in germany universities do it by ranking the grades of the incoming students. so i have no clue what rank i have in my class, but i do know that my grade was not high enough to get into physics because there were enough students from all over the country applying with better grades.
this grade would be different every year because it depended on the grades of the students that actually applied. so while in highschool i was not able to compare myself to my peers nor was i able to evaluate my changes of getting into university. (other than obviously noting that the lower my grades, the lower my chances)
as it happened, the year before the cut-off was on a lower grade that suggested that i'd make it in if it stays the same the next year, but when i applied, more students with higher grades applied too, and my grades ended up being not good enough.
this grade would be different every year because it depended on the grades of the students that actually applied. so while in highschool i was not able to compare myself to my peers nor was i able to evaluate my changes of getting into university. (other than obviously noting that the lower my grades, the lower my chances)
as it happened, the year before the cut-off was on a lower grade that suggested that i'd make it in if it stays the same the next year, but when i applied, more students with higher grades applied too, and my grades ended up being not good enough.