SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM

S.92-78
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OLLI NGWOOD SCHOOL
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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

MEMORANDUM

S.92-78

Senate

SUBJECT: SUAB 239

Use of percent marks for

admission from BC12

FROM:

Nick Heath, Secretary

Senate Undergraduate

Admissions Board

DATE October 23, 1992

Action undertaken by the Senate Undergraduate Admissions Board (SUAB) at its

meeting of 22 October 1992, gives rise to the following motion:

MOTION:

"that, for applicants to the 94-1 semester, seeking general

admission to the Faculties of Applied Sciences, Arts,

Business, Education, the admission average shall be

calculated using percentage marks, where available,

rather the current practice of calculating a g.p.a. derived

from letter grades, and, where percentage grades are not

available, that a percentage grade shall be assigned to

each letter grade, according to the median grade achieved

in that letter grade range, according to Ministry of

Education statistical data.

SUAB 239

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Office of the Registrar

Memorandum

From:

Nick Heath, Director of Admissions & Liaison

To: SUAB

Date: 1992 10 15

Subject: Use of percent marks for admission from BC12

Proposed Motion

That SUAB approve and recommend to Senate for consideration and approval a change in the

method of determining admissibility of B.C. Secondary School applicants as follows:

General admission to the Faculties

A pplied Sciences, A rts, Business, Education,

To calculate the admission average

each applicant using percentage marks, where

available, rather the current practice

calculating a g.p.a. derived from letter grades,

starting in the 94-1 semester. W here percentage grades are not available, to assign a

percentage grade to each letter grade, according to the median grade achieved in that

letter grade range, according to Ministry

Education statistical data.

(Because most of the grades used to determine admissibility to the Faculty of Science are from

Grade 11 courses, for which percentage grade data are unavailable, it is not proposed to change

the method of calculating admission averages for entry to that Faculty.)

Background

The official Ministry of Education grading scheme is an unusual, coarse letter grade range,

expressed as

A=86%-100%

B=73%-85%

C+ =

67% -

72%

C=60%-66%

P=50%-59%

Failures are not reported.

In spite of this official system, most Grade 12 course marks, at least most final marks, are given

to us in percentage terms. In fact, for

all

provincially examinable subjects, we receive the final

school mark, the final exam mark and the final blended mark, being a 60/40 mix of the first two

marks.

The only courses which we currently use in our general admission average which are reported

only as letter grades are:

Western Civilization 12

Writing 12

Survey Mathematics 12

certain Language 12 courses (e.g. Japanese 12)

International Baccalaureate courses - these are less important because students

receive credit for both the Provincial course, and the lB equivalent (e.g. ENGLI2 and lB ENGL

12.) We use the better of the two grades, which is usually the grade in the provincial course.

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SUAB 239

•

Drawbacks and Problems

Missing percent marks.

If we are to use percent marks to determine admission, we must be able to assign a percent mark

where only a letter grade

given. It would be statistically invalid to assign the mid-point mark

in the range, because we would expect the actual distribution of grades to follow a normal

distribution curve. Suggested percent marks are given below:

Grade

Range

Mid point

Suggested percent equiv.

86%-100%

93%

90%

73%.-85%

79%

77%

C+ =

67%-72%

69.5/70%

69%

60%-66%

63%

50% - 59%

54.5/55%

55%

Data will be obtained from the Ministry of Education on the actual distribution of percent marks,

to validate the suggestions made above.

Faculty of Science Admission Requirements

The Science requirements call for an average based on 9 courses, including 5 Grade 11 courses for

which percent grades are unavailable. Alternatives are to revise the method of calculating the

Science average or continue to use the gpa method for Science students. Of these, the former

would be preferred by the Admissions Office because:

• it is simpler to use only the Grade 12 courses in the average;

• there will be no distinction between Gr 11 and Gr 12 courses if the Graduation Working

Paper changes go through;

• UBC is moving to a four course average from a nine course average (see attached)

• the second average is confusing and unnecessary - the courses can be required at the

Grade 11 level as currently specified, but need not be included in the average

Nevertheless, no change is currently suggested, as this is the responsibility of the Faculty.

Graduation Program Working Paper

The Ministry of Education's planning document, the 'Graduation Working Paper', refers to a

future grading scheme which is even coarser that currently used, namely

A = 86% - 100%

B=70%-85%

C=50%-69%

If these changes are implemented, it will be even more important for us to use the percent

grades, provided that they continue to be available; otherwise, admission selection and ranking

will become virtually impossible.

Implementation

These changes in our admission processing can be made for admission to 94-1, provided that

action is taken in 92-3 to obtain the necessary SUAB and Senate approvals. Implementation for

a Spring semester is preferred over that for Fall, because of overlapping entry cohorts and higher

volumes of applications in the spring/summer semesters.

Significant computer system redesign will be required, but all necessary data are already

collected.

This proposal been discussed within the Office of the Registrar, with senior administration, with

selected school counsellors and with the Ministry of Education. There seems to be general

agreement on its merit (see attached letter from J

McConnell).

•

If approved, notice of the change will be published in Spring 92, with the bulk of the effort to

advise the secondary school being made in the 93/94 application publications and visits, starting

September 93.

nh Oct 92

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OLLI NGWOOD

SCHOOL

70 Morven Drive, West Vancouver, B.C., Canada V75 1B2

Telephone: (604) 925-3331 Fax: (604) 925-3862

Dii

October 15, 1992

Mr. Rick Smith

Admissions and Liaison Office

Office of the Registrar

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C.

V5A 1S6

Dear Rick;

Please add my name to those individuals

who have expressed support

for our proposed changes to the S.F.U. admission requirements.

Collingwood School is a B.C. Group 2 Independent School. Each year

approximately 85-90% of our 50 or so Grade 12 students transfer

•

directly from CollingwoOd to post-secondary institutions. Many of

•

the students wish to attend S.F.U. but must choose a university

H outside of British Columbia because of the inequities of the B.C.

grade point system. I have just returned this week from Ontario

and Quebec where I toured seven universities with 11 of our Grade

12 students. Many of these young people are very solid "B"

students, achieving in the low 80%'s in their academic courses.

They are seriously consideringeaStern schools because their grades

will gain them 'admission to some of the best schools in the country

when the same marks equate to a "B" or 3.0 gpa in B.C. Not enough

for SFU's 1992 early admission - hence, the serious interest

elsewhere. Last year, one-third of ColliflgWOOd graduates left B.C.

for Ontario and Quebec. I am sure that some of them would have

remained in B.C. if the admission p

licies were different.

Our institutions are losing out! Our province is losing out!

ectfully submitted,

•

J '

nseph Lun

ssistant Headmaster (Academics)

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OCT20 1992 •

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.1 heartily encourage SFU to use actual percentage grades for

admission. Such a change will put SFU into step with the

rest of the country, eliminate confusion on the part of

students, and will create a much more fair way for you to

determine who is qualified for admission.

I would gladly discuss this point with you or others at

Simon Fraser University. Thank you for the opportunity to

make this input.

Yours truly,

in McConnell

Director of the Senior School