Petitions Guide p.

Arts & Science Petitions Guide

Preface
This Petitions Guide has been prepared to help you understand petitions and appeals, the petitions
process, the Faculty of Arts & Sciences expectations of you, and the reasoning behind the answers
students get in response to their different requests. It is informal and unofficial; you will find the official
rules, regulations and the formal articulation of Faculty policy in the Calendar in printed text or on the
Faculty website (see Degree Requirements, Rules and Regulations, and Sessional Dates). This
Guide is for students in the Faculty of Arts & Science to use in conjunction with the Calendar, advice
from their college registrar's office, and advice from departmental offices.
General
The Faculty of Arts and Science is governed by a series of rules and regulations that are intended to
ensure that all students in the Faculty are treated equitably and fairly. The Faculty acknowledges,
however, that in some instances there are valid reasons why students should be granted an exception from
these rules. In considering petitions, the Faculty is sensitive to the needs of students who are experiencing
problems that are beyond their power to foresee or control, but may not always be able to grant the
remedy requested.
The Petition
A petition is a students formal request for an exception to the normal rules and regulations of the Faculty
of Arts & Science. You make such a request by writing a letter stating your request, explaining the
reasons that support it, and attaching any relevant documentation. You then fill out a petition form
(detailing your name, address, student number etc.) and submit it with your letter and documents to your
college registrars office, which forwards it to the Facultys Petitions Office. (All Faculty of Arts &
Science students submit petitions about any courses they are taking including ones at UTM or UTSC or
in other faculties through their home college. Students from other faculties or graduate departments are
governed by the rules and procedures of their home faculty or department, including those from UTM and
UTSC.)

Advising
If you think you need to petition or if you are having problems that interfere significantly with your
academic work, your best source of advice and support is the advisors at your college registrars office.
They are familiar with how things work, have experience helping students through their problems, and are
able to take your whole experience as a student into account in advising you, including any personal or
medical problems, financial issues, and academic difficulties you may have. Students with disability
issues should consult Accessibility Services in conjunction with their college registrars office.

Petitions Guide p.2

THE PETITION PROCESS

Formally, the process is as follows (see the Calendar for exact deadline dates for the current year).
Needless to say, few requests go through all steps.
1. First Request
You submit your petition in writing through your college registrars office.
Deadlines:

For Term Work: end of the Final Exam Period

For Deferred Exams: 5 working days after the end of the Final Exam Period
For Grading Practices Policy: last day of classes in the course.
For Late Withdrawal: 6 months after the end of the session.

Your First Request is considered on the basis of your written materials by the Petitions Office on behalf
of the Committee on Standing, using the guidelines and past practices of the Committee. You receive a
written response by mail, either Granting the petition or Refusing it. (Be sure to read the full decision, as
the details may be as important as the Granted or Refused.) If the petition is granted, the situation is
resolved. If the petition is refused, you have the choice of taking it to the next step.
Response Timeline: Most petitions, especially the straight-forward ones, are dealt with promptly. Some
take over a month from the time you submit all the materials, depending on how complicated your case
is, and whether departments or instructors need to be consulted for further information. The response
will be quicker if your petition articulates your situation clearly, completely, and concisely, and all
relevant documentation is attached. The Faculty makes a firm endeavour to deal with a petition in no
longer than 90 days, provided the student submits the necessary materials in a timely fashion.
2. Appeal - Second Request
If your First Request is refused, and if you think you have further information or further arguments to
make in support of your request, you may appeal the decision by making a Second Request through your
college registrars office. Before doing so, you should consult your college registrars office to discuss
your case.
Deadline: You must file your Second Request within 90 days of the date of the decision on your First
Request.
You are essentially asking the Committee on Standing to review your case, again using written materials.
Your initial request was given careful consideration, but did not meet the Committees normal criteria for
an exception to the rules. Petitions successful at the second stage are often ones that provide more
detailed information, further explanations or new documentation that might give a different perspective
on the initial request. Where such new information makes the Second Request grantable under the
normal criteria, the Petitions Office will grant it immediately. Otherwise it will be reviewed at a meeting
of the Committee on Standing. The Committee is made up of professors, college registrars and a student,
and is chaired by a Vice-Dean. You will hear in writing whether your request is Granted or Refused.
Response Timeline: The Committee on Standing meets once a month throughout the year. It may be
necessary to collect additional information before the Committee can hear the request, but you will
receive a decision as soon as possible, and almost never beyond the 90-day guideline noted above.
3. Appeal Academic Appeals Board
If your Second Request is denied, you may take it to the next level. This is the Facultys Academic
Appeals Board. You do so by indicating you want to Appeal (again in writing through your college
registrars office), and this time it is considered entirely afresh by a different group of people. You may
submit a fresh statement, but you need not do so.

Petitions Guide p.3

Deadline: You must file your Appeal within 90 days of the date on the decision of the Committee on
Standing refusing your Second Request.
The Academic Appeals Board is made up of professors and student representatives different from those
on the Committee on Standing. The Chair of the Committee on Standing appears before the Appeals
Board to represent the Committee on Standing and explain its decision regarding the Second Request. At
this appeal level, you have the right to appear in person to present and explain your case. You may also
engage legal assistance to support you in presenting your appeal if you wish. (A student lawyer from
Downtown Legal Services is a good option for those on a tight budget.) You will receive a formal, written
response accepting or denying your appeal, and giving reasons for the decision.
Response Timeline: Normally, the Appeals Board will meet within 90 days of receiving your request for
a hearing.
4. Appeals Academic Appeals Committee, Governing Council
If your appeal is denied by the Facultys Board, the final level of appeal is the Universitys Academic
Appeals Committee. This meets infrequently and is a more formal panel chaired by someone with legal
expertise. If you reach this stage, youll be receiving information and guidance in more formal ways than
this Guide. Students are more inclined to seek legal assistance at this level, although it is not mandatory.
Deadline: You must file your appeal from the Appeals Board refusal within 90 days of the date on that
decision. The appeal must be submitted in writing to the Office of the Governing Council, Simcoe Hall.
Response Timeline: As the Appeals Committee hears appeals from across the whole University and
draws its membership widely, the normal time for a hearing and response may extend from months to
almost a year.
Deadlines & Late Petitions
The Faculty does not accept petitions after the deadlines, and your college registrars office will not
forward late petitions to the Faculty. If there are justifiable and compelling reasons why you have
submitted the petition after the deadline, talk about your situation with your college registrars office.
Ignorance (never a good justification in a place dedicated to knowledge) isnt an adequate reason. If
there are legitimate reasons, you will be asked to explain them as part of the petition or appeal. The
lateness issue will be addressed first, and only if the reasons are considered legitimate will the Petitions
Office address the substance of your petition.
Confidentiality
All student records are confidential, including your petition and its documentation. The University has a
strict policy on this. To quote from the policy, only those staff members who need to may have access to
relevant portions of an official student academic record for purposes related to the performance of their
duties.
This need-to-know clause applies to petitions in a number of ways. The petitions Office may need to
know some information from your discussions with the staff in your college registrars office in order to
understand your true situation as part of reaching a decision. The Committee on Standing does not need to
know your identity to hear your request, so your petition is assigned a case number and heard
anonymously. The Petitions Office generally tries not to reveal the personal details in a petition to a
department official or instructor, but occasionally they too must be taken into the circle of those who
need to know in order to gain a clear understanding of what happened or what should be done. And
finally, no summary or notation of a petition goes onto your official transcript. The resulting WDR or
Academic penalty not imposed; permitted by petition to re-register on Academic Probation, etc., may

