Grade replacement (forgiveness policy)
Under grade replacement — also called academic forgiveness or grade forgiveness — when you repeat a course, the original grade is excluded from the GPA calculation and the new grade is used in its place. The quality points and credit hours from the original attempt are removed from the GPA numerator and denominator, and the new attempt's quality points and credit hours take their place.
This is the most common repeat policy at US colleges and universities, and it is the policy under which repeating a failed or low-graded course can directly improve your cumulative GPA.
Example — grade replacement: You earned a D (1.0) in a 3-credit course. You repeat the course and earn a B (3.0). Under grade replacement, the D's contribution (3 quality points, 3 credit hours) is removed and replaced with the B's contribution (9 quality points, 3 credit hours). Your GPA increases.
Grade averaging
Under grade averaging, both grades count — the original attempt and the repeat both enter the GPA calculation. The GPA includes quality points and credit hours from both attempts, which means the failed course still weighs on your GPA even after you repeat it and do better.
Example — grade averaging: You earned a D in a 3-credit course (3 quality points). You repeat and earn a B (9 quality points). Under averaging, both attempts appear in the GPA: 12 total quality points over 6 credit hours = 2.0 for that course pair. Better than the D alone, but lower than the B alone.
What stays on your transcript
Under virtually all repeat policies, both the original grade and the repeat grade appear on your academic transcript. Grade replacement removes the original grade from the GPA calculation but does not erase it from the record. Admissions committees reviewing transcripts can see both attempts.
Many transcripts annotate repeated courses — with a notation like "R" (repeated), "E" (excluded from GPA), or similar. This makes the repeat visible to anyone reviewing the official document, even when grade replacement applies.
The AMCAS rule: medical school applications
If you plan to apply to medical school, this is critical: AMCAS (the American Medical College Application Service) calculates its own GPA from all undergraduate transcripts, and it always averages repeated courses, regardless of your undergraduate institution's grade replacement policy.
This means a D that your university removed from your institutional GPA via grade replacement still appears in your AMCAS GPA — averaged with the repeat grade. Students planning to apply to medical school should model the AMCAS GPA impact before deciding to repeat a course, not just the institutional GPA impact.
Other centralized application services (LSAC for law, PharmCAS for pharmacy, etc.) have their own repeat-course policies. Check the relevant service's documentation before assuming your institutional grade replacement will carry through to professional school applications.
Institutional limits on course repeats
Most institutions limit grade replacement in one or more ways:
- Total repeat limit: Many schools cap the number of courses for which grade replacement applies — often 2 to 4 courses total, or a limited number of credit hours.
- Grade cap for replacement eligibility: Some schools allow grade replacement only when the original grade was below a certain threshold (e.g., a C or below). Repeating a B for an A may not qualify for replacement.
- Same-course requirement: Replacement typically applies only when repeating the same course — not a substitute or a different course in the same area.
- Financial aid implications: Repeating a course for the second time (i.e., taking a course for the third time total) may affect financial aid eligibility for federal aid purposes. Check with your financial aid office before repeating a course more than once.
When to repeat vs. when to move forward
Repeating a course makes strategic sense when:
- The course is a prerequisite that must be passed with a minimum grade to advance in your program
- Grade replacement is available and the credit hours are large enough that the GPA impact justifies the time investment
- The application service for your professional school target does not average repeats (or averaging is still favorable given the improvement)
Repeating may be less strategic when:
- The credit hours are small (1 credit) — the GPA improvement from even a perfect repeat is minimal
- You are applying to medical school and averaging both grades would produce a worse combined GPA than simply moving forward with strong grades in new courses
- The time cost of repeating a course is better spent on new coursework that also adds credits
Use our Raise My GPA Calculator to model the GPA impact of repeating a specific course versus taking new courses at a higher grade — the math sometimes surprises students.