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When Things Go Wrong

Many students go through most of their undergraduate career without encountering any difficulties while completing their undergraduate studies, however, we are here to help you both in good times and in bad. These pages are dedicated to helping you understand what the process is when times aren't so good. If these pages don't help you, see the Who Do I Talk To? page and if this, too, does not clarify your situation, make an appointment with your Academic Advisor.

The following topics are discussed on this page:

Problems with Quest

In some cases, you may get an error message from Quest. For example, you may have a service indicator on your account. Follow the link to determine what you should do or contact the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator.

If you get an error message while trying to add or drop a course with Quest, check the Quest Error web site to determine what you should do. If still in doubt, contact the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator.

Note: service indicators in Quest must be removed manually, and therefore it is possible to have a mistaken service indicator for a fee when the balance is $0.00. Click on the service indicator icon to determine who you must contact to have the service indicator removed.

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Poorer Performance than Expected

Some students find it difficult to adjust from either high school to university or from first-year to second-year. These are the two most critical transitions which you will experience during your undergraduate career. If you think that your performance is not as good as it should be, there are numerous services on campus to assist you, and the sooner you elicit their assistance, the better off you will be.

See the Study Habits link in the left-hand menu. As well, Career Services offers many relevant workshops.

For chronic medical conditions, it may be possible to arrange a reduced workload. This requires the appropriate medical documentation and the support of a medical professional together with Departmental approval.

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Illness

Everyone gets sick, and sometimes, the stress of the school year or examinations compound an already-existing illness. Follow the Illness link in the left-hand menu. You must always get a Verification of Illness form when you are sick and it may affect your academic performance.

You will never be given additional marks as a result of either an illness or on compassionate grounds. Illness may be grounds, however, to petition for a change for a negative academic decision.

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Missing an Examination

If you miss an examination, you must notify your professor as soon as possible, preferably before the examination is written. You must supply appropriate documentation to the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator. If there is a medical reason for missing an examination, you must have a Doctor fill out a Verification of Illness form, which covers the period of the examination.

The following are two consequences of missing an examination:

  • It is the Professor's choice as to whether or not you have the opportunity to write a deferred examination. If the Professor decides that you may not write the examination, you will be required to withdraw from engineering. The Department cannot require a Professor to give you a deferred examination.
  • Your academic decision will be Deferred Decision. A student with a deferred decision cannot be promoted to the next Academci Term other than by being given special permission by the Department. This permission is not granted until after the examination period of the previous Academic Term.
  • You cannot be block enrolled for your core courses and you cannot choose an elective if your academic decision is deferred.

Professors have, in the past, refused to give deferred final examinations even with the submission of a Verification of Illness Form, and the students have been required to withdraw from engineering (Required to Withdraw from Engineering).

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Appealing a Grade

If you believe that there was a problem with your grade in a course, you may appeal your grade. See the appropriate link in the left-hand menu.

Note that this does not give you the right to send form letters to all Professors after the Examination Period asking them to remark your examination. We have asked Course Instructors to forward all such requests to the appropriate Academic Advisors.

If you request an appeal, whatever grade is given as a result will be submitted, whether your grade goes up or down.

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Repeating an Academic Term

Please read Failed - Must Repeat Term or Failed - Must Repeat Term - No Penalty.

Interesting scenario: if you pass all of your courses in 4B but fail to achieve an average of 60, you must repeat the term, however, as you have probably achieved all of your TEs, CSEs, and TBEs, you therefore will have to repeat the term taking six other courses.

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Failing A WatPD Course

For students who are required to take WatPD Courses during their Co-op Work Terms, a failed WatPD course appears as a no credit (NCR), however, it does not count twoards the maximum-of-three failure courses. You must receive a credit (CR) for all five WatPD courses (including PD 20 and PD 21) to graduate.

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Failing A Work-Term Report

A failed Work-Term Report is considered, in all respects, to be a failed course. Read on.

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Failing One Course Once

A failed course which is taken as a Degree Requirement (a core course, WatPD Course, TE, TBE, or CSE) must be cleared before you graduate. If your final mark is less than 40 or the course is a non-ECE course, then you must retake the course or substitute an appropriate alternate course. If the course is an ECE course and your final mark was greater than or equal to 40, you may clear the course by writing an examination at a future date (within a year of writing the original examination). This examination is called a supplemental examination. If you do not write the supplemental examination in the required time period, if you fail the supplemental examination, or if you received a mark in the original course below 40 you must retake the course or substitute an appropriate alternate course.

When you pass the supplemental examination or pass the course when you retake it, you have cleared that failure.

You should try to clear a failed course as soon as possible, because if you accumulate three uncleared failures, you will not be promoted to the next Academic Term until you have cleared all but one of the failures.

Failing a supplemental examination counts as an attempt at clearing a course. Not writing a supplemental examination does not count as an attempt to clear the course. If you fail a supplemental examination, the next topic applies to you.

