Another Harder School Grades Mod
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School grades in The Sims 2 depend on two things: whether a sim has done their homework, and their mood - and as a player you often won't notice the effect of mood. It is also very easy to get top grades for all your students (just do homework every day). Both these things annoyed me, so I made this mod.
With this mod, the following things affect a sim's school grade (in decreasing order of importance):
- Number of incomplete homework books
- Interest in School
- Mood
- Total skill points (up to a maximum of 13 for children and 25 for teens)
- Neat personality points
- Serious personality points
A sim with no interest in School, no neat personality points and full playful personality points, and no skills, who does their homework every day and goes to school in a reasonably good mood will end up with a C. An A+ is possible, but does require interest in school, skills and probably personality.
How it works, exactly (warning: maths incoming)
- Start with 5 points.
- For every incomplete homework belonging to that sim, subtract 3 points.
- Add or remove up to 1.5 points depending on their mood (so a good mood adds points, and a bad mood subtracts points)
- Add 0.4 points per point of interest in School.
- Add 0.1 points per skill point, up to a maximum of 25. Kids' skill points are worth double, and Teens' skill points in Cooking, Cleaning and Body are worth half.
- Add 0.1 points per Neat personality point.
- Add 0.1 points per Serious personality point (i.e. every Playful point the sim doesn't have).
Then, the mod compares their current grade to the target grade, and finds the difference between them.
- If the target grade is higher than the current grade:
- If the target grade minus the current grade is bigger than 3, then the mod runs a check to see if the grade goes up by three points. The chance of success increases as the difference between the target grade and current grade increases, up to a maximum of (10 + 80*HS)%. If the grade difference is about 4, the chances of success are about half the maximum value. If this succeeds, we're done. If it fails, the mod moves on to the next check.
- If the target grade minus the current grade is bigger than 2, the mod runs a check to see if the grade goes up by two points. As before, the chance of success increases up to a maximum of (40 + 80*HS)%, with the chance of success about half that value when the difference is 3.
- Finally, the mod runs a check to see if the grade goes up by one point. The maximum chance of success is (70 + 80*HS)%, with a chance of success about half that value when the difference between target grade and current grade is 1. This means that if a sim's target grade is 8.7 and their current grade is 8, there is a chance of increasing their grade to 9.
- If the target grade is lower than the current grade:
- If the current grade minus the target grade is bigger than 3, then the mod runs a check to see if the grade goes down by three points. The chance of success increases as the difference between the current grade and target grade increases, up to a maximum of (90 - 40*HS)%. If the grade difference is about 4, the chances of success are about half the maximum value. If this succeeds, we're done. If it fails, the mod moves on to the next check.
- If the current grade minus the target grade is bigger than 2, the mod runs a check to see if the grade goes down by two points. As before, the chance of success increases up to a maximum of (120 - 40*HS)%, with the chance of success about half that value when the difference is 3.
- Finally, the mod runs a check to see if the grade goes down by one point. The maximum chance of success is (150 - 40*HS)% (i.e. certain, if the difference in grades is big enough), with a chance of success about half that value when the difference between target grade and current grade is 1. This means that if a sim's target grade is 6.5 and their current grade is 7, there is a chance of decreasing their grade to 6.
