# Set the grading scale for a course

> Every course version has its own marks and decides which of them mean the lesson is complete. The default is S, U and I. Read the limits before you change it.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/set-the-grading-scale
Section: Training and curriculum. For: Owners, Admins.

Open the course and go to **Requirements**. The **Grading scale** card at the top holds the
marks this course version uses and which of them mean the lesson is complete. It defaults to
S, U and I with S completing the lesson. It freezes when the version is published, and on a
Part 61 draft it also freezes the moment a training record exists on that version.

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins, holders of the Configure training grant

The scale belongs to the syllabus **version**, not to the school, so two courses can grade
differently and a revision can change the marks without touching students on the old
version.

![Grading scale card](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/syllabus-grading-scale.png)

## Edit the scale

1. **Course → Requirements**

   The **Grading scale** card sits above the requirement list. The version has to be a draft,
   and it cannot already have training records. Changing which marks complete the lesson after
   someone has been graded would silently rewrite their progress.

2. **Edit the codes**

   One row per mark.

3. **Tick Completes the lesson**

   On every mark that means the student may move on.

4. **Add or remove marks**

   **Add grade** for another row, the trash icon to drop one.

5. **Click Save scale**

   The button only appears once something has actually changed.

Two rules are enforced on save:

- At least one mark has to complete the lesson, or the save is refused with "At least one
  grade has to mean the lesson is complete."
- Two marks cannot share a name.

## Which marks complete the lesson

"Complete" on a lesson means the record is **signed** and carries a mark this card says
completes the lesson. Both halves are required.

That is what fills the lessons-complete bar on a student's record, and what the syllabus
uses to work out which lesson is **Next up**. Distinct lessons are counted, never records,
so a student who flew the same lesson three times before passing counts as one lesson done.

## What a U does to the record

An unsatisfactory grade is a real record, not a failure to record anything.

- It is signed, frozen and permanently on the student's training record.
- It appears on the Training records report for an inspector to read.
- It never moves the lessons-complete bar, so the lesson stays outstanding and stays
  **Next up**.
- Its hours are still credited to every requirement the lesson credits. The student flew
  them.

> **Note:** The close-out picker and the Next up strip use the same complete rule as the training
> record: a U is on the record, and the lesson stays outstanding until a passing grade is
> signed.

## Your marks follow the course everywhere

Every place that grades reads the course's own scale: the **Grade** dropdown in the close-out
**Training record** section, the grading dialog on the training record, the per-task buttons,
and the phone. A course graded 1 to 4, or Introduced / Practiced / Perfected, is graded with
those marks wherever an instructor happens to be standing.

A mark the course does not use is refused, with a message naming the ones it does:
`"S" is not one of this course's grades (1, 2, 3, 4).` In practice you only see that from an
integration posting its own grade, since the screens offer nothing else.

> **Note:** Students already enrolled keep grading against the marks their version started with, so a
> school part way through a change is running two scales at once, correctly, and each student's
> screens show their own.

## The scale freezes when records exist, and when you publish

A signed lesson is complete only if its mark is one this card says completes the lesson.
Flipping that after records exist would move the lessons-complete bar with no amendment.
So Save scale is refused, with "This syllabus has training records on it," the same way
deleting a lesson is refused.

Publishing the version also locks the grading scale along with the lessons, the tasks and
the requirements. There is no unpublish.

To change the marks on a published course, create a new version, edit its scale, publish
that, and retire the old one. Students already enrolled stay on their version and keep
grading against the marks they started with. See
[Publish a syllabus version](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/publish-a-syllabus-version).