Skip to main content
Start main content

Academic Matters

Assessment

Examinations are normally held in December for first semester courses, and in May for second semester and full-year courses.  For most courses, apart from written examinations, your efforts in tests, continuous assessment of performance, laboratory work, field work, and research or project reports will also be taken into account when determining the final examination result.

 

Grading System

The grades, their standards and the grade points for assessment shall be as follows:

Course Grade

Grade

Standard Grading System

Grade Point

A+ to F

A+

Excellent

4.3

A

4.0

A-

3.7

B+

Good

3.3

B

3.0

B-

2.7

C+

Satisfactory

2.3

C

2.0

C-

1.7

D+

Pass

1.3

D

1.0

F

Fail

0

 

*For student who has taken any credit bearing course with the assessment on a Distinction/Pass/Fail basis, no grade point will be achieved from such category of course. However, the credits gained will be counted to fulfill the credit requirements for graduation.

Course Grade

Grade

Standard

Grade Point

*Distinction / Pass / Fail

DI

Distinction0
PPass0
FFail0

 

Examination

1st semester examinationsavailable in November
2nd semester examinationsavailable in April

​​​​

1st semester

in January

(during the course add/drop period)

2nd semester

in June

Announcement of honours classification for graduation class

in June

 

Students who fail to take the examination as scheduled normally result in an automatic failure in the course. Candidates who are unable to be present at any examination of a course because of illness may apply for permission to present themselves for examination at some other time. Any such application shall be made on the form prescribed within seven calendar days of the date of the examination and the form should be sent to the Examinations Office. The leave granted by the attending doctor must cover the examination session that the candidate was absent from, otherwise supplementary examination will not be arranged. ​​​​Late submission is not considered by the Board of Examiners. If the Board allows you to sit a supplementary examination, you will be informed of such by the relevant Department.

 

If you are absent from examinations due to reasons other than illness, you should write to the Board as soon as after your examination but not later than seven calendar days from the date of your examination.

 

The Board of Examiners meets in January and June every year to determine examination results.

The Faculty does not have supplementary examinations for students who fail in the examinations. However, supplementary examinations may be arranged for those students who are absent from examinations due to illness, subject to the Board of Examiners’ (the Board) approval. Supplementary examinations are not granted automatically but would be considered by the Board on an individual basis.

 

Only those students who are permitted by the Board to take a supplementary examination will be individually informed of such an outcome. The Department will arrange the supplementary examination as early as practicable, in consultation with the student concerned. For students who are absent from the supplementary examination, no further supplementary examination will be arranged

 

 

As the examination results for the 1st semester of 2023-24 were announced on January 12, 2024, the deadline for submitting application for rechecking of examination results is January 19, 2024 (11:59 pm Hong Kong Time).

 

 

 

All examination papers are carefully marked by examiners and the results are duly approved by the Board of Examiners. The University’s position is that student appeals against examination results which are academic judgments are disallowed. However if students who wish to apply for checking of procedural irregularity or technical error of the assessment result shall submit a separate application for each assessment result to be checked via the Science Online Application Submission System (OASS) within 7 days after the announcement of the assessment result. Please refer to document 111/511 re-amended for the Procedures for Checking of Assessment Results of Taught Courses.
 

IMPORTANT NOTES:

 

Feedback Policy

  1. Major and course coordinators and teachers are strongly encouraged to incorporate a variety of learning activities to provide different modes of learning and to provide structure to the self-study hours. Assessments of students’ learning in these activities provide important feedback to both the teachers and students as to the extent of learning achieved.

 

  1. Teachers are encouraged to provide feedback to students on all assessment tasks, and to give detailed feedback for those assignments with a substantial weighting towards the final grade. In addition to individual grades and formative comments that identify strengths and weaknesses, feedback may be open in the form of discussions on correct solutions and common errors of the class as a whole. Additional forms of feedback on the performance of the students could be through the use of anonymized exemplars of assignments of a range of grades (good to poor) to illustrate the teachers’ marking criteria and expectations. Feedback can be given in class or tutorials, or through electronic means, such as using Panopto clips or on Moodle. Teachers are encouraged to provide group feedback on the overall student performance in the examinations of introductory level (1xxx and 2xxx) courses within 2 weeks of the publication of the final course results.

 

  1. It is also important that timely feedback1 on assessments be provided to students so that they can track their progress in a course, and learn from previous assessments in time to prepare for examinations. Students should be aware of their cumulative assessment mark to inform them on their standing before proceeding to the final exam. In order to provide timely assessment, teachers are encouraged to redesign learning activities to give automated feedback such as available from Moodle. Teachers can also enlist the help of RPg markers, and ensure that they are given sufficient instruction and detailed marking schemes to perform grading accurately and fairly. RPg marking should be moderated/sampled to ensure fairness and consistency.

 

1 For laboratory, fieldwork, or quizzes which are continually assessed throughout a course, marked reports or quizzes should be returned to the students within 2 weeks of submission. Assignments submitted before Reading Week should be marked and returned to students within 3 weeks after Reading Week. Work submitted after Reading Week should be marked and returned before the final examination.

 

 

April 2015