ASU Grade Calculator

Arizona State University is clear about one half of grading and deliberately silent about the other. The Registrar publishes the official letters and their grade points, from an A+ worth 4.33 down to an E worth 0. What ASU does not publish is a university-wide percent scale: your instructor decides where an A- begins, whether plus and minus letters are used at all, and how much the final exam counts, and writes it in the syllabus.

This ASU grade calculator is built around that split. Enter the grade categories from your syllabus or Canvas, and it computes your weighted course grade, the score you need on the final for any letter, and the grade points that letter earns. It starts with a common default percent scale that you should check against your own syllabus. The sections below separate the official ASU rules from the instructor-set parts, then walk through course grades, GPA math, the A+ cap and the grade codes that confuse new Sun Devils.

What ASU Officially Defines

The table below is ASU's grading scale for fall 2004 and later, as listed by the University Registrar. These grade points are the same in every college and every course.

• There is no C-, D+, D- or F at ASU. Failing is E.
• EN (failing, never participated), EU (failing, did not complete) and XE (failure due to academic dishonesty) all count as 0.00, like an E.
• I (incomplete), NR (no report), P (pass), W (withdrawal), X (audit), Y (satisfactory) and Z (course in progress) carry no grade points and stay out of the GPA.
• The instructor has full discretion to choose which grades from this list to use, and has sole responsibility for the grade reported.

Percent Cutoffs: A Default, Not ASU Policy

Because cutoffs belong to the instructor, two ASU courses can treat an 89 differently. The ASU Provost's curriculum-development guidance asks instructors to spell out in the syllabus how many points or what percent each letter requires, and it shows sample scales. This calculator uses one of those samples as its starting point:

Another sample on the same Provost page starts the A+ at 98, the A at 94, the B+ at 88, the B at 84 and the C+ at 78. Many syllabi use something else again, and some list only A, B, C, D and E. ASU's College of Global Futures, for example, tells its instructors that if the syllabus lists the simple scale, plus and minus grades cannot be given in the final grade. Whatever your syllabus says wins. If its cutoffs differ from the default, type your instructor's cutoff into the Custom % target box, and switch plus/minus letters off if your course uses whole letters only.

How to Use the ASU Grade Calculator

• Open your syllabus or the Canvas grades page and find the category weights, such as assignments 20 percent, quizzes 15 percent, two midterms at 20 percent each and a final at 25 percent.
• Replace the sample rows with your categories and type your average in each. Leave a category blank if nothing in it is graded yet; it will not count as a zero.
• Set the final exam weight to the value in your syllabus. If your course has no final, set it to 0 and read the current grade only.
• Choose the letter you want, or type your instructor's exact cutoff as a custom percent.
• Read the score you need, the full table of scores for every letter, and the grade points that letter adds to your GPA.

If your course uses points instead of percentages (for example 1,000 points in total), divide each category's points earned by points possible to get a percent, and use the share of total points as the weight.

The Course Grade Formula

Example 1: Chasing a B+ With a 25 Percent Final

A student in an introductory course has these averages: homework 94 (15 percent), quizzes 82 (10 percent), Exam 1 76 (20 percent), Exam 2 88 (20 percent) and a project 91 (10 percent). The final is worth 25 percent.

On the default scale this student needs a 91.2 for a B+, while a 75.2 secures a B. Now suppose the syllabus uses the other Provost sample, with the B+ starting at 88. The same student would need (88 - 64.2) ÷ 0.25 = 95.2. One point of difference in the cutoff costs four points on a final worth a quarter of the grade, which is why checking your syllabus matters.

Example 2: Turning the Letters Into a Semester GPA

At the end of the term the same student's 15 credit hours look like this: A+ in a 3-credit course, B+ in a 3-credit course, A- in a 4-credit lab science, C in a 3-credit course and A in a 2-credit course.

What You Need on Your ASU Final

Final exam weights at ASU range widely, from none at all in project-based courses to a third of the grade or more in some large lecture courses. This table uses the default scale to show the final score needed for a B (83) and an A- (90) at common weights.

ASU instructors decide whether to round, and many state a rule in the syllabus (for example, rounding 89.5 up). The calculator does not round. If your instructor does, enter the cutoff minus half a point as a custom target.

How ASU Calculates Your GPA

The Registrar multiplies each course's grade points by its credit hours to get honor points, adds them up and divides by the graded hours. Only A+ through E (including EN, EU and XE) count as graded hours. GPAs are rounded to the nearest hundredth.

The A+ comes with a catch. It is worth 4.33 in the calculation, but the cumulative GPA is capped at 4.00. A student with straight A+ grades does not carry a 4.33 cumulative; the record shows 4.00. An A+ can still help by offsetting a lower grade elsewhere, because the 4.33 enters the sum before the cap is applied to the cumulative result.

• Repeating a course: an undergraduate who earns a D or E (including EN, EU or XE) can repeat the course once, and must repeat it at ASU to have the earlier D or E removed from the GPA. Courses passed with a C or better generally cannot be repeated for credit.
• Incompletes: an I must be finished within one calendar year. For undergraduates, an unfinished I turns into an E.
• Pass/fail: a P needs instructor and college approval, earns hours and is not used in the GPA.
• Withdrawals: a W earns no credit and no grade points, so it neither raises nor lowers the GPA.

Honors Courses and AP Credit at ASU

Unlike many high school systems, ASU's official grade table has no weighted column. An A is 4.00 whether the course is a regular section or an honors section, and the Registrar lists no extra points for honors work. If you are used to a 5.0 scale from high school, expect your college GPA to be on a straight 4.00 scale (4.33 for an individual A+).

AP scores work differently from course grades. ASU's credit-by-examination rules award credit for qualifying AP scores according to its AP credit table, give no credit for a 1 or 2, and limit bachelor's students to 60 hours of credit by examination. If you choose to drop AP credit and take the ASU course instead, the credit and grade from the ASU course apply. Check the current catalog or ask your advisor how a specific AP score appears on your record.

Tips for Getting the Grade You Want at ASU

• Read the grading section of every syllabus in week one, and write down three facts: the percent cutoffs, whether plus and minus letters are used, and the rounding rule.
• Make sure the Canvas weighting matches the syllabus. If Canvas shows an unweighted total, rebuild the grade here from the category weights.
• Know the B- to C+ boundary in required major courses, since some programs require a minimum letter grade to continue.
• Ask early about an incomplete if illness or another situation outside your control hits late in the term. It has a one-year deadline.
• Use repeats strategically. Only a D or E can be replaced, and only by repeating the course at ASU.

Related Calculators

Already know your current percent? The Final Grade Calculator goes straight to the final exam math, and the Weighted Grade Calculator is a general version of the category table. For a multi-course GPA, use the GPA Calculator. If you are helping a younger sibling, the Broward grade calculator and the HCPSS grade calculator cover two large K-12 school systems. Every tool is listed under Grade Calculators.