Petitions Guide p.4

appear, but the details or substance of the petition will not.

If your petition involves something extremely personal that would be troubling to put on paper, you
should discuss your confidentiality concerns with your college registrar. Generally, you are strongly
urged to disclose fully all the facts relevant to your petition when you make it in the first instance,
however potentially embarrassing you may think them. It is best to reveal all at the outset so the matter
can be settled fairly, rather than trying to hold back some things until later when nothing else seems to
have worked. That just keeps you from getting the remedy you need in a timely way and frustrates the
people trying to help you with a fair remedy to your situation.
Documentation
You will need official documentation that confirms you were unable to do what you were supposed to do
on the dates you were supposed to do it, i.e., documentation must indicate incapacity, and give the dates
or period affected. Generally speaking, the stronger your documentation, the stronger your case.
Proper documentation is both a formal requirement for a petition and a necessary tool to ascertain the
facts. You should not take it personally that the Faculty requires, for example, evidence of a relatives
death. Such documentation simply must accompany a petition request to justify formally an exception
being made to the Facultys published rules.
The most common documentation is a medical certificate. The Petitions Office accepts medical
documentation only on the UofT Medical Certificate, (available in the Registration Handbook and from
the Faculty Registrars website or your college registrars office). Those doctors notes with Patient was
ill or Off work scribbled on little prescription pads wont be accepted. Also, the Medical Certificate
must indicate that the doctor diagnosed and treated you when you were ill; it cannot just report that you
told the doctor after-the-fact that you were ill previously.
Other documentation can certainly be relevant. If you have to work, a note from your employer; if youve
had a traffic accident, a copy of the police accident report; if someone died, a copy of the death certificate
or a funeral notice; if your request involves travel, a copy of your ticket or itinerary. If you have been
seeing someone for help with your personal problems who isnt a doctor, a letter on official letterhead is
sufficient. They neednt fill out the UT Medical Certificate since they arent strictly medical, but in
their note they should answer some of the same questions, as that sort of information is what the Faculty
needs to decide your case, so you wont have to go back a second time for more details. Letters from
family members are generally not helpful.
Address Changes & Follow-up
Note that the address you put on your petition form or letter of appeal is where the response will be sent.
The Petitions system is not connected with ROSI for security reasons, so you must alert your college
registrars office if you change your address while you have a petition under consideration, or the
Deferred Examinations Office if you are waiting for details on a Deferred Exam.
The Faculty puts the responsibility on you, and expects you to follow up with your registrars office if
you havent received a response for an unusually long time, i.e., outside the response timelines noted in
this Guide.

Petitions Guide p.5

COMMON PETITIONS
In the following section you will find some specific guidance on the most common sorts of petitions.
These include petitions about:

Term Work
Deferred Exams
Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty
Suspension.

Our aim is to highlight what you will need to know in petitioning and to give you some idea of the way
your request will be considered. On these matters, and for possible requests not discussed here, you can
get clarification and guidance from your college registrars office.

I. TERM WORK
Term work (e.g., essays, tests, lab reports) is generally a matter between you and your instructor.
However, when it gets beyond the end of term, then petitions come into play.
Diplomacy & Protocol
Ways of handling term work vary as widely as teaching styles vary. Individual instructors may be
informal in the explanations and documentation they require, or as formal as the petitions process. Keep
in mind that they often have many demands on their limited time, and teach many students.
You will have to make arrangements for each course according to the expectations and requirements of
that courses instructor. In general, instructors expect you to let them know if you are having trouble and
to be responsible in how you handle it, i.e., contacting them as soon as a problem arises, accepting
responsibility for prioritizing and managing your work-load, doing everything you can to get work done
and in to them, etc.
Counselling Help
If you are having trouble with one course, speak with the instructor. If you are having problems that affect
more than one course or if you want advice beyond the confines of the course, you should talk with your
college registrars office. The staff there may be able to help you and to notify your instructors, saving
you from having to tell your problems in detail to all your instructors.
You should definitely speak with your college registrars office if your problems have been piling up.
Instructors and departments will often be very reluctant to grant extensions or make-up tests if, for
example, a student approaches them in the second half of a course but hasnt managed to complete any of
the work for the entire first half. Even with documentation, multiple exceptions and make-ups are
sometimes not possible.
Term Tests
Term Tests, as part of term work, are within the instructors purview. The only exception is when an
extension to do a make-up test would go beyond the end of the Final Exam Period, in which case it
requires a petition. All other term test matters (including mid-year term tests scheduled into the December
Exam Schedule, and those tests instructors sometimes call finals that happen before the end of classes)
are to be resolved with your instructor.
Since all students in a course are supposed to be evaluated using the same mode of assessment, you
should normally expect to do a make-up test. However, some departments do make use of other remedies
for missed term tests, for example, a generic make-up test before the end of the course, a redistribution of
the mark onto the final or other tests. In any case, a petition is needed for a make-up term test that will