See the main page on writing Supplemental Final Examinations for complete details.

If you failed a course but are conditionally promoted to the next Academic Term, you are responsible for all material covered in that course, even if you did not pass. For example, a 1B student could fail MATH 119 but achieve a term average of 63 and consequently, that student would be promoted to 2A. In 2A, that student would be required to take MATH 211 despite not having yet passed the prerequesite MATH 119. It would be in the student's best interest to study the material in MATH 119 during the Co-op Work Term between 1B and 2A.

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Failing an Elective

If you fail an elective offered by the ECE Department which was taken to satisfy either a technical elective (TE) or a technical breadth elective (TBE) and your mark was greater than or equal to 40, you may still write a supplemental examination and clear the failure. Clearing the failure allows the course to count as a TE or TBE towards your degree requirements, as appropriate. If you get under 40 or fail the supplemental examination, you can either retake the course or take another course which satisfies the conditions for a TE or TBE.

For example, if you were to take ECE 450 and received a grade of 42 and then passed a supplemental examination, then you could count this course as a TE.

If you fail an elective offered by another department on campus which was taken to satisfy either a TE, a TBE, or a Complementary Studies Elective (CSE), you must either retake the course or choose another course to satisfy the given elective. By taking another course which counts, for example, as a CSE, this clears the original failure. Other faculties do not offer supplemental examinations.

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Failing The Same Course Multiple Times

Each attempt to clear a course, be it a supplemental exam or re-taking the entire course, counts as an attempt to clear a failure. You are allowed at most two attempts to clear any failed course. If you fail both of these attempts, you will require academic counseling. One consequence may be an academic decision of Required to Withdraw from Engineering, another may be to be conditionally promoted by the E&P Committee. If your academic decision is Required to Withdraw from Engineering, you will be required to withdraw from engineering for four term (usually translating to two years). You may, however, still complete the following Co-op Work Term and when you re-apply, you will receive credit for that Co-op Work Term.

There are three possible scenarios where you may fail a course three times:

  • Failing the course twice with a grade under 40 and failing the course the third time you retake it;
  • Failing the course the first time with a grade under 40, failing the course the second time with a grade between 40 and 49, and failing the supplemental examination; and
  • Failing the course with a grade between 40 and 49, failing the supplemental examination, and then failing the course the second time you retake it.

Note that failing the same course twice only counts as one failure with respect to the maximum of two uncleared failures rule. This also applies if you fail an equivalent course which you took to clear the first failure.

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Failing One or Two Courses in One Academic Term

If you fail one or two courses in one Academic Term, as long as you do not have a total of three uncleared failures, you will be conditionally promoted to the next Academic Term as long as your Academic Term Quest Average is 59.5 or higher. If you have three uncleared failures, read the next section.

If you failed a course but are conditionally promoted to the next Academic Term, you are responsible for all material covered in that course, even if you did not pass. For example, a 1B student could fail MATH 119 but achieve a term average of 63 and consequently, that student would be promoted to 2A. In 2A, that student would be required to take MATH 211 despite not having yet passed the prerequesite MATH 119. It would be in the student's best interest to study the material in MATH 119 during the Co-op Work Term between 1B and 2A.

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Having Three Uncleared Failures

If, at the time that term decisions are made (usually after the third week of the following term), you are found to have three accumulated uncleared failures on your transcript, you will be given an academic decision of May Not Proceed. This means that you will not be able to continue on to the next Academic Term until you have cleared all but one of the failed courses.

If one of the failed courses is a failed Work-term Report, you can submit a new Work-term Report in the first week of the next Term before marks become official. The department will attempt to mark that report and (assuming you passed) submit a grade before your failures from the last Academic Term become official. In this manner, you could clear one of three failures and bring your total uncleared failure count back down to two beofre Term Decisions are made.

For Stream 4S students: if you accumulate a third uncleared failure in your 3B Academic Term, you will be required to withdraw from your 4A Academic Term.

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For First-Year Students Entering 2A

Having multiple uncleared failures in first year will not prevent your promotion to the next Academic Term as long as you meet the required Quest Average (49.5 and 59.5 in 1A and 1B, respectively). However, once you reach 2A, these failures will be included in your failure count, and if, by the end of 2A, you have not brought the number of uncleared failures to under three, you will be given an academic decision of May Not Proceed at the end of 2A.

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Academic-Term Quest Average Under 59.5

After 1A, you must maintain a Quest Average of 59.5 to stay in your class. If you do not achieve this grade, your academic decision will be Failed, Required to Repeat the Term and you will be required to repeat the Academic Term after two terms off.

You will still be given academic credit for any Co-op Work Term and any WatPD course which follows an Academic Term with a decision of Failed, Required to Repeat the Term.

Read the page Failed Required to Repeat Term.

