?
TL;DRA Brazilian Histórico Escolar from UNIGRAN carried 'APR' in two columns at once — the Status column for every enrolled course, and the Grade column for two course types not graded numerically: Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso and Atividades Complementares. We rendered 'APR' verbatim in both columns and added a Translator's Note distinguishing the two senses, so a WES evaluator would not flag the Grade-column 'APR' as a missing mark. The certified translation was delivered for the client's WES evaluation.
Case Specifications
- Document
- Academic transcript
- Foreign Name
- Histórico Escolar
- Country
- Brazil
- Languages
- Portuguese → English
- Submitted To
- WES
What We Received
A client submitted a Brazilian academic transcript (Histórico Escolar) issued in November 2023 by Centro Universitário da Grande Dourados (UNIGRAN), Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, for an undergraduate Letras — Português/Inglês (Languages and Literature — Portuguese/English) program. The certified [academic transcript translation](/documents/transcripts) was needed for a WES credential evaluation.
The transcript carries 41 enrolled disciplines across the semesters 2019/2 through 2023/1, a total carga horária of 3,640 hours, course completion on 4 August 2023, colação de grau on 5 August 2023, and expedição do diploma on 3 October 2023. The course table has six columns — Discipline / Instructor, Titulação (instructor's degree), Status, Período Letivo, Nota (grade), and C/H (course load).
The reading puzzle sits in two of those columns. The Status column carries 'APR' on every row. The Nota column carries numeric marks (50 through 100) for 39 of the 41 disciplines — and the same three letters, 'APR', for two of them.
Why This Required Special Handling
'APR' is the standard Brazilian transcript abbreviation for 'Aprovada/Aprovado' — Approved or Passed. In the Status column it is unambiguous: every enrolled course returns either APR (passed), REP (reprovada / failed), or a small set of related codes (DESist, TRanc, etc.). Translators routinely render the Status-column 'APR' as 'Passed' or carry it verbatim with a Translator's Note expanding the acronym.
The Grade-column 'APR' is the trap. Under Brazilian undergraduate convention — and explicitly under the UNIGRAN academic regulations cited at the foot of this transcript — two course types are graded on a pass/fail basis with no numeric mark: the Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (the capstone undergraduate paper, equivalent in role to a senior thesis) and the Atividades Complementares (the required hours of extracurricular academic activity). For those two rows, the Grade cell carries 'APR' instead of a number.
A WES credential evaluator reading the unfamiliar 'APR' in a grade cell has nowhere to look it up. WES converts foreign grades to a US 4.0 GPA by matching each numeric mark to a Brazilian-grade table — but a letter abbreviation in a numeric column halts the conversion. The risk is an evaluation pause asking, 'What grade is APR? Is this a missing mark?' The same risk applies to US graduate-admissions readers who do not specialize in Brazilian transcripts. The translator cannot invent a numeric grade where the university did not assign one — that is not the [translator's role under USCIS translation requirements](/guides/uscis-translation-requirements), and it is equally not the translator's role under [WES translation requirements](/accepted-by/wes).
How We Handled It
We rendered 'APR' verbatim in both columns — exactly the three letters that appear in the original. We did not substitute 'Passed', 'P', or any improvised letter grade in the Grade column. We did not introduce an asterisk or a dash. The translation reproduces the original's notation literally so the source and the translation can be compared cell-for-cell without surprises.
We then added a Translator's Note to the certification page that maps the two senses of 'APR' on this transcript explicitly, naming the two course types in which 'APR' replaces a numeric grade. The note tells the WES evaluator (or US admissions reader) what to do with the Grade-column 'APR' before the question is even asked.
"'APR' (Aprovada / Aprovado) means 'Approved / Passed' and indicates the student passed the course. The abbreviation appears in two columns on this transcript with two distinct senses: (a) in the Status column it is the disposition code carried for every successfully completed course; (b) in the Nota (Grade) column it appears for the two course types that are not assigned a numeric grade under the Brazilian undergraduate convention — Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Final Course Paper) and Atividades Complementares (Complementary Activities) — and there means the student satisfied the pass requirement without receiving a numeric mark. The translator makes no determination as to how either occurrence should be converted to a US grading scale."
Ten further Translator's Notes accompanied the certification block, covering the conversion of every numeric DD/MM/YYYY date into Month DD, YYYY form (e.g. '21/12/2017' → 'December 21, 2017') so a US reviewer comparing source against translation does not face the DD/MM ↔ MM/DD ambiguity; an explanation of the YYYY/N semester notation (where 2019/2 = second semester of 2019); first-mention expansions of every acronym carried verbatim — RGM, CPF, RG, SSP-RS, DOU, ENADE, Libras — and the rendering of 'Mestrado / Doutorado / Especialização' in the instructor's Titulação column as 'Master's / Doctorate / Specialization', with the column header retitled 'Instructor's Degree' so it cannot be misread as the student's degree. The QR code at the head of the original was preserved as a layout element and the embedded verification URL (https://unigran.webapp.abaris.com.br/historic/0673.2e33ad28d610) was transcribed character-for-character so a US adjudicator can verify the source at UNIGRAN's own portal.
The Outcome
The certified translation was delivered to the client for inclusion in their WES credential evaluation packet. The Translator's Note maps the two senses of 'APR' to the specific course types where each sense applies, so a WES evaluator can identify the Grade-column 'APR' as a deliberate pass-marker rather than a missing mark.
This pattern is routine across modern Brazilian undergraduate transcripts that use 'APR' for non-graded course types. We have applied the same dual-sense Translator's Note on transcripts from Brazilian public and private universities since 2022 — all of which met [WES translation acceptance criteria](/accepted-by/wes) without an evaluation pause on the grade column.
What This Means for You
A Brazilian academic transcript that lists 'APR' instead of a numeric grade for the Final Course Paper or Complementary Activities reflects a deliberate Brazilian undergraduate convention, not a missing mark. A certified translation that renders 'APR' verbatim in both the Status and Grade columns and adds a Translator's Note distinguishing the two senses gives a WES evaluator (or a US graduate-admissions reader) the context needed to read the transcript correctly the first time.
Have a similar situation?
We translate Brazilian academic transcripts and diplomas with WES-ready notation, semester-format conversion, and dual-sense pass-marker Translator's Notes regularly.
Related Cases & Resources
Sources & References
- Required Documents — Brazil·World Education Services (WES)·Verified 2026-05-20
- Meet Translation Requirements·USCIS·Verified 2026-05-20
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