If the university removed courses from your transcript if you did better the next time you did it around. Like imagine how great the life would be if they removed the marks if the improved mark is at least 8-9 marks better than the old one.

There are sometimes cases when the prof has it in for his students, and he will make their lives miserable despise their hard work. Assuming the next time around the prof is different, then you can actually get a better mark....and I mean better like F to -A. There's gotta be something with the class when your mark goes from F to -A.

PS. I guess I should ask. Do you think Student Union could make it happen? They have to serve some purpose other than throwing tea parties all year round.

I haven't had the need to retake a course, but do they leave the old mark on your transcript still? I thought they replace the mark if it's higher.

I haven't had the need to retake a course, but do they leave the old mark on your transcript still? I thought they replace the mark if it's higher.

No, they don't. Not only that but if your prof is a shithead who uses his class as an outlet for his stress and fails you, they still don't remove the mark.

If you retake a course (whether or not you failed the first time) your new mark for the course is essentially averaged. So if you got a zero in a 3-unit course the first time and a 12 the second time, your mark is 6. It shows up on your transcript as two separate entries, but a course can only contribute units towards your GPA once, so it ends up being calculated (0+12)/3 units.

If you really feel the prof was unfair you can bring it to the attention of the ombuds. It may or may not help, but there's a bigger chance that it'll be productive than complaining online

But do you realize how much more competitive things like grad school, med school, law school, etc. would be? The reason we have a chance at grad school at all is because of the fact that a ton of people make mistakes worse than ours (like failing and retaking a course). If everyone could retake every course they didn't do well in multiple times, everyone would have a 12 gpa.

If mealplans carried over to next year

But do you realize how much more competitive things like grad school, med school, law school, etc. would be? The reason we have a chance at grad school at all is because of the fact that a ton of people make mistakes worse than ours (like failing and retaking a course). If everyone could retake every course they didn't do well in multiple times, everyone would have a 12 gpa.

But now all students have is luck, whether they get a decent prof or the one with issues. If they get the bad one, there's no way to undo the damage.

Also I realize how competitive things would get, that's why I said difference of around 8-9 points. Because if you got D and then got A in the same course but with different profs, there's gotta be some issue with the educational process. If you got lets say 6, then redoing the course and getting 8 wouldn't change things at all.

I get what you're saying (and believe me, I've had my fair share of bad professors), but I think that's just a part of the University experience. Everyone encounters good and bad profs, and it's up to you to make the best of it. Also, you can usually look up reviews on ratemyprofessors.com before you take a course with a prof you don't know.

I get what you're saying (and believe me, I've had my fair share of bad professors), but I think that's just a part of the University experience. Everyone encounters good and bad profs, and it's up to you to make the best of it. Also, you can usually look up reviews on ratemyprofessors.com before you take a course with a prof you don't know.

But it's not like you can avoid a bad prof. In Engineering most courses are taught by the same prof over many years. There's no way to avoid him.

Also I'm not talking about bad profs, I'm talking about disastrous ones.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

But it's not like you can avoid a bad prof. In Engineering most courses are taught by the same prof over many years. There's no way to avoid him.

Also I'm not talking about bad profs, I'm talking about disastrous ones.

But if that's the case, then retaking the course would not change anything, since the same professor will be teaching it.

But if that's the case, then retaking the course would not change anything, since the same professor will be teaching it.

This is the case when the prof left. There was no way of telling whether he would.

It's so hard to feel pity for you... It really is. For all your complaining and clear lack of interest in getting involved in student processes, I cannot muster up an ounce of pity.

If you really are an Alumni, then it's especially sad that you did not figure out how to get involved and make a change in (at least) 4 years.

Regardless of your status at McMaster though, this "grades" problem would not be an issue if you had anything OTHER than grades to show for your education --- like say, the maturity of having brought this up with Ombuds, with the student union, with your Faculty administration, etc., and having the experience of solving this kind of problem.

Nope, instead, this is a concern to you because your grades for some courses done at least 2 years ago (assuming you have in fact retaken a course and done significantly better) are causing you trouble in your job/grad school search, and all you have to show for it is a thread in which you complain about it and call your prof a "shithead"...

It's so hard to feel pity for you...

Why would I ask for pity from some character on the internet? I don't know you, for all I know you are just an avatar.

Also I said nothing about being involved, because the prof was a dick no matter how hard anyone tried. Fail rate was 15%. The issue is that the university doesn't consider cases when the prof just gets a kick from failing students.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

Also I said nothing about being involved, because the prof was a dick no matter how hard anyone tried. Fail rate was 15%. The issue is that the university doesn't consider cases when the prof just gets a kick from failing students.

And this is what I mean about developing the maturity to deal with the situation. "Fail rate was 15%", "The University doesn't consider cases", "Prof gets a kick from failing students".

What is the fail rate of a typical class? 15% means nothing if that's a typical fail rate. What is the class average compared to other classes in the University? For all anyone knows, you are whining and stating negative things about the class because you failed, rather than looking at it as a much bigger picture.

"The University doesn't consider cases" ---- what? The Ombuds office is meant exactly FOR that. If there's a legitimate case, the Ombuds office helps to escalate it and to see a change.

"Prof gets a kick from failing students". Oh, well NOW I know you're looking at this objectively and fairly, and that you're not simply being your typical pessimistic self.......

It especially doesn't help anyone to believe that you're a reasonable, rational person when they have to read about how your department of study was worse than AIDS...

It especially doesn't help anyone to believe that you're a reasonable, rational person when they have to read about how your department of study was worse than AIDS...

Whatever you say mean macinsiders dude.