When someone says something like 'high SDK' or 'low SDK', does high mean stronger, like 1-3 kyu for the example, or does it mean a higher number, like 7-9 kyu?

If it's the second one, do you find it confusing that high dan is stronger than low dan, but high SDK is weaker than low SDK?

When I use it, I'm always referring to strong SDK, i.e. 1-3k.

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I avoid it since people use and take it both ways

in my mind, I see low as the low numbers 1-3 and high being 7-9

but come on, high meaning 1-3kyu and low meaning 7-9kyu ... don't break my mind!

Strong SDK vs Weak SDK works better imo. Though referring to some people as "weak" anything might not go down as well low/high, whatever way you mind sees it.

usually I take high as strong and low as weak, but I think it makes more sense to just use strong and weak because it is much less ambiguous.

I see it like a temperature scale:

…
5d
4d
3d
2d
1d
0
1k
2k
3k
4k
5k
…

so it’s easy for me: -2 degrees are higher than -5 degrees

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I have never ever seen people use "high SDK" to refer to weak SDK but I guess the answers to this poll prove that it is really an issue.

"They said you was high class,
But that was just a lie."

-- Elvis Presley

First class is high class. Kyu = class. That's why 1 kyu is a higher rank than 2 kyu.

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According to WWWJDIC (searching for "kyuu", with the option "Search using romanized Japanese", kyuu may mean, among other things:

This is confusing. First class is higher/better than second class. But in school, first grade is lower than second grade.

Btw, does anyone know the Japanese terms for first grade and second grade, in an elementary school setting?

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I think they just say "school year".

(I imagine the inevitable follow-up is, what *do* the Japanese use 級 for, other than Go and judo and so on? I just checked ja.wikipedia.org and can report back: 級 [or Q] is 0.24mm in publishing situations, and is also how you refer to classes of battleships.)

My only slightly informed impression is that they count down from a high number to 1 as you progress through school, 1 being your last year.

They count up. One is always the first year.

小学一年生 Shougaku 1 year would be first year in elementary school
小学五年生 Shougaku 5 year would be fifth year in elementary school

Clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about.