The ladder runs A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F, plus-minus steps through the C range, no A+ above and no D variants below, with the catalog also listing the failing marks IF and ZF for incompletes and unofficial withdrawals that curdle. To stay in good standing you must hold a C average three separate ways: a 2.0 overall, a 2.0 in English Composition, and a 2.0 in your area of study, three floors, and the one under your major is the one transfer-heavy students forget they are standing on. Special marks sit outside the ladder: W, NC, CR, PA for prior learning, PR for practicum, EP for e-Pack credit, and the CR family is quietly the strategy: TECEP and PLA credit banks without ever touching your GPA.
The ladder, rung by rung
| Band | Marks | The honest read |
|---|---|---|
| A range | A, A- | The target band. No A+ exists, so an A is the ceiling and margin means banking it early, not chasing decimals. |
| B range | B+, B, B- | Respectable everywhere, but B-minus territory near any of the three floors is a trend to interrupt, not a resting place. |
| C range | C+, C, C- | The floor band. A C- earns credit but drags every average it touches below the line the floors defend. |
| D and F | D, F, IF, ZF | D stands alone, no plus or minus, and buys credit at a price your floors cannot afford. IF and ZF are how stalls and silent walk-aways get recorded as failures. |
The catalog page does not publish the quality-point value beside each mark, so this manual refuses to print a guessed 4.0 table; when a computation matters, run it against the registrar's own figures. What the policy does make unambiguous is the shape: plus-minus resolution through the middle of the ladder, a hard ceiling at A, and a bottom where distinctions stop mattering.
The three floors
- 2.0 overall: the standing requirement every term's letters average into
- 2.0 in English Composition: the writing courses specifically, the floor that makes ENC-level work worth margin
- 2.0 in your area of study: your major's own average, the floor transfer students meet last and feel first, because a thin residency of TESU-graded major courses gives each letter outsized weight
That last mechanic deserves a sentence of respect: if most of your degree arrived by transfer, TECEP, and PLA, then only a handful of graded TESU courses may sit inside your area of study, and each one moves that average violently. One weak letter in a five-course residency does what three weak letters could not do in a fifteen-course one. It is the strongest argument on this site for treating every graded module as an A project.
The marks that carry no letter
W is a clean withdrawal, NC a no-credit outcome, CR the credit mark that TECEP passes wear, PA the prior-learning mark a successful portfolio earns, PR the practicum mark, EP the e-Pack mark. None of them enter the GPA, which is why the credit bank is also a GPA shelter: credit earned through exams and portfolios can never lower an average, while every graded course can. Build the bank with CR and PA, then spend your graded attention where the letters land.
Playing a term against this scheme
Know which of the three floors is thinnest for you and treat its courses as the term's priority; send a gradebook screenshot at any module midpoint and the desk returns the arithmetic free, what each remaining deliverable needs to hold the band. Drafts target the A range with room, because a ceiling with no A+ above it rewards early banking, and because mentors grade a term-long record where the strong start is itself evidence.
Standing near a floor?
Send the gradebook. The recovery math and a module-by-module plan come back free.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- tesu.smartcatalogiq.com · Policy on Grading: the catalog's own grading policy, primary source for the ladder and the special marks
- www.tesu.edu/degrees-programs/courses/taking-courses.php: how TESU courses run, modules, mentors, and calendars
- apastyle.apa.org: the APA style authority behind the format layer most written assignments grade