Most colleges assign letter grades to assess students' course performance. Some colleges assign only letter grades (A, B, C, etc.); others use plus or minus suffixes on the grades (A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc.; A+ and D- grades are used by few colleges). The suffixes show that a student's grade was slightly above or below the average range for the letter grade.
A suffix grading system uses a different grading scale to assign grades. Although this scale varies among colleges and instructors, it often works as follows: 93 to 100 percent = A, 90 to 92 percent = A-, 87 to 89 percent = B+, 83 to 86 percent = B, 80 to 82 percent = B-, 77 to 79 percent = C+, 73 to 76 percent = C, 70 to 72 percent = C-, 67 to 69 percent = D+, 60 to 66 percent = D, and below 60 = F. This grading scale provides a more precise representation of the student's course grade, instead of a plain letter grade that may reflect a score anywhere in a 10-point range (for example, a B might represent anywhere from 80 to 89 percent on a non-suffix grading scale).
To instructors, the benefit of a suffix grading system is precision. Instructors can make better distinctions between students' achievement. On a A to F grading scale without suffixes, students with a 70 and a 79 both ultimately receive a C, instead of a C- and a C+ respectively. However, there's likely a notable difference between these two students' achievement.
Students often don't appreciate the benefits of the suffix grading system because they are concerned about their final GPAs. When students' GPAs are calculated in a non-suffix grading system, a 2.0 is assigned to the students receiving both the 70 and the 79 percent. However, on a suffix grading system, 1.66 is averaged into the C- student's overall college GPA, while the C+ student receives a 2.33. Many students see the risk of receiving the lower GPA calculation as greater than the benefit of possibly receiving the higher calculation if they do better in a course. However, students ultimately do benefit if employers and graduate schools can better determine all students' achievement through the more precise evaluation allowed by the suffix system.
The suffix grading system is not used at many colleges and universities. However, as more instructors and college administrators recognize its benefits and increased precision, its use is likely to grow. Some colleges have also considered adopting the suffix grading system with the restriction that instructors may assign the plus/minus grades, but students' GPAs are still calculated on a whole-number basis. In such a system, a B+, B and B- would all be averaged into the GPA as 3.0 regardless of suffix.