Histologic grade remains one of the most useful predictors of prognosis of prostate cancer. The Gleason scoring is now the only grading method recommended by the World Health Organization for prostatic carcinoma. While the basic principles of the Gleason grading remain relatively unchanged since it was established, several important modifications have been recently proposed to solve the controversial issues, to achieve higher concordance between the pathologists and to increase the prognostic utility of the system. This review provides a simplified approach to the application of the Gleason grading system in contemporary pathology practice and gives an update of the recent modifications taking into account several latest position papers.