Posts tagged with grades.

Getting the marks, at any cost

Ian Wylie, January 12, 2009 at 4:46 PM

 

Last week, I met Brenna. Brenna is a first-year Life Sciences student at U of T. I met her when she was looking worried in a long line of students outside the University College registrar's office. Apparently her marks last semester weren't that great, "I spent too much time on other things and not enough on studying so now I don't know if my GPA will be high enough to get into my program."  She wanted the registrar, master of all things course-related on campus, to offer advice on how to rectify the situation.

 

Yet her marks were respectable B's. I asked what undergraduate program could possibly be so exclusive as to require marks above a B. She answered she was not worried about her undergraduate program but her graduate program: medicine. A competitive GPA for a med school applicant is a 3.8, or an A - . When I asked if it was a little too soon to be worried about her marks with one semester down and at least four left to go before she applies to med school, she answered with an incredulous "No." 

 

Waiting in line, she contemplated foregoing a trip to Europe this July in order to take the courses she "sucks in" during the summer. Then there were her memberships in two student clubs which, along with her boyfriend, sounded vulnerable to being dropped. All the better to focus on her studies.

 

Brenna's case isn't particularly unique. By deciding to go to university, you make the decision to commit a large percentage of your life to pursuing marks. Occasionally, the percentage of time you spend on your extracurriculars and social life will crowd out the time your spend on your marks. But your grades have a pernicious way of coming back to reclaim their place. Especially, at times like this, when first-semester marks are in and you feel the wrath of an education scorned.

 

Later, by e-mail, Brenna informed me that, after speaking with the registrar, she opted not to take summer classes. Europe was still on but she was leaving one of her clubs. There was no word on her boyfriend, though. I assume he made the cut. She ended the e-mail by noting she was "off to the library," ever in pursuit of top marks.

 

Brief Guide to Grades in University:

 

- Marks in university are calculated using the Grade Point Average (GPA) and the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). They're an average of your course grades, with the former for an individual year and the latter for all your years.

- GPA's are calculated differently across Canada. A four-point scale (where 4.0 is the highest) is commonly used, while institutions like Carleton employ a 12-point scale. The commonality is the use of letter grades, where 85% and up is an A or an A+. Graduate schools can recalculate your GPA based on their standards to account for the differences in method between institutions.

- Your first-year marks remain on your transcript when you apply to graduate school. Some schools give you the option of dropping your lowest mark when you apply, but this is by no means the standard. Expect to carry your first-year marks a long time. Try to avoid massive blowouts in your first year.

- The average drop in grades between high school and university is around 15%. However, this varies considerably between programs and it's possible to retain (or improve) your old high school grades in first year.

- An adequate first-year GPA is around a C+. A  C+ isn't difficult to obtain and will get you into most second-year undergraduate programs. A good GPA begins at a B and goes up from there.

 

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