Grading at UW-Madison

UW-Madison uses a unique letter system (A, AB, B, BC, C, D, F). Semester grades are reported by letters only; plus and minus signs are not used. Students can fulfill the Comm-A general education requirement with a D grade.

English 100 does not grade on a curve, which you are required to state in your syllabus. It’s also required that you include in your syllabus how the course is graded and relative weights of assessments. If it makes sense for your course, you can connect the weights to letter grades.

You may decide to use letter grades primarily, or you may use a point system. However, you still must grade the portfolios holistically. As we say on the model syllabus, the main consideration in describing your grading system in the syllabus and in conversations with your class is to be as transparent as possible. Students should know what you are basing their grades on.

If you are more comfortable using percentages, below is an example scale. However, using a grading scale such as this is not required.

A 93 – 100%
AB 88 – 92.9%
B 83 – 87.9%
BC 78 – 82.9%
C 70 – 77.9%
D 60 – 69.9%
F 59.9% or below