Petitions Guide p.6

occur after the end of the Final Exam Period for that session.
Assignments
The same principle applies to assignments. They only become a matter for a petition if they go beyond the
end of the Final Exam Period. You should definitely alert your instructor as soon as uncontrollable
emergencies arise, expect to be asked for documentation, and expect no consideration for problems you
could foresee or control. You should also not expect much consideration for those annoying small
problems that arise at the last moment (book not in the library, printer out of ink, etc.) when you didnt
allow any room at all in your plan for such possibilities.
Deadlines & Extension Periods
There are three different periods relating to extensions for term work:
Before classes end, extensions are definitely at the discretion of your instructor. That usually ends
the matter, but if you need to appeal a decision you disagree with, you go up the academic route
of appeal (described below under FAQs: Petitionable?).
After classes end but before the end of the Final Exam Period, instructors have the authority to
grant informal extensions, provided the assignment is submitted by the end of the Final Exam
Period. Such informal extensions are usually simpler for all concerned. Instructors do have the
authority to grant you such an extension, but they are under no obligation to do so thats what
discretion means. Some instructors will only consider an informal extension up to the point
when they must submit their course marks; others may insist you petition. In any case, if in this
period an informal extension is refused or inadequate for your situation, you must petition if you
think you have good reasons for an extension.
After the end of the Final Exam Period (i.e., once the course is finished), you definitely have to
petition to be granted an extension.
Your Petition
You must file your petition for an Extension for Term Work by the end of the Final Exam Period at the
latest. By then you will know if you have met any informal extensions you have been granted. In your
letter, you should:

identify precisely the nature of the piece of work for which you are requesting an extension;
indicate the assignments original due date and any extensions already granted;
explain why you were unable to complete the work;
propose a reasonable plan, including a new deadline for when you will complete the work.

The Faculty normally expects the extension to be proportionate to the delay caused by the problem that
prevented you from completing it on time, e.g., a 2-week extension is probably appropriate for a 2-week
illness. Mention in your plan any time you have to set aside to complete other term work under informal
extensions or to write Deferred Exams.
In general, you should plan first to devote your energies to completing your Final Exams for this and your
other courses, and then resume work on the overdue assignment immediately after your exams are
finished (so you dont have to generate more petitions for the exams). In general, if you need some advice
on managing your conflicting academic obligations, you should consult your college registrars office.
You should expect the Petitions Office to consult the department or the instructor about your petition for
an extension, so you might consider how your handling of any missed tests or deadlines will look from
their perspective when you are composing your petition letter. It usually helps if you have done the proper

Petitions Guide p.7

diplomacy (e.g., notified your instructor that circumstances kept you from meeting any informal
extensions) so that your instructor understands your situation and might support your request.
Documentation
With term work petitions, the UT Medical Certificate is the only documentation accepted for illness (see
above under Documentation). Your documentation must show the dates of the medical problem. If
your condition is chronic, you must have a recent Medical Certificate that specifically covers the relevant
portion of the term. For non-medical issues, documentation on official letterhead from some independent
professional not related to you is best, e.g., lawyer, religious leader, social worker, funeral director, etc.
Again, the stronger your documentation, the stronger your case.

In the Meantime...
While waiting for a response to your petition, you are expected to be working on the assignment, i.e.,
dont wait for approval before starting back to work on the assignment. If a positive petition response
arrives close to the deadline you proposed, you may be asked to submit the work on short notice, since the
Faculty expected you to be working on it in the meantime in good faith rather than waiting for
approval before you started to work. Also, if you have work from one session to complete after the
session has ended, you should be careful about taking on new courses in the next session, since the two
sets of obligations may interfere with one another.

II. DEFERRED EXAMS

Term tests fall under the jurisdiction of your instructor; Final Exams are the property of the Faculty.
Petitions pertain only to Faculty Final Exams scheduled into the Final Exam Period after classes are
finished for the course. About term tests, you speak with your instructor (as explained above); about final
exams, you deal with your college registrars office. Note: a department or instructor cannot excuse you
from writing a Final Exam, nor can they offer you an alternate date or form of exam, e.g., oral exam. All
Final Exam remedies must come through petition.
The Basic Case
If you are ill or have a significant emergency that prevents you from attending a Final
Exam, then you may request permission to defer writing the Final Exam.
Note: if you have a minor emergency that delays your arrival at an exam that is still in progress, you
should go immediately to the examination hall and follow the instructions of the Presiding Officer. An
immediate remedy may be possible that avoids petitions and delay.
The Petition
You must request a deferred exam in writing: use the Petition Form, provide your written statement
giving the date of the missed exam and your reason for missing it, and attach the relevant documentation.
Submit them to your college registrars office.
Documentation
For illness, the UT Medical Certificate is the only documentation accepted (see above under
Documentation). Your documentation must be dated as close in time as possible to the date of the
exam, and must indicate that you were ill or incapacitated on the date of the exam. If your condition is
chronic, you must have a recent Medical Certificate that specifically covers the date of the exam. For nonmedical issues, documentation on official letterhead from some independent professional not related to
you is best, e.g., lawyer, religious leader, social worker, funeral director, etc. Again, the stronger your
documentation, the stronger your case.

Petitions Guide p.8

Deadlines
Petitions must be submitted no later than one week after the end of the Exam Period for the session in
which the course was taken. First-term courses have a First-Term deadline, i.e. December or June;
Second-Term courses have a Second-Term deadline, i.e. May or August. (See the Calendar for specific
dates.)
Decisions and Follow-Up
You will be notified about the result of your petition by letter mailed to the address you put on the
Petition Form or your petition letter. (Note again: ROSI will not update your petition address
automatically see above, Address Changes.) The response letter will give you the crucial
information you have been waiting for, so it is important that you follow up if you havent heard
anything, and read the letter carefully when it arrives.
The letter will tell you:
the period in which you will write the Deferred Exam;
the sort of exam it will be (Regular or Special; see Appendix);
a deadline by which you must register for the exam;
how you pay the Deferred Exam Fee ($70 per exam, $140 maximum for the session).
There is a whole set of protocols you will be asked to follow at that time, which are included with the
response letter (and outlined in the Appendix at the end of this Guide).
The Underlying Assumptions
Even though the Petitions Office processes many Deferred Exam petitions each year, the Faculty takes the
rules and requirements surrounding Final Exams very seriously. The Faculty expects you to prepare for
and make yourself available to write your Final Exams. This sounds obvious, but it affects a potential
petition in at least two ways. First, the Faculty publishes the dates of the Final Exam Period in the
Calendar well before the session starts, so it assumes when you sign up for a course in that session, that
you commit to being available to write a Final Exam during the whole Exam Period. Second, you have
been preparing for your final exams for the whole duration of the course, so at the end of the course you
should be ready to write the exam.
Only a small number of emergencies can be important enough to prevent you from writing a Final Exam.
If, for example, something happens the day before your exam that means you miss one day of studying,
you should still be sufficiently prepared to write. The question the Petitions Office will ask when
reviewing your petition is not Are these the optimal conditions for you to write this exam? but Are you
so incapacitated that you cannot write this exam?
Medical & Personal Problems
Illness: A short letter, submitted promptly with accurate contact information, accompanied by proper
documentation, and your petition will be answered speedily.
Less Simple Cases: Illness is straightforward: the more difficult questions arise in situations when you are
not sure whether you will or should miss the exam. If there is any question, i.e., if it is not just a simple
question of your being ill but you do have real problems, you should consult your college registrars
office for advice. The decision about whether to write or petition is yours to make, but some
knowledgeable advice will help clarify your choices.
Sort-of Ill: Some general advice, working out from simple situations to less certain ones. If you are not
feeling your best but are not incapacitated, you must make a decision: if you go in to write the exam, that
will be your one attempt. The Faculty almost never grants rewrites, and definitely not because you were
not able to perform as well as you thought you could, or because you made the wrong decision. You are

