cool0215

So there're + and - 's for every letter grade except F?
And it's 4.00, 3,67, 3,33, 3.00,....,0, dividing every 1.0 interval into three?

MaryCeleste

I think it just goes A, AB, B, BC, C, etc. There are no A pluses or minuses awarded as final grades (though a few teachers may employ this notation for individual assignments within their own class). I also don't think there is any intermediate grade just above failing (that would be a DF); I think it just goes D, then fail (might be wrong about that one).

cool0215

So if A is a 4.0, then what is an AB? Is B still 3.0? And so on?

barrons

AB is a 3.5, BC is 2.5. There is no CD.

JJKitty

Grading System
http://www.wisc.edu/pubs/ug/regist.html#x1

The general quality of a student's work is expressed in terms of a grade point average (GPA). It is based on the total number of credits taken for which grades of A through F are received. Semester grades are reported by letter only; plus and minus signs are not authorized. The highest possible GPA is 4.0, representing A grades in every course; the lowest possible is 0.0. The following is the official scale of grades at UW-Madison.

Grades with Associated Grade Points per Credit:
Grade Grade Points Per Credit

A (Excellent) 4

AB (Intermediate Grade) 3.5

B (Good) 3

BC (Intermediate Grade) 2.5

C (Fair) 2

D (Poor) 1

F (Failure) 0


Excluded from the grade point average are:

S or U (Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory) in courses taken on the pass/fail basis: S for grades A through C; U for grades D and F.

Cr or N (Credit or No Credit) in courses offered on a credit/no credit basis.

I (Incomplete), a temporary grade used when work is not completed during a term. The symbol IN will be used to indicate an incomplete in a Cr/N course.

Audited courses, denoted as AU in place of a number of credits on grade reports and transcripts, are graded either S (Satisfactory) or NR (No Report).

P (Progress), a temporary grade used for courses extending beyond one term. The final grade determines the grade for each term and replaces P grades for the course.

DR (Dropped), recorded for any course officially dropped later than two days before the last day to add courses.

NW (No Work) is used to indicate that the student never attended and no work was submitted.

In those relatively few cases in which no authorized grade is reported for a student at the close of a term, NR (No Report) will be used to signify the fact for record purposes

cool0215

What is the % range for each, then?

NicoleT5050

The percent range is really up to the professors/tas. A lot of classes are heavily curved as well, so you really don't know what the system will be. For the classes I've taken, the TA's or prof normally tell the class toward the end of the semester what grade a certain percentage will receive... they also tend to do this when we receive exams. In my past classes, generally,:
A 92-100
AB 88(87)-91
B 82-87
BC 78-81
C 70-77
D 60-70
F Below 60
Basically, in regards to AB's and BC's, they just cover what would typically be a + or a - sign at other schools, and there really is no set, school-wide percentage for each grade. Most tend to fall within a percentage of each other, but remember it's UW and things are heavily curved so you never know what will happen. Additionally, if you get on a TA's good side you can get an A even with an 87 percentage even if that rule does not pertain to the rest of the class. The rules pertaining to these letters/numbers are rather broad

cool0215

Since a lot of UW courses are curved, you can't say for sure that A(4.0), A-(3.67), B+(3.3),....system is better or worse than the UW grading scale?

NicoleT5050

I don't really think it makes that big of a difference. I think it really just depends. If you want a high GPA then the A, AB system isn't the problem as much as if there is grade deflation. I've taken philosophy courses where more than half the class receives an A or an AB (a 4.0 or 3.5) and I've been in math classes (Math 222, in particular) where very few students received A's and AB's but there was a rather large range of B's, BC's, and C's. I don't think the grading system has much influence unless someone has really bad luck and continually gets 88's and is stuck with B+'s at regular schools whereas at UW it counts as a 3.5 (an AB). However, at the same time a 91 is deflated from maybe a 3.7 at another school to a 3.5. But it's pretty hard to predict what you'll receive in any particular class considering the grades in every department range incredibly. I think average department GPA's range from a 2.9 to a 3.7. It all comes down to your major.