Grade Replacement

Try again with grade replacement

If you did poorly in a course, you may be able to take it again to remove your earlier grade from your GPA. You can take advantage of this grade replacement policy if:

  • You’re an undergraduate student
  • You’re pursuing your first bachelor’s degree

If you choose to take a course a second time, you must notify your school that you want to have your first grade replaced prior to graduation. Replacement doesn’t happen automatically.

Contact your academic advisor to review your best grading options in regard to your academic success.

The fine print

Grade replacement is available only for courses taken at Indiana University. You can use grade replacement for a maximum of 15 credit hours, subject to approval by your school. You can request a grade replacement no more than twice for a single course, and each attempt counts toward your 15-credit limit.

To use grade replacement, the repeated course grade should be the same as or higher than your previous attempt at the course. A student must receive a letter grade upon retake in order to change the previous grade. Any replaced grades will be excluded from your GPA, and the credit hours from the original course will not be counted.

For grade replacement applied to courses taken between 1996 and summer 2021: the replaced grade remains on the student's academic record with an X placed next to the original grade.

For grade replacement applied to courses taken during fall 2021 and beyond: the replaced grade will appear on your academic record as an X.

Students may replace the grade in any course unless the faculty of a unit will not allow students to replace grades in courses required for a major, minor, certificate, honors program, or other recognition by the unit. The course that the student retakes should be the same course as the previous one, but need not be offered by the same instructor. A student may grade replace an Honors course (or a course taken under an Honors contract) with a non-Honors course.  However, once the X'd grade is applied, the original course will no longer count towards Honors program requirements.

Grade replacement is not an option if the original grade was assigned as a result of the student's academic misconduct. Once a grade replacement has been put on your record, it can’t be reversed.