In my experience they really don't do grades as much as we do. Success or failure rests more on the student's rank in the class, rather than on the percentage of questions that the student gets right on assignments and tests. Its much more common then for students who do poorly to attend a less prestigious school, where their rank in the class is more likely to rise, or for them to be encouraged to drop out by their teachers, whom have their pay tied to how well the class does on exams on average. Of these students that drop out the poor ones will take up apprenticeships at like a restaurant or an auto repair shop, while the wealthier students may try to study abroad. These are the types of kids that typically fill out the day time class schedules at cram schools, as they have to do well enough on the IELTS, the bare minimum is roughly 5.5, to study in other countries.

The exception is if a student misses a lot of class time because of some health problem. Then the student is given the option of making up the time they missed next year.

Generally, the Chinese students just pass on to the next year even if they have failed some courses. They can then redo the courses they failed when they want to as long as they have all the credits by the time they are supposed to graduate.

But, that doesn't mean that if they fail 4 out of 5 courses in one semester or 7 out of 10 courses per year, that they automatically pass on to the next year. They might receive a warning saying that they get a chance to pass all the failed courses within the next year or they will be expelled, or they might even get expelled directly without the warning.

Many of the students however, immediately retake the course the following semester (if it's on the curriculum) or the next year.

Oh and I think in some universities there is a limit as to how many times you can retake a class.

This year in one class out of 17 students, 2 were older than they should have been by 1 year. Nobody said why.

No where I'm from you can get held back or you can take summer classes which I heard was easy. Never had to take summer classes before! I assume they have something like that here but I also hear that the majority of the classes are pretty easy considering they do hire people straight out of highschool themselves. 

I've just had a few students do re-sits for final exams for the year's before. This time, it was about 7 or 8 students... after I've finished marking and grading, there'll be much closer to 50 or 60 for next year

I had a student who was older than the others by a year or so... I asked why.. he said, he had the choice to either continue on, or repeat a year at school - he chose to repeat. He said it made a big difference to his attitude, and he actually knuckled down and studied... and was one of the best students I had to teach!

I'm also aware that passing and failing can cost as little as some milk for a newborn child... depends on the teacher! Often, some of the more obviously unscrupulous teachers will hold out for little gifts... failing a paper, but not really detailing why.

it depends, high school don't have to, university, yes.redo the course u failed or u can't graduate.

Yes they can

When I was in Guilin, they would just "re-test" and pass to the next class with everyone else, even if they failed the class because they never went to class or the exam.

Here in Beijing, they dont have to repeat the year, but they DO have to repeat the class. I had some students this term who failed last term and had to re-take their class.

It all depends on the school AND the "guanxi" of the student and  his/her family involved.