Petitions Guide p.9

in the best position to make the decision, and so it is left to you. However, you must live with the results
of the choice you make.
Previously Ill: If you were ill previously and this cut into your study time, but you are not ill any more,
you will normally be expected to write your exams. (The exception to this expectation might occur when
you have had a serious medical problem or one of long duration and you have missed term work and
classes, in which case you should discuss the option of Late Withdrawal with your college registrars
office).
Ill during an Exam: If you become ill during an exam and have to leave, report it to the Presiding Officer
in the exam room, sign the appropriate forms, leave, seek immediate medical attention, and get medical
documentation. In such an instance, you may petition to be allowed to write a Deferred Exam.
Weighing Costs & Benefits of Deferring
When making your decisions about Final Exams in these situations of current or previous medical or
personal difficulty, you will need to consider at least three things:
how well you feel now, at the time of the exam;
whether you can get documentation for your illness sufficient to convince the Petitions Office that
not writing is the proper decision;
finally, how ready you are now vs. how ready you will be later.
Your case will have to be persuasive for your petition to be granted, and you might find that it is not in
your interest to defer. You might think, in the heat of the Exam Period, that a deferred exam would be a
welcome relief, giving you plenty of time to prepare. However, you should remember that the course is
freshest in your mind immediately after a whole session of classes, whereas the details will gradually fade
as time passes. Even if you may have more time to study your notes with a Deferred Exam, they will lose
their detailed resolution as months pass. Exhausting or anxiety-producing as it might be, writing your
Final Exams when they are scheduled is probably the best way to maximize your results, unless you are
truly ill or incapacitated. In fact, if it isnt absolutely necessary to defer and you are decently ready, you
should probably write.
Work, Weddings, Summer Jobs, Etc.
If your employer requires you to be at work or out of town on business at the time of your Final Exam,
you will have to petition. You will need a letter from your employer stating clearly that you could not
plan around this and that your job would be in jeopardy if you were not at work at that time. This applies
for summer jobs, career work, or any other employment.
Family functions are more of a problem. You should not assume that your cousins wedding is an obvious
case for a deferred exam. This is a judgement call, and you will have to make the case that your presence
is absolutely necessary and that you have made every effort to arrange things differently. Consult your
college registrars office as soon as the conflict appears, and petition early enough to enable you to make
alternate arrangements or apologies should your petition be refused.
In cases of time conflict with work or family obligations, you should not expect an instructor to create a
special exam for you; you should at best hope to be allowed to take the exam at the next available time it
is offered.
Outside Centre Exams
If you have good, documented reasons for being unable to sit an exam on campus, i.e., you are able to
write but have to be somewhere else out of town, you may petition through your college registrars office
for permission to write your exam at an Outside Centre. You would be writing the same exam at the same
time as the other students in the course, just under supervision at another location, usually a university,

Petitions Guide p.10

college or other educational institution. This is not easily arranged, and so not easily granted. First, of
course, you must provide proof of your situation, and your reasons must be compelling. Second, you must
allow enough time for the arrangements to be made. You must petition no later than 3 weeks before the
examination period, and preferably earlier. Third, you must pay a $30 fee to the Faculty of Arts &
Science (plus the $70 Deferred Exam Fee if it is deferred, and any fees and costs at the local institution
invigilating the exam). Lastly, you should not take it for granted that such an arrangement can be made.
Accessibility Services Accommodations
If you are registered with Accessibility Services for exam-related accommodations, you must submit your
exam schedule to Accessibility Services well in advance of the Final Exam Period (at least one month for
the April/May Exam Period). If you are scheduled to write a Deferred Exam and need the details to meet
this deadline, you should contact the Deferred Examination Assistant (see below Appendix # 11). If you
meet their deadline, Accessibility Services will make the necessary arrangements and put your
accommodations in place.
If for some reason you did not meet this deadline, you should contact Accessibility Services as soon as
possible to see if they can still arrange appropriate accommodations in the time available. You should
not count on this being possible.
If they cannot arrange accommodations within the time available, you can choose to write without the
accommodations in the regular exam hall. However, this is almost always a bad idea. The
accommodation is designed to give you a fair chance at the exam.
If Accessibility Services cannot arrange your accommodations after the deadline, you will have to petition
for a Deferred Exam so you can take your exam under suitable circumstances. You do this through your
college registrars office, as with other petitions. This is the case even if some special arrangement is
made for you outside of Accessibility Services.

