Grading
Grading
Grade points at Rock Valley College are assigned on the following scale:
GRADE LEVEL SIGNIFICANCE GRADE-POINT
• A superior 4.0
• B good 3.0
• C average 2.0
• D poor 1.0
• F failure 0
• NA not applicable
• W withdrew/not completed NA
• T credit by proficiency NA
• AU audit* NA
• P successful completion NA
• I incomplete** 0
* Audit – Students may elect to audit a course (no credit, no grade points, not figured in grade point average). Audit status indicates that the student will attend the classes but will not receive credit. (A student must declare audit status before the first day of classes.)
** Incomplete – Upon prior arrangement and agreement with the course instructor and upon submission of the college’s “incomplete grade agreement form” submitted by the instructor, an incomplete (I) indicator will be recorded on the student’s record.
An “I” will be issued at the discretion of the instructor when course requirements are not fulfilled by the end of the term only when the instructor believes that the reason the student cannot complete the course in a timely fashion is sufficiently serious to warrant the issuance of the “I” indicator.
The incomplete grade agreement is a contract made between the student and the instructor, and states specifically what the student must do to complete the course work. The course work must be completed within the specified time period, not to exceed 12 months from the end of the term in which the course was taken. Upon completion of the course work, the instructor will change the “I” indicator to the appropriate letter grade (A, B, C, D, or F). If the student does not complete the course work within this prescribed time period, a grade of “F” will be entered for the course.
Calculation of Grade Point Averages
A Grade Point Average (GPA) will be calculated at the conclusion of each semester. The GPA includes all A-B-C-D-F grades complete to date, except those courses in which the pass/fail system is used exclusively, or those courses in which the pass/fail option is selected, or courses numbered less than 100. If a course is repeated, only the grade of the final repetition will be computed in a student’s GPA.
The GPA will be calculated based on a four point basis (F=0, D=1, C=2, B=3, and A=4) where the number of grade points for a specific letter grade is multiplied by the number of credit hours earned for that course. For instance, the number of credit hours in which the student earned an A is multiplied by four (4) then added to the number of credit hours in which the student earned a B multiplied by three (3), etc. Finally, the total grade points are divided by the total credit hours for which a student received an A, B, C, D, or F.