University Assessment and Grading Practices Policy

The University of Toronto enacted the University Assessment and Grading Practices Policy to ensure:

• That assessment and grading practices across the University are consistent and reflect appropriate academic standards. 
• That student performance is evaluated in a manner that is fair, accurate, consistent, and objective and in compliance with these academic standards. 
• That the academic standing of every student can be accurately assessed even when conducted in different divisions of the University and evaluated according to different grading scales.

Bloomberg Nursing Grading Regulations

The Bloomberg Nursing Faculty Council Committee on Standing is responsible for implementing the University Assessment and Grading Practices Policy and for formulating, implementing, and administering the Faculty regulations relating to this policy. The regulations are approved by Faculty Council and are as follows: 

• The breakdown of marks and grading practices for each course will be made available in written form to all students enrolled in the class on the first day of each course. 
• Grades for each required course in the undergraduate program are based on more than one assignment. No one essay, test, examination, etc. will have a value of more than 80% of the final grade. Exemptions to this regulation may be granted by Faculty Council on the basis of criteria developed by the Committee on Standing.   
• All final course grades will be reviewed by the Committee on Standing. No grades are final or shall be released to students as official until the review procedure is completed by the Committee on Standing.  
• In courses with a final examination, the examination should be conducted formally during exam week and should be worth (alone or in aggregate) at least one-third of the final mark for the course.
• Group evaluation, where used, will not constitute more than 25% of the final grade.
•  Year 1 students will not be eligible to begin Winter term courses until all Fall courses are successfully completed. Similarly, students may not begin Year 2 courses until all Year 1 courses are successfully completed. 
• Rounding up of grades received on assignments does not occur until calculation of the final course grade. Grades earned and rounded as such stand. Neither grades on individual assignments nor the final course grade are changed to ensure a student passes a course, to move a course grade to the next grade level, or to boost a student’s overall GPA. Supplemental or additional assignments to boost course grades and GPA are not available in the program. Similarly, there is no opportunity to re-take tests or exams to improve grades. Additionally, students may not retake a course that they have already received credit for, such as to increase their grade. 

  Grade Scale Definitions

 In evaluating written work and clinical performance, grades will be assigned with reference to the following scale, meaning and definition: Note: For all NUR courses, the passing grade is 60%. 

University Designators and Other Non-Grade Symbols

The following Designators can be assigned to BScN students instead of regular grades:

 INC:    Incomplete. INC is assigned by the instructor or Committee on Standing, normally as a final report, where course work is not completed but where there are no grounds for assigning a failing grade. It carries no credit for the course and is not considered for averaging purposes.

 IPR:      In progress. IPR is assigned as the report for a course that is continued in a subsequent session. The final grade will appear only once and only for the last enrolment period. It carries no credit for the course and is not considered for averaging purposes. 

 SDF:   Standing deferred on the basis of incomplete course work because of medical or similar reasons. SDF is assigned by the divisional review committee upon approval of a student’s petition or the recommendation from the instructor.  It must be replaced by a regular grade within a specific time period, normally by the next submission deadline for grades. If “SDF” is not cleared, a grade will be assigned based on the term work completed at that time by the student.

WDR:   Withdrawn without academic penalty (granted upon approval of a student’s petition for late withdrawal from a course without academic penalty). WDR carries no credit for the course and is not considered for averaging purposes. 

Failure to Meet Required Standards

When a BScN student fails to meet the required academic standards or otherwise fails to maintain satisfactory academic progress in the BScN program, the student is no longer eligible to proceed in the program. Specifically, if a student fails any one course twice or any two courses, it is Bloomberg Nursing’s policy to terminate the student’s registration in the program. 

Academic Records on Transcripts

Academic records on a transcript will accurately reflect the student’s academic history and progress. As such, the practice of changing or removing grades and courses once they are posted on the transcript is not advised by the University and is not a practice of the Faculty. If a student is unsatisfied with their academic grades, they should follow the appropriate regrading or appeal process, however, removing a course from their transcript will not be considered. 

Grade Point Average (GPA) 

The Grade Point Average is the weighted sum (a full course is weighted as 1.0 or more, a half-course as 0.5) of the grade points earned, divided by the number of full courses in which grade points were earned.  Three types of grade point averages are used: 

1. The sessional GPA is based on courses taken in a single session (Fall, Winter or Summer). 
2. The annual GPA is based on courses taken in the Fall and Winter sessions.
3. The summer session GPA stands alone. 

The cumulative GPA takes into account all courses taken for degree credit in the Faculty. 

To obtain Honours upon graduation, students must achieve a cumulative average of 80% in the program. 

Definitions

Term Work:

any evaluation completed on or before the last day of classes, excluding “final” course tests. Term work may include: in-course tests, essays, group projects and discussion posts.

Final exam/test:

an exam written or submitted after the last day of classes during the final exam period, or a “final” course test written in the final week of classes in courses that are not followed by an exam week.

Re-grade:

when a graded evaluation is reviewed by a member of the faculty for potential grade changes. Term work re-grades have different protocols than final exam/test re-grades.

