LUMS GPA Guide 2026: Surviving the Liberal Arts Curriculum
At LUMS, pure mathematical intelligence is not enough. The liberal arts core means a CS major will be graded on intense philosophy essays.
1. The Reading Overload
If you take Humanities or Social Science electives (which are mandatory), you will be assigned roughly 50 to 100 pages of dense academic reading per week per course. Attempting to skim or skip this reading guarantees you will fail the "Pop Quizzes." You must learn how to speed-read and extract core arguments quickly.
2. The 100% Relative Grading Curve
LUMS aggressively uses forced curves. In a class of 40, perhaps only the top 4 students are legally allowed to get an 'A', regardless of raw scores. You must participate dynamically. A massive portion of your grade (often 10-20%) is purely "Class Participation" (CP). Sitting silently in the back row and scoring perfectly on the midterm will still result in a 'B' grade due to zero CP score.
3. Avoiding the SDSB Trap
Courses in the Business School (SDSB) are notoriously cutthroat. If you are an engineering student taking a business elective to boost your GPA, recognize that SDSB students will dominate you in case-study presentations. Always evaluate if an elective is a "GPA booster" or a "GPA destroyer."