PASS and Final Exams Information for Undergraduate Students

Any course with a passing grade/INC (Incomplete) or a passing grade (D- or above)/DNW/INC (Did Not Write/Incomplete) will not be able to request a PASS notation, as it is assumed that the student has asked for a late completion and wants to complete the work to earn a better grade.

If a student ultimately does not end up completing the work for a passing grade INC or DNW, they must ask their professor to remove the notation before the January 22 deadline so that you may then request the PASS on time. If the INC notation is removed after the January 22 deadline, then you will have to submit a Student Request to your Faculty/Department to request the PASS.

The following fail (F) grades will be converted to a DISC: F, FNS or R. The same fail grades with a DNE notation will also be converted to DISC unless the student has applied to write a deferred exam by the deferral deadline. The fail grade of NR will not convert to a DISC notation.

Any course with an F/INC Or FNS/INC (Incomplete) or F/DNWI or FNS/DNWI (DNWI = DNW/INC = Did Not Write/Incomplete) will not be converted to DISC automatically as it is assumed that as the student has asked for a late completion they want to complete the work to earn a better grade.

If a student ultimately does not end up completing the work for an INC or DNWI (DNW/INC), and their professor removes the notations to change their grade to an F, FNS or R it will be converted to a DISC after January 26.

Students then will have to submit a Student Request to your Faculty/Department to request the DISC.

No. If a student has one of these notations on a course (MED, PEND, AUD, and DEF), it is not eligible for PASS.

No, courses with these grades/notations are not eligible for a DISC.

After you’ve requested a PASS in your Student Centre, it will take approximately one hour for the PASS notation to appear on your transcript.

You may still apply to graduate in the Spring Convocation if you are requesting a PASS. If you DISC a course that you need in order to graduate, you will not be able to graduate.

The university’s decision has been to allow this option for the fall 2020 and winter 2021 terms only. Summer 2020 is not eligible.

Yes, part-time students may choose one course for the fall 2020 term in which to take a PASS. Any courses with eligible F grades will be converted to DISC automatically.

Yes, students in conditional standing qualify for the PASS/DISC option.

Co-op students are subject to the same policy as all other students, which is that summer courses are not eligible for PASS/DISC.

Please see the list of courses that are NOT eligible for PASS.

Grades from A+ to D- are eligible for the PASS notation (except for courses on the ineligible list below and for grades with additional notations attached (e.g. INC).

Please refer to the list of ineligible courses. This will include courses which require letter grades for access to higher-level courses.

If the courses meet the established criteria and are not on the list of ineligible courses, then they should be eligible for the PASS request.

Deferred final exams from previous semesters are NOT eligible for the PASS option. If a student requests a deferral for a fall 2020 term final exam, then the PASS option will be made available after the deferred exam is completed and a final letter grade has been assigned.

Supplemental final exams for courses completed in a previous semester and being written this term (fall 2020) are NOT eligible for the PASS option.

Please refer to concordia.ca/sgs/covid-19.html#pass-fail.

You’ll see all of your courses, both graduate and undergraduate, on the PASS request page. You may choose one undergraduate course and one graduate course for the PASS the option.

If your grades are not in yet, you can choose one course right away and then come back (before the January 22 deadline) to choose a second.

You will be able to request a PASS grade for one winter 2021 term or one full year fall-winter term course in the spring after the final grades for the winter 2021 term are posted. The exact deadline date is yet to be determined.

In general, for a student's eligibility to be on the Dean's List, they must achieve a minimum annual GPA of 3.75 after completing a minimum of 24 credits during the academic year attached to the letter grades (courses with PASS notation will not count towards completion of 24 credits). 

Eligibility may vary for students in Co-op and students registered with the Access Centre for Students with Disabilities. Please contact your faculty or faculty advisor for more information.

• Faculty of Arts and Science (or email cheryl.costello@concordia.ca)
• Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science
• John Molson School of Business

GPAs will be calculated on the basis of courses for which letter grades have been assigned.

Simply fill out and submit the exam deferral form.

You do need to activate your Concordia Microsoft account to use the form. The Exams Office has set things up that way so they can be certain that it is you making the request.

The deadline to submit a request is January 15, 2021.

Keep in mind you will need to meet the requirements to be eligible for a deferral. Even if you meet the requirements, a deferral may or may not be the best option for you. Get in touch with your academic advisor to discuss your specific situation.

Some students, depending on their personal situation, may need more time to submit with their application.

The staff at the Exams Office will evaluate your request and someone may be in contact with you by email if they need more information.

You will receive an approval or denial by email.

You can expect to hear back from the Exams Office after the DNE (did not enter) deadline.

No. The option to request an exam deferral is meant to allow you to postpone writing your exam, not to let you write it twice. You cannot request a deferral after writing the exam.

The Exams Office looks at each case carefully. In order to ease pandemic-related stress in these extraordinary times, Concordia has extended acceptable reasons for requesting a deferral to accommodate students’ current challenges.

You’ll find a list on the exam deferral form.

If your request for an exam deferral gets refused, your final grade for the course will reflect that you did not take your exam. Keep in mind that during the pandemic, Concordia is extending acceptable reasons for requesting a deferral.

You can expect to write the exam the next time the course is offered, likely in April 2021 but possibly later. Check the class schedule to see when the course will be offered next.

Whether you will write your exam remotely or in person depends largely on whether the university is operating remotely at that time or not. Rest assured accommodations will be made in the event that you cannot make it to campus to write your exam.

Deferring your exam will have implications for your graduation date and other academic goals as applicable. Get in touch with your academic advisor if you’d like to talk over the best course of action for you.

Neither the pass notation nor the grade for the previous attempt of the course will be included in your GPA calculation. The PASS notation indicates that the course has been successfully completed. With a repeated course, the grade for the previous attempt of the course is removed from the GPA calculation if a student selects the PASS notation, and this may affect you GPA.

The PASS notation will remove the original grade from all GPA calculations. Depending on the number of completed credits, and the difference between the original grade and your cumulative GPA, you may see a change in your cumulative GPA.

Both the PASS notation and the grade for the previous attempt of the course will appear on the transcript, but neither will be included in the GPA calculation.