Does an 89.5 Round Up to a 90? How Grade Rounding Works

Guide · Updated 2026-11-08

Only if your school or your teacher rounds. There is no single US rule: some schools round 89.5 up to 90, some cut it to 89, and some leave the choice to each instructor.

So an 89.5 becomes an A only where a written rule or your teacher says so. Find that rule before your final, not after grades post.

Why 89.5 falls between the lines

A grading scale printed in whole numbers leaves a gap. Florida law sets the scale for public school grades 6-12. A B is 80 percent through 89 percent, and an A is 90 percent through 100 percent.

An 89.5 fits in neither range, and the law gives no rounding rule. Someone else has to close the gap: the district, the school or the teacher.

Three ways to handle an 89.5

Schools close the gap in one of three ways:

Round. Go to the nearest whole number, with .5 going up. 89.5 becomes 90.
Cut off. Drop everything after the decimal point. This is also called truncating. 89.5 becomes 89.
Keep the exact percent. Compare 89.5 to the line as it is. An A starts at 90, so 89.5 is still under it.

Made-up example. Two students take the same class on a 10-point scale. One has 179 of 200 points: 179 ÷ 200 = 89.5%. The other has 159 of 200: 159 ÷ 200 = 79.5%.

Score	Rounded, .5 up	Cut off	Exact
89.5%	90, an A	89, a B	89.5, a B
79.5%	80, a B	79, a C	79.5, a C

So does 79.5 round to 80? Only under the first rule. Under the other two, it stays a C.

Real written policies, side by side

Each row is one school’s or one state’s written rule. They do not agree.

Who	Written rule	Near the line
Howard County Public School System, Maryland, middle and high school	Fractional scores round to the nearest whole number	89.50% becomes 90, and 89.49% becomes 89
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing	Final course grades round to a whole number	89.5 becomes 90, an A- on its table
Wallace Community College	Test scores are not rounded, but the final course grade is	A test score of 78.6 stays 78.6
Goodwin University, most courses	.5 and up rounds up	89.56 becomes 90
Goodwin University, core courses of selective admissions programs such as Nursing	Truncated, with no rounding	89.56 becomes 89
Boise State School of Nursing	No rounding up to the pass line	74.9% stays under the 75% needed to pass
Louisiana State University	The instructor determines each grade	No campus-wide percent table
Florida law, public grades 6-12	Whole-number ranges only	No rounding rule
New York State Education Department	No state policy on course grades	Each local board decides

Howard County and Florida print the same bands: A is 90-100 and B is 80-89. Only Howard County says what happens to 89.5.

One college can run two rules. Goodwin rounds in most of its courses, but it truncates in the core courses of selective admissions programs, including Nursing, Dental Hygiene and Respiratory Care.

Nursing programs split too. Johns Hopkins and Wallace round the final course grade, and Goodwin truncates in its Nursing core courses. Boise State will not round a final 74.9% up to its 75% pass line, and in its graduate program an 82.9% will not be rounded up to 83%.

Rounding may apply only to the final grade

Where a school rounds, the rule may cover only the final course grade. Wallace says test scores are not rounded and only the final course grade is. Its nursing programs carry every step to the hundredths place and round only the final course average. Johns Hopkins and Boise State also write their rules about final course grades.

So an 89.5 on one quiz may stay an 89.5 in the gradebook.

In high school vs in college

In high school, the district board usually sets the rule: Howard County rounds 89.50% to 90, and Florida law has no rounding rule. In college, it often varies by program: Johns Hopkins Nursing rounds the final grade, Goodwin truncates in its Nursing core, and LSU leaves each grade to the instructor. So is an 89.5 an A-? Only where it rounds to 90 and an A- starts at 90.

Who decides at your school

Start by finding who owns the rule. The New York State Education Department says the state has no policy on students’ course grades, because each local board of education sets grading policy. Howard County’s rule is that kind of board policy, written for its middle and high schools.

At LSU, a policy statement gives the instructor the right and responsibility to determine each grade. It says there is no university table of numerical equivalents for letter grades, and it expects instructors to use judgment in borderline cases. It never mentions rounding. Under a policy like that, your instructor’s rule is the rule.

What you can do as a student

Read the syllabus. Search it for the word “round”. If it says nothing, check your school’s handbook or board policy.
Ask before the final. One short question is enough: “If my course average ends at 89.5, does it round to 90?” Ask by email so the answer is in writing.
Ask for the rule, not a favor. LSU’s policy says one student should not get an extra-credit option unless the whole class gets it on the same terms. A rule that covers everyone is a fair thing to ask about.
Work from your exact percent. The Grade Calculator shows your percent with up to two decimals and picks the letter from the exact number. If you sit up to half a point under a line, it tells you what the letter becomes if your teacher rounds .5 up.

Check My teacher rounds .5 up under Match your class only after your teacher confirms the rule. With the box off, our tools read 89.5 as a B on the 10-point scale and a B+ on the Plus/minus scale. With it on, 89.5 reads as an A, or an A- on Plus/minus. The methodology page explains how.

See what rounding does to your final

Rounding also changes the score you need on the final. In the Final Grade Calculator, checking My teacher rounds .5 up drops each line by half a point, so an A starts at 89.5.

Made-up example. You have an 88% before the final, and the final counts for 20%. The rest of the course gives you 88 × 0.80 = 70.4 points.

To reach a 90: (90 − 70.4) ÷ 0.20 = 98% on the final.
If 89.5 rounds up: (89.5 − 70.4) ÷ 0.20 = 95.5% on the final.

The rounding rule is worth 98 − 95.5 = 2.5 points on the final. If you cannot confirm the rule, plan for the 98.

What to write in your syllabus

If you teach, put your rule in writing before term starts. Goodwin’s policy tells faculty to state each course’s rounding rule in the syllabus. LSU’s policy requires a syllabus that states the weight of each part of the final grade.

A clear rule answers five questions:

Do you round at all?
To what: a whole number or one decimal?
What happens at exactly .5?
Does it cover each assignment, or only the final course grade?
Does your school or department already have a rule? If so, use it.

Two sample lines you can adapt:

“Final course grades round to the nearest whole percent, and .5 rounds up. Scores on single assignments are not rounded.”
“Final course grades are not rounded. A grade below a cutoff keeps the lower letter, however close it is.”

Apply the rule the same way to every student. LSU’s policy expects instructors to assign grades equitably and consistently. Then set your gradebook to show the number you grade from, so students see what you see.

The gradebook setup guide covers the other rules to settle before term. The Grading Scale page lets you share your scale with students through a link.

Sources

Tools for this guide

Grade Calculator: Find your current grade from your assignments.
Final Grade Calculator: Find out what you need on the final.
Grading Scale: See how percents turn into letter grades, and set your own scale.

More guides

This guide is general information. Your school's rules come first. Found a mistake? Tell us.