Is an 89.5 an A or a B?
The three common rounding policies
| Policy | What happens to 89.5 | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Round half up | 89.5 → 90 | A− |
| Truncate (drop decimals) | 89.5 → 89 | B+ |
| Round only the final course grade, not components | Depends — component rounding may never produce exactly 89.5 | Either |
| No rounding at all | 89.5 stays 89.5, and 90.0 is the line | B+ |
Notice that only one of the four common policies gives you the A−. Students tend to assume round-half-up is standard because it's what they learned in math class — but instructors who publish a 90 cutoff often mean exactly 90.0, and grade software like Canvas displays rounded numbers while storing exact ones. An "89.5" on your screen may actually be an 89.46.
How to find your instructor's policy
In order of authority: 1) The syllabus. Search it for "round," "boundary," or the exact scale table — many instructors write "grades are not rounded" or "89.50+ earns an A−" explicitly. 2) Ask before the situation is live. An email in week 3 ("How do you handle borderline grades?") gets a policy answer; the same email after finals reads as grade-grubbing and often gets a no. 3) The gradebook itself. Check whether your displayed grade shows decimals — if the portal shows 89.46 and the syllabus says 90 is the line, you have your answer, and you need half a point, not zero.
The syllabus is effectively a contract at most schools. If it promises rounding, you can politely hold the instructor to it; if it's silent, rounding is a courtesy, not a right.
If you're at 89.5 before the final
Don't bet the letter grade on a rounding decision you don't control — move the number instead. With a final worth 20% of the course, each point you score above your current average moves your course grade by 0.2 points, so scoring just 3 points above your average clears 90 outright. That converts an argument about policy into arithmetic you control. Run the numbers, and treat the rounding policy as a tiebreaker you hope never to need.
Try it yourself: Grade Calculator
Compute your exact course average to the decimal — then you'll know precisely how close to the line you are.
Frequently asked questions
Will professors round an 89.5 if I ask nicely?
Some will, many won't — and most get multiple such emails every term. Requests work best when the syllabus supports you, the gap is genuinely tiny (tenths, not full points), and you're not simultaneously asking for other exceptions. Never frame it as needing the grade; frame it as asking what the policy is.
Is 89.5 rounded to 90 automatically in Canvas or PowerSchool?
No. Gradebook software displays whatever rounding the instructor configures, and the letter-grade mapping uses the instructor's chosen cutoffs. A displayed 90% can be a stored 89.5, and vice versa — ask what the underlying number is.
Does the same logic apply at other boundaries, like 79.5 or 92.5?
Yes, identically. Every letter boundary (and the 59.5 pass/fail line, where stakes are highest) turns on the same question: does your instructor round, truncate, or hold the exact cutoff? One policy governs all boundaries in a course.