Process for Reviewing Graded Work

In-Course Test Review Process 

Individual in-course test reviewing sessions will not be offered. Following in-course tests, Faculty members will review the results of the exam to identify overall patterns of student performance and areas of difficulty. Concepts that present challenges for students will be reinforced or further addressed during class time, particularly where it may impact future learning and/or assessments.  

Students who fail a midterm exam/test or receive a grade lower than 65% will be invited to meet with the course instructor for a high-level discussion. 

These meetings will: 

• Focus on overall performance trends and areas for improvement.
• Provide guidance on study strategies and available academic supports.
• Avoid detailed question-by-question review to maintain exam integrity. 

Term Work (excluding in-course tests) Review Process

The review of term work begins with an informal review and culminates in a formal re-grade if needed as follows:

Informal Review:

• Students may discuss with the grader (i.e., Teaching Assistant or Instructor) the feedback and grade on an individual piece of term work regardless of its value. 
• A request to meet with the grader is to be made within 7 calendar days of a student receiving the grade for the piece of work.
• Meeting with the grader will provide the student with an opportunity to clarify feedback on their piece of term work and to discuss strategies to assist the student to be successful in the course. 
• If the grader was the Teaching Assistant and the student has remaining questions about their grade and associated feedback, the student will reach out to the Instructor for a supplemental meeting to seek further clarification. 

Formal Re-grade:

• If a student is not satisfied with the outcome of the preliminary step toward resolution referenced above, a formal request for a regrade may be made. A request for a formal re-grade is made in writing to the Undergraduate Program Director.
•  A request for a formal re-grade of a piece of work can be made provided that: 1) the piece of work is worth at least 20% of the final grade in the course and 2) the student believes there is a grade discrepancy of at least 10% of the total available grade points.
• To initiate a formal request for a re-grade (i.e., re-grading) of a piece of work, students are to submit the request in a word document by email to the Undergraduate Program Director within 10 calendar days of the completion of the informal review process. 
• When requesting the re-grade, students must clearly detail the specific components of the assignment grade they are challenging. In the case where the assignment has a grading rubric, students must submit the rubric and identify the criterion on the rubric they believe was graded incorrectly along with an explanation of why the criterion should be evaluated higher. Note however, that the complete assignment will be re-graded during the review process if approved. The student must also provide written details of feedback received from the grader during the informal review process and why the feedback is insufficient. Without such documentation, the Director may decline the request for review of the assignment/test.
• If the Director approves the re-grade, they will send an anonymized and clean (no grading comments) copy of the assignment (provided by the student) to a faculty member familiar with the content being evaluated in the assignment. The average of the instructor’s assigned grade and the grade assigned by the faculty reviewer will stand as the student’s final grade on the assignment, which may be higher, lower, or the same. 

Final Exam/Test Review Process 

Registrarial and Student Services will send an email to all students announcing that final grades have been released on ACORN. Students will then have 14 calendar days to indicate their interest in viewing one or more of their final exams/tests for that semester. Students who request to view the final exams will pay a fee of $16.50 for each final exam request. The viewing appointment will be scheduled with Registrarial and Student Services and the student will view their graded work in a supervised setting. No portion of the graded final exam/test or any notes regarding the graded final exam/test may be retained by the student nor shared. If during the viewing, the student identifies a portion of the exam/test where they disagree with the grading, details regarding the grading of the specific question(s) will be recorded and retained by Registrarial and Student Services to substantiate a final exam/test re-grade request. Students cannot submit a final exam/test re-grade request without first completing their final exam/test viewing and providing details for the request. Students who are unable to make their appointment must contact Registrarial and Student Services. Students who do not communicate and do not come to the appointment forfeit the opportunity to view their exam and will still be charged the fee for the requested viewing. 

For clinical courses with repeating rotations (NUR 371Y, NUR 373Y, NUR 374Y), students will not be allowed to view the examinations until grades have been released for all rotations across winter and spring/summer terms. However, the request for the viewing must be submitted within 14 calendar days of the official release of grades on ACORN (NOTE: Rotation 1 and 2 grades are officially released in May while Rotation 3 grades are officially released in July).

Final Exam/Test Viewing Process:

• Students viewing exams/tests may not be accompanied by anyone else.
• Students are not permitted to take any belongings, including writing implements cellphones, or smart glasses into the exam viewing room. 
• No exams/tests or answer keys are to be removed from the exam viewing room by students. 
• A student will be allowed 20 minutes to review one exam/test.

Formal Final Exam/Test Re-grade:

After a final exam/test viewing is complete, a student can submit a request for a final exam/test re-grade provided the following conditions are met: 

• Specific questions are identified where the student disagrees with the grading and specific rationale for the new grade is provided OR an addition error is found in tallying the final exam/test grade 
• The total number of marks believed to be missing by the student would increase the final exam/test grade by 3% or more (except in cases of addition error). 

If both are met, then Student Services will send the student a link to pay $36 for the re-grade of the specific questions requested. The re-grade may result in a grade increasing, decreasing or staying the same. If the grade changes in either direction the student will receive a refund of the fee. The outcome of this final exam/test re-grade process is final and there are no further processes to revisit the grade.