<p>hello! i am an upcoming ucla undergraduate for the fall of 2013, and i was wondering about how the courses for the college summer institute are graded? i know that we get extra credit, but it doesn’t say whether the courses are pass/fail or out of 4.0… I was just thinking that if the courses i will be taking are graded on a pass/fail basis i will be able to also spend more time getting a hang of finding my way in the campus and stuff.
This is the course i will be taking: </p>
<p>CSI - 1A
1 General Education/major preparation course (4-5 units)
1 English Composition course (4-5 units)
Total units: 8-10 units</p>
<p>General Education and Major Preparation Courses Choices (Choose 1)
Chemistry 14A or 20A
Communication Studies 10
Mathematics 31A
Music History 3
Political Science 40
Sociology 1</p>
<p>English Composition Courses
Courses will be determined based on the appropriate placement level for each student.
ESL 33B
ESL 33C
English Composition 2/2I
English Composition 3
English 5W</p>
<p>All these classes, upon quick inspection, should be taken for letter grade (LG), unless you decide otherwise. But all your major courses should be taken for letter grade. The only reason why you might change grading basis to passed/not passed (NP) is that you find the courses too difficult to do reasonably well (don’t change grading basis unless you know what you’re doing–again, major classes must be taken for letter grade). By default, most classes are LG.</p>
<p>Looks like they removed the Civic Engagement class now?</p>
<ul>
<li>CSI 2010</li>
</ul>
<p>You generally do not want to take classes as P/NP as if you intend to continue your education most admissions boards will count a P as a 2.0 and a NP as a 0. As Phospholipase has said, usually taking courses for P/NP implies you were doing poorly. UCLA’s campus is not too difficult to navigate. I see you have chem 14A/20A isted under GE and Major Prep. What major are you?</p>
<p>thank you for your replies!</p>
<p>actually i’m an english major…</p>
<p>@phospholipase im a little confused about the grading system (i’m an international student taking the IB, so a 7 would be the typical full mark)… does UCLA do letter grades and number grades (out of 4.0)? and i’m trying not to sound, well, shallow, but if they do, which grades ‘count’? (for GPA)</p>
<p>All grades count towards your UCLA GPA. I’m assuming you’re asking what grades will count for your future. That will depend on what you will want to do with your future. If you decide to go pre-med, for example, then your science gpa will probably be the most pivotal (yes you can do pre-med as any major). Grading scale is as follows: A=4.0, A-=3.7, B+=3.3, B=3.0, B-=2.7 and so on. Classes worth more units will have a heavier weight on your gpa. (note that some graduate institutions such as dental school admissions will count an A+ as a 4.3)</p>
<p>UCLA does letter grades out of a 4.0 scale (Azureaura gave a good shortened description; details here [GRADES](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/archive/catalog/2005-07/catalog/catalog05-07acadpol-2.htm]GRADES[/url]”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/archive/catalog/2005-07/catalog/catalog05-07acadpol-2.htm)</a>).</p>
<p>Classes taken as LG count towards your GPA. Classes taken as NP do not count towards GPA (as calculated by UCLA, other institution may informally treat them otherwise as Azureaura’s anecdote outlines). Classes taken as NP still count towards units and fulfilling GE requirements, but DO NOT satisfy major requirements.</p>
<p>would you recommend having a P/NP grading system for the GE courses?</p>
<p>No, P/NP grading is never better than a LG unless you would otherwise get a C or below. People who look at your transcript will think you had some trouble if take too many classes as P/NP. But it’s okay if you do it once in a while, maybe like once a year for a class you really struggled in. There are also limits to how many units you can take as P/NP, so don’t expect to be able to take all your classes as P/NP in a quarter.</p>
<p>There are some classes that are only available as P/NP, such as fiat lux (19) classes and seminars/tutorials, but those are usually a couple units/designed to be P/NP. Take all your classes as letter grade until you know you’re close to failing the class.</p>