Grade Replacements for Repeated Courses
Grade Replacements allow you to boost your cumulative grade point average (GPA) by repeating coursework and calculating only the grade from your repeated attempt into your GPA.
A grade replacement can improve your GPA if you earn a better grade on your approved replacement attempt since only the grade from the approved replacement attempt will be calculated into your cumulative GPA. Both grades will continue to be shown on your transcript.
On your transcript, under the GPA calculations for the original term and the replacement term, the notation, “APPROVED GRADE REPLACEMENT CLASS XXXX SEMESTER XXXX ORIGINAL GRADE REMOVED FROM GPA CALCULATIONS” will display.
Important: Transcript compilation services and/or admission committees may disregard the UC grading policy and apply their own quality point formulas.
All undergraduate students are eligible to request a Grade Replacement. However, some grades are cannot be replaced. Exclusions are outlined in the Grade Replacement Policy.
Grade replacements are not available to graduate students.
Undergraduate students are allowed to replace a maximum of six or seven classes—maximum of 18 semester credit hours—under the Grade Replacement Policy.
Requesting a Grade Replacement
The majority of Grade Replacements are processed within Catalyst. Follow the instructions below to make a request.
Accessing the Form
- Login to Catalyst
- Click the My Academics tile
- Open the Grades/Transcript/Enroll Cert menu
- Select Undergrad Grade Replacement
Submitting a Request
- Review the information presented on the Undergrad Grade Replacement page. If you agree to what is written, press Continue to proceed.
- The next page displays your Grade Replacement History. Press Continue to create a new Grade Replacement Pairing.
- Select both your original class and repeated class to create a Grade Replacement pairing. Press Confirm Selections to continue.
- Your selected class pairing will display. Press Continue if this pairing is correct. Otherwise, press Go Back to Selection to make edits.
- To officially request the Grade Replacement, press Submit Grade Replacement.
- A message will immediately display to let you know the status of your request. A message of, "Your GPA has been recalculated to reflect your successful Grade Replacement," indicates that your request was successful.
Having trouble submitting a request?
There are a few reasons why you may be unable to check the box next to a class to select it for a Grade Replacement. The most common are:
- Your final grade for the repeated class has not been recorded in Catalyst.
- Your class was graded as Pass/Fail or Audit and is not eligible for a Grade Replacement.
- The grade did not impact your GPA.
- The class is a graduate-level course and is ineligible for a grade replacement.
What does your error message mean?
If you received an error message, locate it below to find your next steps.
Make sure you have selected two classes before pressing Continue.
You have selected more than two classes for your Grade Replacement pair. Make sure only two classes are selected before pressing Continue.
The two courses you select must be the same (e.g., replacing CHEM 1040 with CHEM 1040) in order for a Grade Replacement to be successful. If the college made any changes to the course between your first and second attempt, you may not be able to submit your request directly in Catalyst.
Contact your academic advisor for assistance. You may need to submit an exception form.
If you repeated the same course in different sessions within the same term, you may need to request an exception. Contact your academic advisor for assistance.
This message displays when you have repeated a course more than once. Your academic advisor can help you determine what pairing will have the best impact to your GPA. Click OK to exit out of the request, then contact your advisor. If you are sure that you want to proceed, you may click Cancel to indicate that you do not wish to speak with your advisor first.