Alternative grading has received much attention in academics with the publication of books such as Nilson’s (2014) “Specifications Grading”, Blum’s (2020) “Ungrading”, and Clark & Talbert’s “Grading for Growth”. One type of alternative grading is standards-based grading (SBG). The goal of SBG is to help students focus on understanding and learning over grades and to allow students to learn and correct from mistakes. Final course grades are determined by students’ accomplishments in a hierarchy of “assignment bundles”. The purpose of this study is to determine how students perceive SBG in one section of a required, introductory transportation engineering course offered in the spring 2023 semester. A mixed-methods study using a paper-based survey and semi-structured interviews with one to three students was used. Twenty-five students participated in the paper-based survey. Two students participated in the semi-structured interviews. The results of this study found that students felt that SBG made grading expectations clear, helped them improve their assignments, promoted grading consistency, upheld them to high academic standards, motivated them to learn, and discourage them from cheating. Overall, students preferred SBG to traditional point-based grading.