年级

年级 (niánjí) is the noun for a grade or year level in school, from primary school through university. It refers to the entire cohort of students at the same stage — first grade, ninth grade, freshman year — not to a single classroom. Chinese counts grades straight through: 小学一年级 is first grade, 初中三年级 is ninth grade (third year of middle school), 高中二年级 is eleventh grade.

Two things trip up English speakers: first, 年级 is not the same as 班 (bān), which is the specific class section a student is assigned to within a grade; second, it does not mean a letter grade or a test score — for that use 成绩 (chéngjì) or 分数 (fēnshù). Common question: 你上几年级？ ('What grade are you in?').