Upgrading your grades: pros and cons

By Rob Taylor

In Ontario, because of the introduction of a new curriculum for secondary school students and the Double Cohort, a larger portion of students are having trouble maintaining grades are losing hope regarding admission to post-secondary education. This has become such a concern that on January 28, the Ontario education minister issued a press release asking students to stick with school no matter how hard it may be.

The Globe and Mail recently reported a growing trend among students to take university-level courses while still in secondary school to boost their chances in their future careers and academics.

Another trend has secondary school students either repeating courses or taking some secondary school courses for the first time at night school, summer school or private schools in an attempt to boost their grades.

From an academic point of view, there is some concern that students who opt to take night or summer school courses to boost their grades or save time may not be getting the best value for their investment.

"Night school and summer school courses are about a third the length of a day school course," says Stephen Buck, guidance counsellor for Agincourt Collegiate in Toronto. "So they are not getting the same education. We don't recommend to students that they take any of their required courses at night (or) summer school simply because they will not get as strong a grounding in the subject."

Students who take night or summer courses may need to be concerned that courses they have taken may be viewed differently by admission staff.

"Only certain faculties which include Mathematics, Engineering and Software Engineering" consider summer or night school courses as a factor when viewing applications, says University of Waterloo director of admissions Peter Burroughs. "Otherwise we treat grades equally from all reliable sources."

Kathy Kimpton, associate registrar of recruitment and admission at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) says they treat all courses the same as long as they are approved by the ministry of education. Karel Swift, the university registrar and director of admissions and awards at the University of Toronto agrees, saying that there is no evidence that students do differently in summer or night school.

Buck says he is wary of summer or night school for day secondary school students because they might "see night school as a bit of a safety net, so they may be less inclined to put their best effort towards their first attempt in day school, knowing that, if they need to, they may go to night school."

How do post-secondary schools view repeated courses?

"We try to give the student the benefit of the doubt (on repeated courses) when making an admissions decision," says Kimpton. "If a student has repeated a course, we take the best attempt at that course and do not consider other attempts."

Anne Scott, manager of admissions at Acadia University, says that her school only considers the most recent mark as part of the admissions complement.

At the University of Waterloo, however, while most programs consider only the final mark, certain programs like engineering, mathematics and software engineering do make minor adjustments to admission scores when applicants have repeated required courses. In all instances the grade in the second attempt is used in average calculations.

In most cases, the University of Toronto considers the final grade, but some faculties, such as the Faculty of Science and Engineering, ask students why they have repeated a subject.

"They will give us reasons," says Swift. "Sometimes very legitimate reasons."

Another concern raised recently in the media and by guidance counsellors is "grade padding". This is when students pay to take a credit at a private institution where their grades might be inflated far above what they might deserve or receive in a regular secondary school class.

"We don't know about grade padding," says Swift. "If a student takes a course somewhere other than their home school, it is the regular school that records the grade. There's a perception that there is a problem, but we can't do any research to say yes it is or no it isn't."

"Currently we consider all ministry-approved courses equally," says Kimpton. "Right now it is difficult to prove what schools are 'padding' their marks. There are many legitimate private schools and we would not want to discriminate against all of them. Admissions offices and the ministry (of education) will need to work co-operatively to create equality for all applicants."

"We respect the grades on the transcript and do not grade schools," says Scott. "I can't recall and particular case over the years that has identified a real problem with this for a student at Acadia."

Scott also says, "if schools represent courses as covering the provincial curriculum and then do not teach the provincial curriculum, the disservice would be to the student, who may be left unprepared for the expectations of their post-secondary program."

"I worry that students are fooling themselves," says Swift. "If a student is not doing very well in calculus in secondary school (and then pays to upgrade) then they are not going to fare very well in their first year" of post-secondary school.