I.
noun
1 level/quality
ADJECTIVE
▪ high , top
▪
a piece of high-grade building land
▪
He still wants to play top-grade football.
▪ low , poor
▪
low-grade steel
2 mark given for a piece of work/an exam
ADJECTIVE
▪ final
▪
The oral exam constitutes 10% of the final ~.
▪ A , B , etc.
▪
an A-grade essay
▪ excellent , good , high
▪ bad , low , poor
▪ failing , passing (both AmE )
▪
She got a failing ~ for that assignment.
▪ course ( AmE )
VERB + GRADE
▪ achieve , attain , earn , get , have , receive
▪
She got good ~s in her exams. ( BrE )
▪
She got good ~s on her exams. ( AmE )
▪ bring up ( esp. AmE ), improve , raise ( esp. AmE )
▪
I need to improve my ~s.
▪ award (sb) , give sb
PHRASES
▪ ~ point average ( AmE )
▪
You've maintained a 3.9 ~ point average.
3 level of importance/level of pay at work
ADJECTIVE
▪ high , senior
▪
He has asked to be put onto a higher ~.
▪
large pay increases for senior ~s
▪ junior , low
▪ pay
PREPOSITION
▪ at a/the … ~
▪
She was offered a job at a lower ~.
▪ on a/the … ~
▪
The majority of staff are on the same ~.
4 ( AmE ) level at school
ADJECTIVE
▪ sixth , third , etc.
▪
Sam is in (the) second ~.
VERB + GRADE
▪ enter , start
▪
My son will be starting third ~ this fall.
▪ complete , finish
▪ skip
▪
He skipped a ~ so he finished high school early.
▪ reach
▪ teach
GRADE + NOUN
▪ level
▪ school
PREPOSITION
▪ in … ~
▪
My daughter is in (the) fifth ~.
5 ( esp. AmE ) ⇨ See ↑ gradient
II.
verb
1 arrange in groups
ADVERB
▪ carefully
▪
a series of stories carefully ~d for beginner to intermediate students ( esp. BrE )
▪ finely
▪
finely ~d nuances of language
PREPOSITION
▪ according to
▪
The timber is ~d according to its thickness.
▪ by
▪
The containers are ~d by size.
▪ from … to …
▪
Eggs are ~d from small to extra large.
2 ( esp. AmE ) give grade for a piece of work/an exam
ADVERB
▪ fairly , objectively
▪
I don't think he ~d our essays fairly.
Grade is used with these nouns as the object: ↑ exam , ↑ homework , ↑ test