Does any one know if there is a requirement to pass a exam in order to pass a course? Lets say i get a 40 percent on a exam but my overall final mark is a 55, do i still pass the course right?

Im talking about courses in the sciences and one in stats (stats 2b03)

pretty sure you just have to show up and write the exam for you to pass a course. granted your final mark is over 50 not 100 percent sure though.

This entirely depends on the weighting of the exam and the instructor. I'm sure theres a hard percentage rule like: exams worth x% or more are fail/pass-the-exam-fail/pass the course, but I cannot recall it.

If the exam is worth a certain percentage, it WILL bring your current mark to a course failure %.

Chances are, that your 55% is only worth like 40-60%, most exams are teh deciding factor.

The syllabus will let you know if that condition applies.

Well, for Stats, the outline is that the exam is worth 45%, so let's say you were getting a 55%.

55 * (1-0.45) = 30.25

Now you get 40% on the exam.

40 * (0.45) = 18

Your final mark would be:
30.25 + 18 = 48.25

Conclusion: You don't pass.

SOURCE: http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/childsa/...2/outline.html

there are courses that have specific conditions that if you fail the exam you fail the course (even if the exam is say 30%). You could have 100% walking in. Too bad. Such conditions are pretty common in engineering unfortunately.

It depends on what the professor wants/says. For example, this is from CS2ME3/SE2AA4 (it's a cross-listed course and for some reason it counts as more units for engineers than computer scientists... still haven't figured that one out):

Final Exam: Counts 45% towards total course grade*

* If the grade in the final exam is greater than or equal to 50%. If the grade in the final exam is less than 50%, it alone will be used as the final grade for the course.

So you could walk into the final exam having 100% from the assignments and midterm test, and if you get 0% on the final, then you get 0% in the course.

you will pass the course if you get over 50 so yes if after writing the exam you get a 55 then you have passed the course using the exam otherwise you receive an F on your transcript.

Originally Posted by krysal

you will pass the course if you get over 50 so yes if after writing the exam you get a 55 then you have passed the course using the exam otherwise you receive an F on your transcript.

This is not always true.

Some courses require that you pass the exam to pass the course, regardless of how much the exam is worth. I've taken courses where you must pass the lab component to pass the course, and it's a similar concept. In those courses, weightings and your mark before the exam are irrelevant if you fail the exam (or in my case, lab component).

However, this needs to be stated up front on the course outline. So the OP should really just look at their course outlines to figure out the answer to the question.