I’ve been thinking about whether to retake the course. The reality is more challenging than I expected—is it worth it? My grades this semester are higher than last semester, but my rank has dropped, indicating that most students performed exceptionally well this year.
Retaking the course will require significant time investment. While reviewing the material again will likely make it easier, I’ll still need to spend considerable effort re-studying everything for the final exam.
Additionally, the outcome may not meet my expectations. On one hand, retaking at my university follows a pass/fail system, so I can’t guarantee the score will be higher than before. This requires confidence in my ability—if I truly believe I performed poorly last time, I’m certain I can do better this time. On the other hand, retaking involves lottery-style course selection, where I’m unlikely to secure the most generous grading professors. Different instructors have vastly different scoring tendencies, and if I get a new one, it’s basically gambling.
On another note, retaking demands a huge time and mental effort investment. If the score improvement is only a few points, it may not be worth it.
Thus, I’ve attempted to quantify a cost-benefit ratio index, defined as:
Here, Expected Max Score is estimated based on my historical performance (e.g., assuming I can maximize assignment scores and score ~90 on the final exam under ideal conditions), while Expected Min Score is based on a worst-case scenario based on my self-assessment.
The Cost-Benefit Ratio Index is used to evaluate the value of retaking the course. Its practical meaning is that Cost-Benefit Ratio Index / Total Credit Hours equals the change in my Grade Point Average (GPA) before and after retaking.
My criteria for the cost-benefit ratio are as follows:
- Below 10: No value at all—retaking this course is a complete waste of time.
- 10–30: No value—retaking isn’t worth it.
- 30–40: Worth considering—if I have time this semester, I should retake it.
- Above 40: Highly recommended—retaking is strongly advised.
I actually built an Excel spreadsheet and calculated the following conclusion
Only one course is worth retaking based on my analysis. For the rest, I should focus on excelling in my new courses instead of wasting time on courses with no value.
I also hope to reduce my fixation on courses or tasks that offer little to no value.