A, AB,B, BC...... grading system?

Has anyone else seen this at their schools? Never heard of it before. 93%+ for an A, 87-93% for an AB (worth 3.5 GPA points), etc… Any thoughts? Is this designed to make it more competetive, or give mediocre students a better shot at a 3.5 GPA?

yes, I’ve seen it before.


I also saw a different school that wanted to change the A, B, C, to B+, B, B- etc; the instructors pushing for it said they wanted a better (and more accurate, more precise, etc) range of grades. It was certainly not about pumping grades, and the option of giving a C- to a student who needed to keep a 2.0 (and would have gotten a regular C under the old system with less flexibility) scared the hell out of the students who commented on the proposed new system…


I presume the A, AB, B, etc system that you describe was about greater range and precision in the grading process, also. For good, or for bad according to the students work, or lack thereof…

Looks like it is just a different form of plus minus.


I am not a fan of +/-, unless they start giving you a 4.3 for an A+. My school does +/- but A+ means the same as an A.

I agree. Seems to be a penalty but no reward to the system here. We’ll see how it works this semester. I can’t break 92% mathematically in bio this semester, but have had the highest grade in class on 2 of 3 tests so far so doubt anyone is doing much better. The threshold for an A is 94% so maybe it’ll get curved, maybe not. Crossed fingers method is all I have left.

Yeah that always sucks. I was one of only four folks in my OChem II class with an A and he ended up giving me an A-. But I guess that is better than a B.