GPA question you'd think would have an easy answer... (repeat classes)

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LizUMD

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... but no. Read everything I can find on the internet, asked a pre-med advisor, and searched SDN but no clear answer! If you repeat a course, yes I know that the grades for the course are "averaged" but what about the credits? For example, if you take a four-credit class and get a C, repeat it and get an A... I know it works out to a B but is it factored as four credits with a B or eight credits with a B? If you've repeated a lot of classes as a non-trad trying to recover your GPA... it makes a difference!

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... but no. Read everything I can find on the internet, asked a pre-med advisor, and searched SDN but no clear answer! If you repeat a course, yes I know that the grades for the course are "averaged" but what about the credits? For example, if you take a four-credit class and get a C, repeat it and get an A... I know it works out to a B but is it factored as four credits with a B or eight credits with a B? If you've repeated a lot of classes as a non-trad trying to recover your GPA... it makes a difference!

All the credits would count. So, it'll be 8 credits in your example.
 
... but no. Read everything I can find on the internet, asked a pre-med advisor, and searched SDN but no clear answer! If you repeat a course, yes I know that the grades for the course are "averaged" but what about the credits? For example, if you take a four-credit class and get a C, repeat it and get an A... I know it works out to a B but is it factored as four credits with a B or eight credits with a B? If you've repeated a lot of classes as a non-trad trying to recover your GPA... it makes a difference!

Yes, there is a clear answer. it averages out to an 8 credit B. You have 4 credits of C and 4 credits of A. Simple.
 
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OP - it is just like taking another class. Even though you are repeating, but for AMCAS GPA-wise..think of it as if you took a "different" class.
 
Yes, there is a clear answer. it averages out to an 8 credit B. You have 4 credits of C and 4 credits of A. Simple.


Thanks for the response, but I didn't really think it was that clear at all. Saying that your grade for the class will be averaged could be taken two different ways. One, like someone else suggested, is to think of it as just taking a second class. Another is to think of it as earning that averaged grade for the one course, i.e. only being given credit for the course once, but with the averaged grade. This is usually the way undergraduate institutions do their GPA calculations. Even the pre-med advisor at my alma mater, a major state university, admitted she didn't really know and I was the first person who had asked it that way.

But in any event, I guess now I finally have my answer so no big deal. Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply!
 
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