III

LATE WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT ACADEMIC PENALTY

Drop Dates
In a students mind, there are usually 3 dates relevant to dropping courses. Only the last one pertains to
petitions:
Up to the end of the Course Change Period at the beginning of term, you can add and drop courses
without academic or financial consequences (except if you are cancelling your entire registration).
After the Course Change Period, you may still drop courses, but your refund begins to dwindle.
The last dates to get various refunds are set down by the Refund Schedule. Up to those dates you
can drop a course for any reason and still receive the relevant partial refund of the fees you are
charged. Once the last date for refunds passes, you may still drop courses and have them
disappear from your academic record, but you are obliged to pay the relevant fees. (See
Refunds below.)
The Drop Date (i.e., the Course Cancellation Date or Academic Drop Date or the last day to
cancel your registration in courses without academic consequences) is the last time you can go
onto ROSI and just cancel your course without giving reasons and petitioning.
After the Drop Date you will need a petition for Late Withdrawal if you have a serious problem that
prevents you from finishing the course. This is not a matter for an instructors discretion; instructors

Petitions Guide p.11

cannot grant Late Withdrawal. After the Drop Date, this can only come as a response to a petition.
Underlying Assumptions
The Drop Date is roughly 3/4 of the way through a course. This means that the Faculty gives you most of
the course to decide whether you can or want to complete it. They also insist that your instructors return
to you at least one significant piece of marked work so you have an idea how you are doing. Most
instructors do much more than the minimum, so you usually have a pretty clear idea of how a course is
going.
Once the Drop Date arrives, the Faculty assumes that you have reviewed your situation, assessed your
health, your personal circumstances, your ability in the subject, your marks so far in the course all the
factors you need to review when deciding whether or not to drop the course. They will assume you have
made an informed decision explicitly or implicitly and, having made your decision, they hold you
responsible for living with the results of that decision.
Essentially, the only sort of reason they are willing to consider for Late Withdrawal is that something
happened after the Drop Date that you could not control or foresee which prevents you from completing
the course. Something may have emerged unexpectedly, or a personal or medical situation may have
gradually grown worse or taken an unexpected turn after the Drop Date, but something has happened that
you were unable to factor into your decision or allow for in your planning. Talk with your college
registrars office if you are having such problems.
Requests & Results
In your petition you are requesting Late Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty. The academic
penalty is not any specially punitive mark; you will simply be assigned whatever marks you have earned
for completed work and then be assigned zero for any uncompleted work. The result will likely be an
unwanted mark. If your petition for Late Withdrawal is granted, the course will still appear on your
transcript, but with a WDR entered instead of a mark (indicating Withdrawal). It is a neutral designation
and is not factored into your GPA.
Appropriate Requests
By asking for Late Withdrawal, you are essentially arguing that you cannot complete the course. This
means that Late Withdrawal is not appropriate for some situations. If you have completed everything in
the course but failed the course especially if you have written the Final ExamLate Withdrawal is not
appropriate. If you passed the course, although with a mark you dont like or want, Late Withdrawal is
not appropriate. If you are at the end of the course and cannot write the Final Exam or complete the
assignments on time, Late Withdrawal may not be appropriate, but a remedy more proportionate to the
problem may be, such as Extensions or a Deferred Exam. Talk with your college registrars office to see
what is appropriate for your particular circumstances.
Deadlines
You may request Late Withdrawal up until 6 months after the end of the session (mid-November for the
Fall/Winter Session; end of February for the Summer Session; see the Calendar). That may sound like a
long time, but for those having serious problems it is sometimes difficult. It means that you cannot go
away and come back to resolve your academic problems much later when you are in better shape. You
must deal with your academic business within a reasonable period, which the Faculty defines as 6 months.
You should at least contact your college registrars office.
You may have a case to make for an exception to this deadline, if for example you were physically or
mentally incapacitated for longer than 6 months, but you will certainly void your case if you enrol in
further courses within the 6-month period without dealing with the older issues. The Facultys position is
that if you were able to register for further courses, you were able to deal with your past courses. The

Petitions Guide p.12

basic advice: protect your academic record and talk with your college registrars office if you have
problems.
Refunds, Etc.
You will not receive any refund for a course dropped by petition, nor for courses dropped for any reason
after the last date for refunds as set down in the Refund Schedule. The question of refunds is not
connected at all to the academic withdrawal; refunds are driven entirely by the Refund Schedule and the
date of the transaction, not the reasons for dropping.
Students often think that, if they must drop for reasons beyond their control, they should not be charged
the fee. The Universitys fees policy makes it clear that students enrolled in a course past the Course
Change Period will be charged the relevant fee. They may make the academic decision to drop up until
the Drop Date, or be granted WDR by petition, but this has no connection to fees. There is no fees appeal
mechanism for presenting your reasons for a refund.
When to Drop a Course
Its worth noting here some of the good reasons for dropping a course. If any of these scenarios reflects
your situation before the Drop Date, you should seriously consider dropping:
If your marks are marginal especially if you are failing term tests and you are at risk of
failing, you should seriously consider dropping, especially if you are On Probation or otherwise
at risk.
If you have health problems that do not look like they will improve.
If you have missed so much term work that you either dont know how you are doing or cannot
possibly make it up. (Dont be overly optimistic about your prospects.)
If you have missed large numbers of classes, especially if you have not discussed this with your
instructor. (Again, dont be overly optimistic.)
If you think you will make a miraculous recovery on the Final Exam. (Students rarely find their
marks go up on Final Exams.)
If you are not getting the mark you need for a desired Subject Post or some other goal you have
in mind (e.g. graduate school, a professional program, etc.).
This is good advice, but it is more than that: if you were aware you had any of these problems before the
Drop Date and did not drop the course, the Faculty assumes you factored these into your decision and
holds you responsible for the decision you made.
Valid & Invalid Reasons
Students have many reasons for wanting out of a course after the Drop Date: academic, medical, family,
personal. Many are legitimate and acceptable; indeed, the problems that students encounter in a faculty as
large as Arts & Science are more varied than you would imagine. The best advice for those with real
problems is to talk them over with your college registrars office.
Many students do not want to drop a course at the Drop Date because they do not want to lose the money
they have already invested in the course. Parents sometimes think of dropping courses in this context.
However, you should remember that if the course goes badly, not only will you have paid the full fee
but for a failing mark. Make your academic success your top priority when making these decisions, and
protect your academic record.
Many reasons for wanting out of a course are perfectly legitimate before the Drop Date but not
accepted by the Faculty after the Drop Date as reasons for granting Late Withdrawal. Some familiar ones
are:
Im going to fail.
I wont get a mark that reflects my true ability.
I dont like the professor.

Petitions Guide p.13

Im not going to get the mark I need for medical school, law school, grad school, etc.
I dont need the course any longer.
My parents wouldnt let me drop my failing course until now.
I didnt want to lose the tuition I paid for the course but now Im going to fail.
Ive had money problems and was too busy working to think about dropping.

