How retaking a course changes your GPA
The question before signing up to repeat a course is how much the GPA actually moves. Turning a 1.0 into a 4.0 sounds dramatic, but on one three-credit course inside a full transcript the cumulative average shifts less than most people expect. Enter your current GPA and credits along with each repeated course, its original grade point and the grade you expect, and this tool reports the new GPA and the change.
Three policies are available. Replacement swaps the original grade for the new one, averaging counts the midpoint of both attempts, and keep both leaves the original grade on the transcript and counts the new grade alongside it. Pick the one your registrar uses. If you enter a cap, any retake grade above it is pulled down to the cap and the number of affected courses is listed. A grade equal to the cap is left alone.
No cap is built in, because policies differ: one school counts a repeat only up to an A, another up to a B+, and plenty apply no ceiling. Leave the field blank and the retake grade counts as entered.
Under replacement or averaging the credits do not grow, only the grade changes, so the repeated credits must already be inside your current credit total for the result to be right. Under keep both, the original grade stays exactly as it was and the retake's credits are added on top — your total credit count grows by the repeated credits, which is why the result shows the credit total before and after. Limits on how many times a course may be repeated are separate rules worth checking in your catalog.
Frequently asked questions
Some schools count a repeated course only up to a set grade, others limit how many repeats count, and many have no cap at all. Since the rule is local, you enter the cap from your own catalog.
No. A grade at or below the cap counts in full, so a 4.0 retake under a 4.0 cap counts as 4.0. Only grades above the cap are pulled down, and the number of affected courses is reported separately.
Yes. Under a replacement policy the credits do not increase, only the grade changes, so the calculation assumes those credits are already part of your current total.