Percentage mark increase but no change in GPA: Notify OMSAS?

[Guest UofT Student]

Hey all,

 

I'm in third year, and I just found out that a mark from one of my second year half-courses has been increased slightly. However, there is no change in my GPA since I didn't go up to the next GPA level.

 

Has this happened to anyone else in the past, and if so, did you have to notify OMSAS? I don't want to bother them since there's no change in the OMSAS GPA.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Guest codinator]

"I'm in third year, and I just found out that a mark from one of my second year half-courses has been increased slightly."

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did this happen?

[Guest starry234]

Sometimes mistakes are made and the prof or the faculty does not catch it till later. I haven't heard of it happening this late into the year, but final marks do sometimes change later on after they are originally posted.

[Guest codinator]

this is entirely unfair, especially if the mark is lowered. once the prof. gives a mark, changing it after almost 7 months is unacceptable. if it means raising the mark, it's ok, but lowering of marks should not occur after such a long period of time. especially after they are made official!

[Guest 007]

Personally, I have never heard of anyone's mark being lowered after such a period of time...or even after marks are made official unless it was a case of academic dishonesty that was reviewed. However, I do know if instances where people had their April exams reviewed over the summer and mistakes in their advantage were found, resulting in the mark changing on their transcript in the fall.

[Guest starry234]

Yeah when I said "mistakes are made" I meant mistakes in the marking of exams, such as incorrect addition of marks, etc.

[Guest codinator]

evenso, after 6-7 months it is not right to change someone's mark. it's the professor's fault. whether someone deserved the mark or not, it shouldn't change anything. you don't see people giving olympic medals back after the results are official! even after 3 months, it's still wrong.

 

as for the original post, in my opinion, a difference between an 81% and an 83% is not that significant. i doubt it would have an effect on you acceptance/rejection to a particular school.

[Guest UofT Student]

Hey guys,

 

The marks for this half-course were raised for everyone, not just for me. It is because UofT has a policy where marks must be within a certain range to be acceptable, and originally our marks were lowered by a few percentage points to meet this "acceptability range". After a period of time (6-7 months), I imagine the dean relented and allowed us to have the original marks we deserved. Thus, our marks were restored to what they should have been, but I am still in the same GPA range. Others were lucky and reached the next GPA range.

 

I don't think I'll notify OMSAS, since:

(a) my OMSAS GPA remains unchanged, and

( UofT never officially told us of this mark change. It's chance coincidence that I found out from a friend who just happened to notice his mark had changed. I am guessing that most students still don't know that their mark has changed, since UofT has not and will not inform us of this change.

 

Thanks for your help everyone.

[Guest Madz25]

So its true? U of T does curve marks down?? I heard that if the class average is above a B- (70%-73%) marks are lowered.

[Guest UofT Student]

Interesting, I had not heard that rumour. For this class, though, the average was a B- prior to posting final marks online (I assume), marks were lowered to a C+ average to correspond with the dean's wishes, and now recently marks have been restored to a B- average.

 

I have not had a class average above B- so far in undergrad.

[Guest arjuna83]

The prof I work with (at UofT Mississauga) said that if the average of a course is above B-, the dean sends the instructor of that course a letter advising him/her to keep the average at B- or below (not sure what the lower bound is). There was no mention, however, of any actual reduction of marks after the course was completed.

 

And UofT Student, a similar increase in marks happened to me as well. My course grade did not increase either, although my mark went up by one. This happened about 5 months after the course was completed. Apparently there was a disparity of marking methods between lab sections, and this had been brought to the professor's attention. It took them 5 months to figure it out!

[Guest Theodosius D]

I believe that this is fairly standard at most universities. Some profs are more forthcoming about it than others. I had one prof last term that told us straight up that the 2nd mid term and the final would be harder due to the 68 avg. we got on the first test.

 

I have also heard of profs "catching hell" for averages being too high and they were instructed to redesign their marking scheme and or testing for next year.

 

Theodosius D.

[Guest Steve U of T]

If you read U of T's grading policies and procedures, there is a part that discusses how each assignment/test is given a score, but that your scores don't always correlate with your grade, which is the final mark that appears on your transcript. It also says that grades from all courses are subject to approval by the faculty dean, and that they can be referred to a committee to be changed if the dean is unsatisfied.

 

On to the specifics, I haven't seen this in writing, but I have been told by a number of different professors that for all classes of 30 students or greater, the class grades must conform to a Gaussian distribution (i.e. bell-shaped curve), and the mean should be around 67-70%, otherwise the dean will ask for an explanation as to why the grades should be different.

 

Some professors do provide explanations, and that's why JLM349 (~350 students) had a class average of B when I took it. I've also taken a few classes (between 30-80 students) that had B+ averages. However, this is more common in upper year classes than in first year classes, especially upper year classes that require all students to have a certain minimum grade in the prerequisites.

 

Of course, if you're taking a 4th year course that requires all students to have a minimum 70% grade in the prerequisite 3rd year course, it would be ridiculous to mandate a 70% average. With 1st and 2nd year classes, the professors can and do lower everyone's grades so the mean is appropriate. However, this always occurs before your final grades are reported, so there really shouldn't be any worries about your grades dropping later on.

 

With regards to informing OMSAS, I think it might be a good idea to send them a heads-up. You may have to send your final transcript at the end of the year, and it's best if there are no surprises, even if they are minor. You wouldn't want to be caught with 'admissions irregularities'. At the least, send them an email informing them of the change.