Again, these may be real enough reasons for wanting to drop, but they are not sufficient for Late
Withdrawal. Weigh your situation carefully as the Drop Date approaches. Consult your college
registrars office beforehand for help assessing your situation, or help handling your general academic
situation if a petition appears not to be the appropriate remedy.
While Youre Waiting
Students who have initiated a petition for Late Withdrawal when the course is still in progress often want
to know if they should continue with term work or write the Final Exam while they are waiting for a
response. A reasonable question, but one not easily answered.
The basic idea, as noted above, is that you are requesting Late Withdrawal because you cannot complete
the course, and so continuing with term work or exams is not a relevant issue. However, some students
with problems must reduce their course load to manage, and so they have to weigh the risks involved in
assuming the petition will be granted and stopping work in the course. The best advice in this situation is
to see your college registrars office. The staff there can usually give you a good reading of the
possibilities, and may be able to expedite a decision so the risk is minimized.
Regarding the Final Exam, the Petitions Office will not treat your writing of the Final Exam as
undermining your petition request, provided you have filed your petition in that period between the Drop
Date and the end of classes in the course (and have not completed all the term work, in which case a
Deferred Exam petition would be more appropriate). You will not be asked to gamble all or nothing by
writing or not writing the exam, provided your petition has been filed. Again, follow up with your
registrars office if you havent received an answer to your petition as the Final Exam approaches. They
are in the best position to help you.
Grading Practices Policy
A special class of petition to be allowed to drop a course after the Drop Date arises from infractions of the
Grading Practices Policy (printed in the back of the Calendar). The most frequent GPP grounds are that
students have not received at least one piece of term work which is a part of a student performance,
whether essay, lab report, review, etc. before the Drop Date. You must receive back one piece of
marked work to give you an indication of how you are doing in the course. It need not be large. In fact, it
may represent only a small fraction of the final mark and still fall within the rules. These infractions
occur less frequently than students often believe, so if you think this applies to you and you want to
withdraw from the course, you should consult your college registrars office to discuss the situation.
Generally the way this is applied in Arts & Science is that an infraction has occurred when you have done
your part in the normal way but the instructor has not met his or her obligations under the GPP. If you
have not received anything back because you missed tests or handed in assignments late for whatever
reason this is not an infraction if the instructor returned the piece of term work on time to those who
completed it on time or wrote the test. If you missed the test or had an extension beyond the Drop Date,
you will just have to assess your progress in the course by how well you seem to understand the material.
In these cases, The Petitions Office will check with the instructor or department to see if an infraction did
occur. If so, you will essentially be given a course Drop effective on the Drop Date (not the beginning of
the course), with the implications that normally has: the course is removed from your academic record
and no refund is given (as the refund date is long past).

Petitions Guide p.14

Deadline: You must file a GPP petition before the end of classes in the relevant course; you cannot wait
to see your final mark before you decide.
Summary
In general, Late Withdrawal is a last resort, and other less-final remedies may help you salvage a course
or your year. Timing is important with Late Withdrawal, both to meet the deadlines and to give you the
best possible chance of addressing your problems and moving ahead with your studies. Get some advice
from your college registrars office on issues that appear to threaten your success or completion, and
sooner rather than later. If Late Withdrawal is not possible, you will know that you have to redouble your
efforts and do the best you can under the circumstances. If Late Withdrawal is granted, especially before
the end of the term, you will have more time to focus on your other courses. In any case, you will have a
better opportunity to address your problems, perhaps using the many support services the University
makes available.

IV. SUSPENSIONS
If you have been Suspended for poor academic performance and think you might want to petition, you
should understand the purpose and thinking behind the Facultys policy on Academic Standing.
General
Students have their status assessed at the end of each session (i.e., in May for the Fall/Winter session,
and in August for the Summer session). If your Cumulative GPA falls below 1.50, you are no longer In
Good Standing. (See the Calendar for the full rules on Standing, Academic Probation, and
Suspension.)
The first time it happens, you are placed On Probation. This is meant as a warning light signalling
Proceed with caution! The Facultys intention with Probation is to notify you that your results are not
adequate and that, if you continue with this level of performance, you will not graduate.
All students on Probation receive an explicit warning from the Faculty in the form of a Probation Letter
with their Statement of Results, advising them to read the explanation in the Calendar, and advising them
to seek counselling or explanations from their college registrars office before proceeding, or immediately
if they are registered in Summer courses. Students will probably also receive a letter from their college
registrars office inviting them in for counselling.
If you receive such a letter, you should definitely take up the invitation to speak with your college
registrars office especially if you are enrolled in the Summer Session. Summer courses represent a
special hazard to students on Probation: they are so compressed you may find yourself facing Suspension
before you have had a chance to address your academic difficulties.
Probation is not petitionable, since you are permitted to enrol in further courses and work things out. The
Faculty assumes that you will do just that: heed the warning, seek advice, get help and then sort through
and fix whatever problems led to Probation in the first place by changing academic direction, working
on study skills, sorting out family or medical problems, or whatever else is necessary.
If you do enrol in further courses when you are On Probation and your performance does not improve
sufficiently by the end of the session when your Standing is assessed again, you may find yourself
Suspended for One Year in the first instance, or Suspended for Three Years if things do not improve
subsequently. (Again, see the Calendar for the full rules.)

Petitions Guide p.15

Underlying Assumptions
Very few students welcome a Suspension, and many want to petition to be allowed to continue
immediately. They often want to make up for lost time and promise to redouble their efforts.
However, they have just spent one whole session on Probation and their results are still marginal. They
are not headed in the right direction.
When you petition to have a Suspension lifted, you must recognize that the Petitions Office has three
things in the back of its mind when it reads your request:
You were clearly warned in advance that you were in a danger zone, once by the letter from the
Faculty, and usually again in a letter from your college registrars office.
You were advised to get help sorting things out and to get advice if they still werent going well.
You appear not to have resolved the problems that led to your Probation and then your
Suspension, since your results have not improved significantly.
For this reason, petitions to Lift a Suspension are rarely granted. This is not meant to be punitive
indeed, just the opposite. Allowing you to enrol in even more courses without having resolved your
problems just means that you will be in even deeper GPA difficulty at the end of the next year so deep
you may never get up to the 1.85 CGPA needed to graduate. When the Faculty suspends you, it does
just that: it puts you on hold so you can sort things out, and then restarts you where you left off. Most
students who make good use of the year on hold do sort things out, and then they return in a much
better frame of mind and move ahead successfully to Good Standing and graduation.
A petition with a plausible chance of success generally has these features:

It must provide a good explanation for the whole academic record that led to the Suspension in
the first place (since Suspension is based on the Cumulative GPA).
It must account for the fact that you did not, or could not, recognize the warning signs outlined in
the Probation Letter, and that you did not take the actions suggested there, such as getting
advice, dropping courses, etc. in the session when you were On Probation.
It must also demonstrate that whatever problems you had before are now resolved so that there is
a very good likelihood of immediate success if you were allowed to continue without sitting out.

