Grade Replacement Calculator

How this is calculated

A GPA is an average of your grades weighted by credits, and repeating a course doesn't change that arithmetic at all. What a repeat policy changes is which attempts are allowed into the average. So the whole calculation is: take your transcript, remove the first attempt from it, then add back whichever attempts your school's rule lets count.

The difference between those last two lines is the denominator, and it is the whole story. Under a replacement rule the course is in your GPA once, so the retake swaps one grade for another. Under an averaging rule the course is in your GPA twice — which means a retake adds credits to the bottom of the fraction as well as points to the top, and behaves like taking a brand-new course rather than fixing an old one.

The worked example this page loads with

A student with a 2.60 across 45 graded credits, retaking a 4-credit course they first took for a D and expect back as a C. Their 2.60 across 45 credits is 117 quality points, of which the D contributed 4.

Where their school counts only the better attempt, the D's 4 points come out and the C's 8 go in: 121 points over the same 45 credits, a 2.69. Where their school counts every attempt, nothing comes out and the C is simply added: 125 points over 49 credits, a 2.55. Same student, same course, same improved grade — and their GPA goes up at one school and down at the other.

The grade a retake has to beat

This is the number most people get wrong, and it isn't the grade you're replacing. Under a rule that counts every attempt, the retake is just another course in your average, so it improves your GPA only if it lands above your current GPA. Our 2.60 student needs better than a 2.60 — a B− on a plus/minus scale. A C+ is worth 2.3, which is a two-step improvement on the D and still drags the average down.

Under a rule that counts only one attempt, the bar is much lower: anything above the original grade is a gain. That is a D+ for the same student. The table in the tool prints every grade against all three rules at once, so the point where a retake starts paying is visible rather than something you have to work out.

What it assumes

• Your graded credits include the first attempt. That is the normal case — a D or an F is a graded credit and sits in your GPA denominator — and it is what lets the calculation take that attempt back out. If you withdrew instead, leave the first grade blank: a W was never in your GPA, so there is nothing to replace and all three rules agree.
• The credits are the same both times. Repeating a course that has since changed credit value, or replacing it with a different course under an equivalency rule, isn't modelled here.
• The scale is your school's. Whether an A+ is worth 4.0 or 4.3, and whether your school uses plus/minus grades at all, changes every figure on this page. Pick the scale that matches your transcript, or type grade points directly instead of a letter.
• One course at a time. The tool answers “what does repeating this do”. For a whole term of courses, the Cumulative GPA Calculator is the right page.

Where this stops being right

• A replacement rule usually has to be requested. Grade forgiveness at most schools is a form with a deadline, often before the drop date of the term you're repeating in, and it is commonly capped — Ohio State allows it once per course on three courses. Assuming it applies automatically is the most expensive mistake on this page.
• Eligibility is usually restricted. Schools variously limit replacement to courses originally graded D or F, to courses taken in the first year or first 24 credits, to undergraduates, or to a fixed number of credits. Maryland applies its higher-grade-only rule to repeats taken in a student's first semester or first 24 attempted credits, and counts every attempt after that.
• Graduate and professional schools recalculate. Ohio State warns its own students of this: a school you apply to later may rebuild your GPA with every attempt included, whatever your transcript reports. A forgiven grade is forgiven by one institution, not erased.
• Credits attempted are never forgiven. Both attempts count toward the completion-rate test that decides financial aid, and toward the credit cap, even when only one counts in your GPA. Maryland states it directly: a repeated course counts “as credits attempted but not as credits earned”. The Academic Standing Calculator is where that side of a repeat is worked out.
• Your registrar's record governs. This page computes what your school's stated rule implies. It does not know your school's rule, your petition history, or whether a repeat was approved.

Sources

The arithmetic is a weighted average and needs no authority. What needs citing is the claim the page is built on: that these three rules all exist, at real institutions, and disagree about the same transcript.

University of Maryland Office of the Registrar, Course Repeats: “The grade point average will include all attempts at a given course that result in a grade of A+, A, A−, B+, B, B−, C+, C, C−, D+, D, D−, or F,” with higher-grade-only treatment reserved for repeats inside a student's first semester or first 24 attempted credits. Also the limits — “students may repeat no more than 18 credits” — and the transcript rule this page relies on: “any grade earned in prior attempts of a repeated course will appear on the student's transcript, regardless of whether the grade is dropped from, or included in, the cumulative grade point average.” The averaging column.

The Ohio State University Academic Advising, Grades and Grade Forgiveness: the rule may be used “once per course on up to three courses,” and on approval the second attempt's grade and hours replace the first attempt's in the GPA and earned-hours calculation. Note what survives: “the original grade will still be present on the transcript, it will only be removed from the reported Ohio State GPA and earned hours calculations,” and graduate and professional programs may recalculate with it included. The better-attempt column.

University of Memphis Office of the Registrar, Repeated Courses: GPA Scenarios: “the last grade earned for a course ‘stands’: it is always used in calculating your GPA, even if the grade is lower than a previous attempt's.” The most-recent column, and the reason this tool prints a rule that can make things worse rather than quietly assuming students only repeat courses successfully.

U.S. Department of Education, 34 CFR § 668.2, General definitions. In the definition of a full-time student, a term-based program's workload “may not include more than one repetition of a previously passed course.” This is the federal limit on which repeats financial aid will pay for, and it is separate from anything your registrar allows.

These are published, verifiable examples of the three rules in use, not policies governing your transcript. Your own registrar publishes the one that does.

Last reviewed: August 2026