Repeats and Grade Forgiveness

Repeat Policy

Students are allowed to repeat a course in which they earned a non-passing grade or if they did not meet the minimum grade requirements for the course.  Students are not allowed to repeat a course in which they already earned a passing grade, unless the course is designated as 'repeatable for credit'.  Please see the Repeat Policy for complete details, including undergraduate and graduate specific policies.

Students who received a "W" in their first attempt at a course are not considered to be repeating a course. They can register anytime during the Advance Registration period.

Registering for Repeats

  • Fall and Spring: students repeating a class for the first time may register via MySJSU during the last 3 weeks of Advance Registration. See the specific term calendar for repeaters start date. 
  • Summer and Winter: students repeating a class for the first time may register through MySJSU during Advance Registration. See more details: for Winter, or Summer.
  • Students repeating a class for the second or more times (i.e. attempting a class for third time) or students who have repeated 28 or more units must submit the Petition for a Repeat Exception(DocuSign). Once processed, you will receive notification of when you may enroll in the class or add yourself to the waitlist if the class is full.

The deadline to register for any repeated courses is the Last Day to Add/ Drop of the term.  See the specific Registration Calendar for exact dates.  

See the San Jose State University catalog for the Repeating class policy 

Grade Forgiveness/Grade Averaging

Grade Forgiveness Policy

Grade forgiveness is the circumstance in which a new grade replaces the former grade with respect to the Grade Point Average (GPA) calculation.  The original grade remains on the transcript. However, the student's GPA will be refreshed using points earned by the new grade, regardless if the new grade is higher or lower than the original.

Note that this only applies to courses taken and repeated at SJSU.  

Students may choose to opt out of grade forgiveness by filing the Opt Out Petition on this page.

See the San Jose State University catalog for the Grade Forgiveness policy, including unit limits.

Grade Averaging Policy

After the pool of Grade Forgiveness units have been depleted or used to the fullest extent allowable, the repeated grade shall not replace the original grade. Instead grade points and units from all attempts shall be calculated in the student's SJSU cumulative GPA and overall GPA.

Repeating a class two or more times may result in grade averaging or in grade forgiveness, which will be determined at the time of processing. See University Policy F08-2 [pdf] for complete descriptions. 

See the San Jose State University catalog for the Grade Averaged policy.