Students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences may repeat courses taken at The University of Iowa and have only the grade and the credit of the second registration used in calculating total hours earned, as well as in calculating the UI cumulative and total cumulative grade-point averages. Under the provisions of this option, the Office of the Registrar marks the permanent record (with the symbol #) to show that a particular course has been repeated. Both grades remain on the permanent record, but only the second one is used in calculating the grade-point averages and hours earned.

A student who wishes to use this option registers in the usual manner for the course that is to be repeated or adds it during the regular period for adding courses. The student also must file for the option in the CLAS Academic Programs & Services office, 120 Schaeffer Hall. Unless this is done, both grades continue to be counted in the grade-point average.

Restrictions on the use of this option are described in the College's online Student Academic Handbook (see part VIII. Grading)

(Please note that other colleges may have other second-grade-only option policies which govern their courses.)

Note: Effective Fall 2007, the second-grade-only option will change. Students will be allowed to exercise the second-grade-only option only on courses where a grade of C- or lower has been earned, regardless, of the semester or session when the original course was taken. All other rules for the CLAS SGO policy will remain the same. The Educational Policy Committee has added this requirement to the SGO policy in attempts to save important resources in overenrolled departments and to encourage students to understand the importance of academics at Iowa.