When Marcus Chance received an A-minus in his American oral history class, he said that it surprised and hurt him.
The fourth-year history major said it was the implication of the minus that bothered him the most.
"It's like getting a paper back, and it's smothered with red ink," he said. "It has a negative connotation."
Chance was late in turning in the last assignment and said that his laziness was the reason for the A-minus, acknowledging that the grade accurately reflected his performance.
Summer A was the first semester that professors had the option to assign minus grades, though it is not mandatory to use the minus system.
The new grading scale is divided into increments of 0.33 points. For example, 3.33 equals B-plus, 3.0 equals B and 2.67 equals B-minus.
A minimum grade of a C is still necessary to earn general education credit and to satisfy the writing and mathematics requirement, according to the Web site.
A 4.0 grade point average is required for President's Honor Roll.
The system captures a precise notion of what students accomplish in class, said Richard Yost, past Faculty Senate chairman.
UF was late in changing the grading system to match the one used by its peer institutions, Yost said.
Out of 11 universities in the state, only New College of Florida does not use minus grades.
"A lot of professors are hesitant to give out the perfect A but may feel that the student did better than a B-plus," said Jordan Johnson, student body president. "This gives professors the option to reward students just as much as it does punish them."
However, he said, students should have had input when the decision was made at a Faculty Senate meeting in 2006.
"If you're close to an A all the time but keep getting Bs, you're a winner," history major Darrel Meckley said. "If you're a 93 percent student, you're getting screwed."
French professor Heloise C. Seailles said students do not understand that the new system works to their advantage. If a student works hard and makes progress, the professor might consider raising their C-plus to a B-minus, whereas in the past she would not have considered raising such a grade to a B.
"We care about our students, and I don't think we are doing you any favors by treating you like babies," she said. "We want to prepare you for the world."
Faculty Senate chairman Jack Mecholsky said it is a good experiment that will benefit students in the long run.
If students and faculty are not happy after a couple of years, he said, the university can return to the old scale.