This may sound easy enough Everythings okay now! but it is not. If in the previous sessions you
have had problems serious enough and long-standing enough to lead to a Suspension at the end of one
session, it is not easy to demonstrate that they are all now resolved at the beginning of the next session. It
usually does take students on Suspension the full year to resolve their issues, recover, and then prepare to
return in a frame of mind suitable for academic success.
Summary
No one likes to be told they are Suspended, to be compelled to take time away. Even if students know
they need a break, they would prefer to do it voluntarily. And most students do not want to take the time
off at all. However, most students who have been Suspended do report at the end of their year off that
they have found the break very useful. Certainly, if you have been Suspended and are considering
petitioning, make an appointment with your college registrars office to talk over your chances and your
options. Its often better to get on with the beneficial year off than to spend weeks and months in
petitions and appeals that prevent you from fully dealing with the circumstances that produced the
Suspension in the first place. Your college registrars office may be able to help you sort out what is best
for your individual situation.

Petitions Guide p.16

FAQs ABOUT PETITIONS

In summary form, the answers to a few common questions:
Is my problem a petitionable matter?
The Faculty offers you two routes of appeal when you have a problem. For matters pertaining to the
internal workings of a course during term (e.g., term work, marking of your assignments, complaints
about instructors, etc.), you follow the academic route. This starts with your T.A. or instructor, goes from
there to the Associate Chair of the department or the Program Director of the program offering the course,
and moves on up to the Chair or Vice-Principal, and then to the Deans Office, if you wish to pursue it
further.
For matters that deal with Faculty rules and regulations, or matters that go beyond the term or your
relation with your instructor (e.g. Faculty-scheduled final exams, extensions beyond the course, Late
Withdrawal, etc. ), the petition route is the way to proceed. On both kinds of appeal, your college
registrars office can offer you good advice or a useful perspective on the problem.
What documentation do I need for a petition?
Whatever documentation can verify the facts or assertions in your case. (See the detailed discussions
above under Documentation.) The stronger the documentation, the stronger the case.
Medical documentation will only be accepted on the UofT Medical Certificate. You will be sent back to
the doctor to have the Certificate completed if you do not provide one, so you should pick it up or
download it before you go (link).
Other documentation is certainly relevant. The more professional the person providing the
documentation, the stronger it is, i.e., someone not related to you and bound by professional standards of
ethics is in a better position to provide formal documentation than, say, your cousin or your best friend.
If you have any questions about what might be useful, consult your college registrars office.
Why cant I appear in person to argue my own case?
The Faculty deals with over 3500 petitions a year. The only way the Petitions Office can get you an
answer in a timely way is to use written materials. Also, the Faculty must document your request and the
reason an exception was made for its own records, i.e. the paper trail. A letter of 2 pages or less should
suit your needs. As a university student, you are supposed to be able to explain yourself using clear;
persuasive prose. If your case needs to go on to the Appeals Board for a final resolution, you may appear
and speak for yourself if you want.
How long does it take to get a decision?
Again the Faculty receives over 3500 petitions per year. Most are dealt with promptly. Many require
some input from a department or professor, and so inquiries have to go out and answers have to come
back. The simplest petitions, such as those for missed exams that are accompanied by appropriate
documentation, are answered almost immediately. Others take a little longer, but the vast majority are
answered in a very timely way. (See the Response Timelines noted above.) The Faculty makes a firm
endeavour to deal with all petitions within 90 days of receiving the petition and all documentation from
the student. If a response seems to be taking a long time, you can follow up at your college registrars
office.

Petitions Guide p.17

APPENDIX

Rules & Protocols for Deferred Examinations

1.

Mailing Address: The petition decision will be mailed to the address that you have indicated on
your petition form or letter. It is very important that you provide accurate, up-to-date contact
information. Note: the Petitions system is not automatically updated by address changes you make
on ROSI (for security reasons), so you must tell your registrars office if you change your address
and have a petition in progress.

2.

Special or Regular Deferred Examinations: If your petition is granted, you will be informed of the
examination period during which you will be offered a Deferred Examination. You may be advised
to write a special examination that your instructor will prepare to be written during a future Final
Examination Period. Alternatively, you may be permitted to write the regular examination for the
course that will be offered in the next academic session. If you will be writing a regular examination
you will be urged to audit the course to prepare yourself for the new examination because the
instructor may be different and the content of the new course may also be somewhat different. If you
cannot audit the course, you are advised to obtain at least the course outline to inform yourself about
the material that might appear on the Final Examination for the course.

3.

Standing Deferred Notation (SDF): If granted permission to write a Deferred Examination, the
Faculty will replace the grade reported by the department with a notation of SDF (Standing
Deferred). The course will not be included in the calculation of your GPA on your academic record
on ROSI until the examination is written and a final grade calculated. Likewise, your standing for
the session will not reflect this course. (See also #8 and #17 below.)

4.

SDR & Academic Status: If you have been granted an SDF, your status and course enrolment in
the subsequent session could be affected. You are warned to consider your performance in the
course(s) through the session and to estimate your final grade and standing. If you are performing
poorly, you could be placed On Academic Probation or even Suspended on the completion of both
the Deferred Examination and the subsequent course(s).

5.

Deferred Examination Fee: There is a $70.00 fee per Deferred Examination, with a $140.00
maximum charge for a session.

6.

Registering for Deferred Examinations: If you have been granted a Deferred Examination, you
must register for the Deferred Examination by paying the fee, and by completing and submitting the
registration form that will be sent with the petition decision in order to provide us with your the most
recent contact information. It is important that you provide accurate and current contact information
so that the Deferred Examinations Office can inform you by mail of the exact date, time and location
of the deferred examination(s) you will be writing. You will be assigned a seat if you are writing a
special examination.

7.

Deadline to Register for Deferred Examinations: You must read your petition decision carefully
and completely. It contains essential information about the timing of the Deferred Examination and
about the deadline for the payment of the Deferred Examination fee. You are urged to pay the fee
immediately if you intend to write the examination. Do not wait until the deadline to pay the fee, as
past experience shows that students forget about the deadline and are very upset when they receive
notice of the cancellation of their Deferred Examination.
If you are having financial difficulties and cannot pay the fee by the deadline, you may contact the

Petitions Guide p.18

Deferred Examinations office to indicate your intent to write a Deferred Examination, to provide
proper contact information and to make arrangements for a deferral of the fee. Note, however, that
you will not be given your final grade until the fee has been paid.
8.

