Hello!
I was snooping around DegreeWorks and UA’s website for grade terminology and I was surprised to find that UA uses this grading scale for college gpa:
A+ [4.33], A [4.00], A- [3.67]
B+ [3.33], B [3.00], B- [2.67]
C+ [2.33], C [2.00], C- [1.67]
D+ [1.33], D [1.00], D- [0.67]
“F” [0.00] – Failed
Is this scaling system common? Being an incoming engineering major made me feel a little scared with “-” grades giving less than whole numbers, while “+” grades giving a bonus. idk I never had to deal with such a system before. Anyone want to shine in on how this affected students at the university?
This is not unusual. This was the same system my college in NY used decades ago. I think this is pretty standard.
Thank you @NoVADad99 I was just used to any other standard high school GPA (4-A, 3-B, 2-C, 1-D, 0-F). It made me wonder though if this GPA scaling makes it slightly more difficult for engineering majors to maintain their GPA?
It shouldn’t matter. The use of +/- grades allow for more nuanced grading instead of for example, if you missed cutoff for an A by 2 points on a test and ended up with a B. Better to have an A- than a B.
This (fairly standard) scale may make it harder to get an A (for example, at my school an A may be 93+ or 95+ instead of 90+), but you have two levels to “catch you” before you hit a flat 3.0. At my high school an 89.4% would have netted you a 3.0 and not one point more. Now that would get me a B+ or maybe they’d round up to an A-.
this grading scale isn’t unusual at all in colleges.
It tends to even out. in some classes you’ll get an A+, and that will boost where you’ve gotten an A- or B+
Yes, imho UA grading scale is actually a little better than my son’s dual enrollment school - FAU. http://www.fau.edu/registrar/gradesys.php.
In Chemistry 1, my son got 40 points above the maximum points in the course (extra credits, i-clicker points, etc.). But he only got an “A” and not an “A+”. Kind of annoyed me.