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Helpful Hints

Important!

The following Web site is designed for University College Exploratory students whose GPA is below Academic Good Standing. In no way is all the information presented here intended as a substitute for academic advising. Rather, this site is intended as a resource for any student wishing to improve their academic performance.

Any Exploratory student with a GPA below Academic Good Standing is placed on probation and must complete the following homework assignment in order to be cleared for registration.

Probation Homework - Table of Contents

Things to Consider

Repeating Courses
You can repeat any course in which you have a D or E grade. You can only repeat a course once and the course must be taken at ASU. For 100- and 200-level courses, both classes will appear on your official transcript, but the initial grade is omitted from your GPA calculation. This is one of the most effective ways to improve your ASU GPA. For 300- and 400-level classes, both grades are used when calculating your GPA. For more information about repeating courses at ASU, check out the policy in the ASU Catalog.

However, since you can only take the same course twice, make sure you are ready to take the course the second time before doing so. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to repeat Calculus I if you failed it the first time because you didn’t have sufficient math skills. Instead, you’d benefit more by taking a lower-level math course first, then repeating Calculus I when you are adequately prepared. Courses can be repeated at any time, as long as they are repeated before you graduate.

Changing Your Major
At the very minimum you cannot declare a major, or change your major, until you have a GPA of 2.0 or higher. Some colleges have higher GPA requirements in order to declare. (Possible exception: Some majors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences may let an Exploratory student declare with a GPA less than a 2.00.)

Each college has different academic standards, and different rules regarding probation and disqualification. Once you have a declared major, make sure you understand the academic standards of that college.

Your Grades
Your GPA is a point-in-time measurement of your academic achievement. In simplest terms, it’s your honor points divided by your attempted hours. Your GPA, while important, is not an indication of your ability or potential. To follow is a “how to” on computing semester and cumulative ASU GPAs.

ASU GPA Calculation

The following is a “how-to” on figuring your GPA. The following grades and their values are used in computing the semester and cumulative ASU GPA:

Grade** Grade Point Value Grade** Grade Point Value
A+ 4.33 B- 2.67
A 4.00 C+ 2.33
A- 3.67 C 2.00
B+ 3.33 D 1.00
B 3.00 E# 0.00

** Other grades (W, X, Y, etc.) are not included in the GPA calculation.

#Grades E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, and E8 are equivalent to an E.

Steps:

  1. Multiply the grade point value by the number of semester hours for which the course was taken to determine honor points.
  2. Add together all the honor points.
  3. Add together all the semester hours that you received on the above grades to determine net hours.
  4. Divide the honor points by net hours to calculate the GPA.

Example:

Course Grade Semester Hours   Grade Points   Honor Points
MAT 117 W (3.0)   -   -
BIO 100 A- 4.0
 x 3.67 = 14.68
ENG 101 A+ 3.0 x 4.33 = 12.99
PHI 101 B 3.0 x 3.00 = 9.00
KIN 105 Y (1.0)   -   -
ARS 100 A- 3.0 x 3.67 = 11.01
SPA 101 B- +4.0 x 2.67 = +10.68
Net Hours: 17.0   Honor Points: 58.36
58.36 ÷ 17.0 = 3.43 GPA        

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