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Academic-Term Quest Average Under 49.5

After 1A, you must maintain a Quest Average of 49.5 to stay in Engineering at Waterloo. If you do not achieve this grade, you will have the academic decision of Required to Withdraw from Engineering and you will be required to withdraw from Engineering for four terms (in practice, this usually translates to two years).

You will still be given academic credit for any Co-op Work Term and any WatPD course which follows an Academic Term with a decision of Required to Withdraw from Engineering.

Read the page Failed Required to Withdraw.

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Status of Electives Taken During a Failed Academic Term

If you must repeat an Academic Term (either because of an academic decision of Failed, Required to Repeat the Term or Required to Withdraw from Engineering), then any course you took as an elective (for either a TE, TBE, or CSE) which you passed during the original Academic Term will still count as satisfying that elective. If you failed an elective during an Academic Term, when you repeat the Academic Term, you do not have to take the same elective.

Thus, as an extreme example, a student in 4B who passed all of his or her courses and, therefore, has cleared all of their degree requirements but achieved an average of 55 would be in the unusual position of having to repeat the Academic Term but could, theoretically take any courses he or she wished.

Alternatively, a student who took an elective which was far too difficult and caused the student to have to repeat the Academic Term would not be required to retake that elective and could replace it with a more appropriate elective.

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I Need An Extra Term

In some cases, a student requires an extra term of studies to complete an option, a minor, or to take additional courses of interest (perhaps with the intent of transferring to another program). To register for a Non-academic Term of study, you must submit a Sequence Change Form with - written into the Term where you intend to take a non-Engineering Academic Term.

If you are taking the Non-degree Term towards a transfer to another Program, you must have approval from the Department you intend to transfer to. Even if you are only thinking of transferring to another Program and have talked to that Department, you should get that Department to approve the choice of courses, as it is almost certain that at least some of the courses will have some form of limited enrolment. Enrolling in a Non-degree Term is equivalent to transfering out of engineering.

On the second page of the Plan Modification Form, list the courses you intend to take during your Non-degree Term. You may not take future core courses during a Non-degree Term.

Your Sequence Change form should indicate that you are taking no more than six Co-op Work Terms. If necessary, you might have to simply take some time off. (If jobs are plentiful, Co-operative Education may allow a seventh Co-op Work Term, W7.)

Fax or e-mail these forms to the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator. She will pass these on to your Academic Advisor.

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I Need A Break

If you feel that you need a break, you can, without penalty, take up to one year off. To do so, you must first submit an Undergraduate Notice of Withdrawl, checking the box Withdraw from current term and submitting this to the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator. In general, this means you must take one year off and join the next Class, However, if your Cohort is Stream 4, you could join a Stream 8 Cohort within eight months (assuming one exists). You are not required to justify or give reason for taking the time off. Three months before you intend to come back, contact the Undergraduate Advisor and Coordinator, to ensure that you are properly block-enrolled for the next Academic Term. Note, you can only do a Co-op Work Term after an Academic Term.

If you wish (and are able) to come back earlier, simply submit a new Sequence Change Form.

If you take more than one year off, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from Engineering, however re-admission will usually be a formality. Submit an Application for Undergraduate Re-admission to the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator. The process of withdrawal and re-admission is necessary because your program may have changed since you started your undergraduate studies, and therefore it may be necessary to modify your sequence of courses.

For example, a student from the Class of 2007 who takes over a year off will be re-admitted into a class which requires the completion of the five WatPD courses.

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Engineering is Not For Me...

If, after talking to your Academic Advisor, you decide that ECE is not for you, there are still many options available, even if your academic decision is Required to Withdraw from Engineering.

If you are in good academic standing, but you think that you would like to transfer to a different program, you can always take a Non-degree Term. You can submit a Sequence Change Form and a Plan Modification Form which decrees the next Academic Term as a Non-degree Term and delay your graduation by one year (or possibly even only one Term if you are Stream 4S and there is a Stream 8 class in your year). In your Non-degree Term, you can take whatever courses you want provided that they are not future core courses, that they are available and the professors are willing to sign you into the course, and you may even be able to count those courses towards an option or a minor if you do decide that you want to stay in Engineering.

If your academic decision is either Failed, Required to Repeate the Term or Required to Withdraw from Engineering, you normally may not take any courses during the two or four Terms, respectively, which you are required to take off. If, during this time, you decide to transfer to another program, you can come back in that time for up to two Non-degree Terms during which time you would take courses which would count towards a transfer. See the link in the left-hand menu.

If you leave ECE, and at some point, decide that you would like to come back, provided that you have maintained good academic standing in your new program, we would be willing to consider welcoming you back into ECE. Please make an appointment with your Academic Advisor.

Acknowledgment

The name of these pages (When Things Go Wrong) is attributed to similar pages from Software Engineering.