Tuning the mod
| Value | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Default Grade | 5 | Target grade for a sim with no homework, neutral mood, no interest in school, no neat, all playful, no skills. |
| Grades lost per missing homework | 3 | How many grade points each incomplete homework costs sims in their target grade |
| Grade effect from mood | 3 | Total range of grade points from mood. As neutral mood is zero, the maximum gain from mood is half this number, and the maximum loss from mood is half this number. |
| Grade effect from interest in school | 4 | Total range of grade points from interest in School - a sim with full interest in school will have this many grade points added to their target grade. |
| Max skill points counted | 25 | Cap for how many grade points sims can earn from school. Each skill point a child has counts as 2, while each cooking, cleaning or body point for a teen counts as 0.5. Each skill point is then worth 0.1 grade points. |
| Grade points for Neat personality | 1 | Total range of grade points from neat personality points - a sim with full neat points will have this many grade points added to their target grade. |
| Grade points for Serious personality | 1 | Total range of grade points from serious personality points - a sim with no playful points will have this many grade points added to their target grade. |
| Base cap for up 3 grades | 10 | If a sim has a target grade much more than 3 grade points above their current grade and their highest skill is zero, this is the percentage chance of getting a jump up of 3 grades. |
| Base cap for up 2 grades | 40 | If a sim has a target grade much more than 2 grade points above their current grade and their highest skill is zero, this is the percentage chance of getting a jump up of 2 grades. Note that the "Increase 3 grades" check will run first, and this would only run if that failed. |
| Base cap for up 1 grade | 70 | If a sim has a target grade much more than 1 grade point above their current grade and their highest skill is zero, this is the percentage chance of getting a jump up of 1 grade. Note that the "Increase 3 grades" check will run first, and then the "Increase 2 grades" and this would only run if both of those failed. |
| Max increase from skills | 80 | If a sim has a skill at its' maximum value*, this is added to the base chance for increasing grades. If the sim's highest skill** is somewhere in between, this number is multiplied by that highest skill and divided by the maximum. |
| Base cap for down 3 grades | 90 | If a sim has a target grade much more than 3 grade points below their current grade and their highest skill is zero, this is the percentage chance of getting a drop of 3 grades. |
| Base cap for down 2 grades | 120 | If a sim has a target grade much more than 2 grade points below their current grade and their highest skill is zero, this is the percentage chance of getting a drop of 2 grades. Note that the "Decrease 3 grades" check will run first, and this would only run if that failed. |
| Base cap for down 1 grade | 150 | If a sim has a target grade much more than 1 grade point below their current grade and their highest skill is zero, this is the percentage chance of getting a drop of 1 grade. Note that the "Decrease 3 grades" check will run first, and then the "Decrease 2 grades" and this would only run if both of those failed. |
| Max decrease from skills | 40 | If a sim has a skill at its' maximum value*, this is subtracted from the base chance for decreasing grades. If the sim's highest skill** is somewhere in between, this number is multiplied by that highest skill and divided by the maximum. |
| Skill limit for children | 5 | This is the maximum value a child is assumed to have for their skills: maximum skills are scaled to this value, and any skill above this gives no further advantages. |
* See "Skill limit for children" for when this number is not 10.
** Schools value Cooking, Cleaning, and Body at half value for this for teenagers, so a teen with 6 Cooking points and 4 Logic points will have a highest skill of 4 (Cooking is halved to 3, and so the 4 Logic points wins).
The preferred skills for teenagers is not currently tunable, but if anyone really wants to tune that I can probably make a version that lets you.
Modified code:
| Type | Group | Instance | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2016 | Grade - Update |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2037 | Calculate Target Grade |
New code:
| Type | Group | Instance | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 205A | Calculate Grade Change |
| BCON | 0x7FBE051B | 2008 | Tuning - More Grades |
| STR# | 0x7FBE051B | 0131 | Lua Scripts |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2061 | Grade Change Up 3? |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2062 | Grade Change Up 2? |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2063 | Grade Change Up 1? |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2064 | Grade Change Down 3? |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2065 | Grade Change Down 2? |
| BHAV | 0x7FBE051B | 2066 | Grade Change Down 1? |
Conflicts:
Anything that also changes either of the BHAVs I have edited will conflict with this mod - but that should only really happen with other mods doing something similar - just pick the version you like.
Thanks, as always, to the makers of SimPE.
Have fun
| Filename | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| KittyCarey-harderschoolgrades.7z | 7z | |
| KittyCarey-harderschoolgrades.package | package | 7169 |
|
KittyCarey-harderschoolgrades.7z
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Uploaded: 5th Aug 2026, 1.6 KB.
125 downloads.
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Install Instructions
1. Download: Click the download link to save the .rar or .zip file(s) to your computer.
2. Extract the zip, rar, or 7z file.
3. Place in Downloads Folder: Cut and paste the .package file(s) into your Downloads folder:
- Origin (Ultimate Collection): Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Downloads\
- Non-Origin, Windows Vista/7/8/10: Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads\
- Non-Origin, Windows XP: Documents and Settings\(Current User Account)\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads\
- Mac: Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads
- Mac x64: /Library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/Downloads
- For a full, complete guide to downloading complete with pictures and more information, see: Game Help: Downloading for Fracking Idiots.
- Custom content not showing up in the game? See: Game Help: Getting Custom Content to Show Up.
- If you don't have a Downloads folder, just make one. See instructions at: Game Help: No Downloads Folder.
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Another Harder School Grades Mod