Spring 2021: Final Exams and Grading

Posted in Faculty Communications

May 18, 2021

Dear Faculty,

As final exams week approaches, I write today to provide information regarding Georgetown’s final grading policies and deadlines. This email will cover:

  • Detailed Exam Times
  • Grading Deadlines
  • Guidelines for Administering Online Exams
  • Conflict Exams
  • Grading Policies
  • Privacy in Posting Grades

Detailed Exam Times

Please refer to the updated exam time assignments schedule by section. We ask that you do not alter the examination schedule, or schedule a final examination or final assessment outside of your assigned scheduled time since it may deprive students of study days and may create unintended conflicts for students. 

As you recall from my message at the beginning of the semester, per the Final Examination Policy , the final substantive assessment in a course (exam, take-home exam, project, paper, etc.) must be due during the final examination period (May 12 – 19). Synchronous online examinations must be offered according to the final exam schedule on the Registrar’s website. Faculty may use their discretion to offer alternative or extended exam times to provide accommodations for students logging in from different time zones.

Grading Deadlines

Final grade rosters will be available in MyAccess beginning on May 12. Final grades are generally due 72 hours after the time your course was scheduled for a final exam. All grades should be submitted in MyAccess by the following deadlines:

  • Grading deadline for Graduating students: 5 p.m. May 21
  • Grading deadline for undergraduates: 5 p.m. May 24 
  • Grading deadline for graduate students: 5 p.m. May 24

Grades will be available to students in MyAccess. 

Guidelines for Administering Online Exams

As you prepare to administer your final exams, please adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Asynchronous final exams  must be due AFTER the study days.
  • Final exams must be scheduled AFTER the study days during final exam week, according to the Final Exam Policy. 
  • Use discretion when  offering alternative  or extended exam times to provide accommodations for students participating from different time zones.
  • Papers may be due in the last week of classes, as long as there is also a final exam.
  • Papers may not be due during the last week of classes, if there is no final exam and should be due after the study days if no final exam is scheduled.  This will allow  students the benefit of using  the study days to complete the remaining work of the semester.
  • Assignments that are not cumulative, such as interim exams, or project presentations, can be given during the final week of classes prior to study days, provided a final exam is also given during the final exam period.

Conflict Exams

At times, students will encounter conflicts in the examination schedule. Each student’s dean’s office will handle the rescheduling of an examination in the following cases:

  • Two examinations scheduled at the same time.
  • Three examinations on one day or three examinations in a row (in three successive time slots).

Arrangements to schedule an alternate conflict exam schedule will be made by the student’s dean. If a student has a conflict, the dean will contact you. If a student informs you of a conflict, they should be referred to their dean for resolution.

Grading Policies

Please review the following grading policies for Spring 2021:  

Pay particular attention to the grading system for each group of students and the grade change policies. If you have questions, please email facultygrading@georgetown.edu .

The only provisional grades are “N” (for undergraduates) and “I” for graduate students. “N” grades MUST be approved by the dean. Unauthorized “N” grades will be recorded as “F” (FA). “I” grades for MSFS students must be approved by the director.

Please note that the MyAccess grade roster listing of grades for the pass/fail option may be confusing and requires some clarification. As you know, all undergraduate and some graduate programs provide students the option to choose pass/fail (S/CR/NC) this semester. The deadline for students to make this choice is May 11.

  • If a student chooses to remain in the letter-graded cohort, the standard array of grades will appear for that student in the drop-down menu in MyAccess (A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc.)
  • If a student chose the pass/fail option (S/CR/NC), a different set of available assessment marks will appear for that student. The S, CR, and NC options do not appear in order of performance on the dropdown menu. Rather, they appear alphabetically as “CR, NC, NR, S”. Where NR is used for “Not Reported” 

See grade definitions below for the pass/fail option as they appear in the grade roster dropdown. Please remember S is still the highest grade (Satisfactory), even though it appears last in the dropdown menu.  

CR=Credit: Student performed at a level equivalent to C-, D+, or D. They will receive credit for having taken the course, but did not perform satisfactorily. The CR grade is not available for graduate courses since C is the lowest grade for credit at the graduate level.

NC=No Credit: The student failed the course and will not receive credit for it. You would have given the student an F under normal circumstances.

NR=Not Reported: Use  if you have an unresolved Honor Council case, or an outstanding assessment that delays awarding any other grade.

S=Satisfactory: Student performed at a level equivalent to C or better.

I hope this information is helpful. Please email facultygrading@georgetown.edu with any questions or concerns regarding final grades.

Privacy in Posting Grades

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, a.k.a. Buckley Amendment) provides that a student’s grades (and other academic and identity information, including social security number) may not be disclosed without the student’s written permission. Please do not post grades using any personally identifiable information. Also, please do not keep student information in an unsecured location or make such information available through the web outside of a University supported system.

Thank you very much for your attention to these important policies and reading this lengthy email. Please do not hesitate to contact me or facultygrading@georgetown.edu if you have any questions or concerns.   

Sincerely,

Annamarie Bianco

Associate Vice President and University Registrar