Academic Policies & Procedures

Grading System

Extended X Policy

By action of the Bloomington Faculty Council, students who receive a grade lower than an A may be eligible, upon retaking the course, to remove the earlier grade from their IU grade point average (GPA). Students wishing to exercise this option must visit their advisor and/or school’s records office to complete an Extended-X (EX) petition to remove the effect of the bad grade from the GPA.

Please note the following restrictions:

  • Students may apply for an Extended-X for a maximum of 3 courses or 10 credits, whichever comes first.
  • Students may only replace a grade for a course once.
  • Students must complete, sign, and submit the EX petition prior to graduation.

A complete listing of policies is below.

Kelley students may utilize the EX policy. However, the Kelley School does not apply grade forgiveness to the Kelley Program (internal) GPA which is used for scholarships, admission, graduation, and all categories of academic standing for current students. Instead, both the original grade and the re-take grade are included in the Kelley Program GPA. When students repeat a course, they do not receive additional credits for it, whether or not it is EXed. 

Additional polices regarding the Extended-X Policy can be found in the Registrar's Enrollment Bulletin.

Kelley students may submit EX requests online at: https://kelley.iu.edu/programs/undergrad/advising/forms-apps/index.cshtml 

Students agree to abide by the following policies when submitting an Extended-X Petition:

  1. Courses originally taken during or after Fall 2001 and re-taken during or before Fall 2009are eligible for replacement under the "old" EX policy: The original attempt at the course must have been during the first 45 college credits (including all college credits: transfer, AP, etc.).
  2. Courses originally taken at any time and re-taken in Spring 2010 or laterare eligible for replacement under the "new" EX policy: Any IU course may be re-taken for grade replacement.
  3. The following grades may notbe replaced under the Extended-X policy: S, P, W, I, R, NC. Similarly, a student may not replace an original grade with a re-take grade of W, I, R, or NC.
  4. The EX option may not be applied to courses transferred from non-IU schools to IU. However, it may be applied to certain courses taken at other IU campuses. See number 12 for more information.
  5. A maximum of three courses, totaling no more than 10 credits, may be replaced.
  6. A student may EX a specific course only one time.
  7. Students must submit the EX petition form before their graduation date. Ignorance of the EX policy is not an accepted excuse, and therefore late submissions will not be granted.
  8. The Kelley Recorder submits all EX forms for the term as soon as final grades for the term have been posted. Students who decide to rescind their EX requests may do so - by contacting the Kelley Recorder - up until the time that the forms are submitted to the Registrar. A student may not request reversal after the EX request has been submitted to the Registrar.
  9. After the EX petition form has been submitted to the Registrar and processed, the IU transcript will record both the original and the re-take grade; an "X" will appear next to the original grade.
    1. The original course will carry no credit and will not be included in the IU GPA on the official IU transcript.
    2. The re-take course will carry the credit and will be included in the IU GPA on the official IU transcript.
  10. The Kelley School Program GPA includes both the original and the re-take grades. This GPA is utilized for admission, graduation, probation, and other internal decisions. Both the Kelley Program GPA and the IU GPA show on students' official transcripts.
  11. Courses repeatable with different content (variable title or topics courses) are not eligible for replacement under this policy. However, in some cases, a different topic may be used to EX a no-longer-offered topic (e.g., a different topic of ENG-L 142 may be used to EX a no-longer-offered topic of ENG-L 142). These are allowed only if the Chair of the course-offering department submits an equivalency request to the Office of the Registrar.
  12. In order for the EX to be processed, the original and re-take courses need to have the same course number. However, in some cases an IUB course may replace (or be replaced by) an equivalent course from another IU campus (e.g., BUS-L 203 at IUPUI replacing or replaced by BUS-L 201 at IUB). If the original and re-take course numbers are not exactly the same, the equivalence must be approved by the appropriate authorities in the school/department offering that courseand the school/department must inform the Registrar that the EX policy may apply. As there is no guarantee that EX will apply to courses that are numbered differently, students should check with the appropriate school/department prior to re-taking a course with a different course number.
  13. The honors version of a course may be used to EX a grade in the non-honors version of the same course, if approved by the school/department offering the course. However, you may not use a grade in a non-honors course to EX the grade in the honors version of the course.
  14. If a grade is lowered because of academic misconduct, the Registrar has a record of it. These grades may not be replaced using the EX policy.
  15. IU scholarship eligibility is typically determined using the cumulative Program GPA and not the IU cumulative GPA. To determine the potential impact of retaking courses on your scholarship eligibility, please consult the appropriate scholarship administrators. Recipients of Kelley scholarships should contact: buscholr@indiana.edu. Recipients of other IU-administered scholarships should contact the IU Office of Scholarships or the relevant office that administers the scholarship.
  16. IU-Bloomington joins all other IU campuses in honoring the principle that the grade forgiveness policy on the degree-granting campus is applicable for all of their students. Hence, if an IUB student transfers to another campus with more liberal grade replacement policies, IUB will honor requests, from that campus, on behalf of the student, to replace an IUB grade that may not be replaceable under IUB policy. If the student returns to IUB for graduation, however, the other campus's grade forgiveness policy would not apply.

Academic Bulletins

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