Thoughts on plus/minus grading and it's effect on your overall GPA?

[TX2005]

I'm just curious the thoughts from people here regarding plus/minus grading. As you might know from my previous thread, I am a non traditional student with a bachelors degree already. Unfortunately, I only have around a 3.0 GPA at this point.

I am currently looking at schools to take prereqs out, and one school I was interested in (UT Dallas specifically) has plus/minus grading. I'm pretty hesitant to attend a school with that system as due to the high number of hours I have (140) and my lower GPA (around a 3.0), I need as many 4.0 A's as possible.

Does anyone here who has attended a school have thoughts on the plus/minus system and if it is beneficial or hurtful towards your overall application?

Thanks!

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[vlct0ria]

I go to Florida State and we have plus/minus grading and I'm not a big fan...like at UF undergrad, all they have is standard letter grades and PLUS grades...so you can get an A, B+, B, C+, etc, and yet they all huff and puff about how their average GPA is higher than FSU's...it just doesn't seem fair that students at other universities only need to work hard enough to get a 90% to earn an A, whereas getting a 90% to me is only an A- and .25 GPA points less...it doesn't sound like much on its own but it really affects your GPA in the long run. Avoid it if possible!

 

[y0ssarian]

My university has plus/minus grading and I'm not a big fan...it just doesn't seem fair that students at other universities only need to work hard enough to get a 90% to earn an A, whereas getting a 90% to me is only an A- and .25 GPA points less...it doesn't sound like much on its own but it really affects your GPA in the long run. Avoid it if possible!

The other side of the coin, of course, is that when you fail to make the 90% cutoff by a point or two, you get that "extra" .333. In the long run, things probably even out (although to be fair, my gpa would be .05 higher if I weren't on a +/- scale).

 

[DrReo]

I've attended both. I think it averages out. There has been many times where I had an 88% and just received a B verses and B+, and likewise, the other way around.

 

[vlct0ria]

The other side of the coin, of course, is that when you fail to make the 90% cutoff by a point or two, you get that "extra" .333. In the long run, things probably even out (although to be fair, my gpa would be .05 higher if I weren't on a +/- scale).

True, it probably does even out when compared to a strictly ABCDF system...but it still seems like UF's pluses (with no minuses) system could inflate their GPAs, doesn't it?

Ok, so I was really bored and figured out my GPA on UF's system and its a whole .06 higher, which is alottt...and with no plus/minus at all, its still .05 higher...my conclusion is +/- grading sucks

 

[CUDental]

It depends on how they work it out. We have an A/B+/B/C+... system where a B+ = 3.5, C+ = 2.5, etc. and my GPA would be higher if we had a system with plus's and minus's. In most of my classes a 93 is the cutoff for an A, so I could get a 92 and have a B+ (3.5) instead of an A- (~3.7). Then AADSAS screws you over and scores this as a 3.3 since it is technically a B+ (even though it is really the same as an AB in what they call the A/AB/B/BC... system). I'm sure it could be a benefit in the same way if you are at the other end of a cutoff and end up with a 3.5 B+ instead of a ~3.3 B+ with an 88, so it probably could even out, but it has only hurt me

 

[vlct0ria]

It depends on how they work it out. We have an A/B+/B/C+... system where a B+ = 3.5, C+ = 2.5, etc. and my GPA would be higher if we had a system with plus's and minus's. In most of my classes a 93 is the cutoff for an A, so I could get a 92 and have a B+ (3.5) instead of an A- (~3.7). Then AADSAS screws you over and scores this as a 3.3 since it is technically a B+ (even though it is really the same as an AB in what they call the A/AB/B/BC... system). I'm sure it could be a benefit in the same way if you are at the other end of a cutoff and end up with a 3.5 B+ instead of a ~3.3 B+ with an 88, so it probably could even out, but it has only hurt me

Yeah I guess I get what you're saying if you go to a school that never changed over to 90=A, 80=B, etc....

 

[appleonius]

not a fair system since there's no A+

 

[vivaciousleo]

I go to a +/- system undergrad in TX, and to me it only "hurt" my gpa if I got a B- (2.7) or an A- (3.6). But when I applied to dental school there's a part on the TMDSAS application that tells you to convert all your grades to the normal A,B,C system.

So a B- (2.7) turns into a B (3.0)

 

[supraman]

AADSAS GPA put me up to the 3.4 range from a 3.3X. One semester it even bumped me from 3.43 to 3.63!