Retake Priority Calculator
Not sure which course to retake first? Enter all your potential retakes and see them ranked by GPA improvement — highest impact first.
How to Prioritize Retakes
With grade replacement, retaking a course changes your GPA by removing the old grade points and adding the new ones. The formula is:
This means high-credit courses with large grade improvements give the biggest GPA boost. A D → B in a 4-credit course matters more than a C → B+ in a 3-credit course.
Example: You have a 2.6 GPA over 60 credits. Two options:
Option A: Retake Chemistry (D+ → B-), 4 credits: +0.077 GPA improvement
Option B: Retake English (C → B+), 3 credits: +0.033 GPA improvement
Pick Chemistry first — twice the GPA gain per retake.
Each bar shows additional GPA gain from that retake. Notice how marginal gains shrink — the first retake usually provides the biggest return.
Understanding Diminishing Returns
The first retake always produces the biggest GPA gain. By the time you're on the third or fourth retake, you're replacing courses where you earned a C — the grade gap is smaller, so the GPA improvement is smaller. The advanced tier visualizes this effect so you can decide when additional retakes stop being worth the cost.