Notice of Cancellation Due to Non-payment of Fee: If the fee is not received by the deadline
stipulated, the Deferred Examinations Office will send you a notice of cancellation, informing you
that your opportunity to write a Deferred Examination has been cancelled and that you will not be
given a further chance to write the examination. The Faculty Records office will reinstate to your
academic record on ROSI the grade that the department had originally submitted, which included a
0 for the Final Examination. The Faculty Records office will then recalculate your GPA and will
notify you of your new GPA and Standing.
Please note that a great deal of administrative work is involved in preparing for Deferred
Examinations on short notice. It is therefore very important that the Deferred Examinations Office
receive a record of your intent early so they can do all the necessary work expeditiously.

9.

Scheduling of Deferred Examinations: Note that the scheduling (and seating) for Deferred
Examinations can only be completed after the regular examination scheduling has been finished, as
the Examinations and Deferred Examinations offices try to avoid conflicts in scheduling between
your regular examinations and special examinations. For this reason you will be only notified of the
exact details of Deferred Examinations between one and two weeks (depending on the session) after
the regular examination schedule has been posted or at least seven working days before the
examination date. If your petition or your payment has been accepted recently, you cannot expect to
receive the minimum notice. The petition decision will specify when this information will be sent to
you.

10. Contacting of Deferred Examinations Office: Adjustments to the Deferred Examination schedule
will not be made. For very special situations (e.g., due to academic conflicts), a student should
contact the Deferred Examinations Office immediately at deferred.examinations@artsci.utoronto.ca
with a full explanation of the problem. Supporting documentation will be required if further
consideration is to be given. Under some circumstances a student may need to file a further petition.
11. Notice of Date, Time & Location: If you have not received notification of the date, time and
location of your Deferred Examination within one week of the Final Examination Period, you are
urged to contact the Deferred Examinations Assistant at deferred.examinations@artsci.utoronto.ca to
confirm your examination dates. If you have moved residence or know that mail does not always
reach you, please be proactive and make enquiries. Our ability to contact you depends on the
accuracy of the information you give us.
12. Type & Content of Examinations: Special Deferred Examinations are prepared by the instructor(s)
of the course you have taken and should be similar in structure and content to the regular
examination you were unable to write. You should be able to prepare again for such an examination,
just as you would have done for the examination that you missed. If you have questions about the
examination, you must contact your instructor/department. Please do not contact the Deferred
Examinations Assistant, who cannot help you in this matter.
13. Clients of Accessibility Services: If you are a client with Accessibility Services, you are responsible
for informing that office of your Deferred Examination arrangements by the necessary deadlines.
The deadlines are necessary for the representatives of that office to make appropriate arrangements
for your examinations. (See above under Deferred Exams.) You must contact the Test and
Examination Co-ordinator at 416 978-8357 as soon as you receive notification of the date and time
of your deferred examination.

Petitions Guide p.19

14. Further Registration with SDF Standing: You will not be granted late withdrawal without
academic penalty from a course once you have requested and have been granted a Deferred
Examination. You are urged to use judgement in registering for courses in the next session. This is
especially the case in the short and intense summer session, or if you have deferred more than one
examination, or if you have ongoing health, personal or financial issues. As a general rule, you are
strongly urged to complete your outstanding work from the previous session before you commit
yourself to new responsibilities. Far too many students find themselves in serious academic jeopardy
by attempting to proceed too optimistically, only to be disappointed when they see the course
outcomes and find themselves in academic jeopardy. Please seek counselling with your college
registrars office.
15. Pre-requisite Courses with SDF Standing: If you have a Deferred Examination in a pre-requisite
course, the department requiring the pre-requisite has the discretion to allow you to proceed in the
subsequent course. You should not assume such discretion has been granted. Generally, if you are
able to demonstrate that you were passing the course with 60% or better, you have a reasonable case
to request an exception.
16. Prohibitions to Further Registration: If your CGPA is below 1.50 at the end of the session in
which you have been granted Standing Deferred in a course, you will not be permitted to enrol in
further courses until your Deferred Examination is resolved, i.e., until you have written the exam and
your Sessional GPA and status including the incomplete course have been assessed. If your petition
is granted and you have a course with Standing Deferred, and if your CGPA is less than 1.50, you
will be removed from subsequent courses and your tuition refunded. If you have a case for being
allowed to enrol, you must petition for permission.
17. Missed Deferred Examinations: If you miss a Deferred Exam and want a further Deferral, you
must petition for this through your college registrars office. These requests are not easily granted.
Immediately after the Final Examination Period, the Faculty Records Office will reinstate to your
academic record on ROSI the original grade reported by the department. If a request for a further
extension is granted, you may be permitted to write a Deferred Examination at the next sitting;
however, the SDF will not be reinstated to your academic record. Instead, the original grade will
remain until updated after you write the examination. You will be charged a further fee for each
subsequent Deferred Examination. You will not be permitted to enrol in courses in further sessions
until all courses that are incomplete have been resolved, even if your CGPA is above 1.50. Please
contact your college registrars office for further information.
18. Outside Centre Examinations & Deferred Examinations: : If you have good reasons for being
unable to sit an examination on campus (SGC), you must petition through your college registrars
office to be granted permission to write your examination at an Outside Centre. You will be required
to provide proof of your situation. If your request can be accommodated, you will write the
examination at the same time as originally scheduled under the supervision of staff at another
university, college or educational institution. There is a fee of $30.00 to be paid to the Faculty of
Arts and Science (in addition to the deferred Examination fee). You will also be responsible for any
additional charges and costs assessed by the hosting institution.
You should initiate your petition for an Outside Centre Examination at your college registrars office
as soon as you know that you will not be in Toronto, but no later than 3 weeks before the beginning
of the Final Examination Period. Such requests cannot always be accommodated, and adequate time
is required during the busy preparations for the Examination Period.
19. No Re-Writes: If you decide to write an examination and it does not go well, you may not petition

Petitions Guide p.20

for a re-write, i.e., another opportunity to write the examination. Post hoc arguments claiming an
inability to function at full potential or to demonstrate full knowledge of the subject matter will not
be accepted as grounds for consideration of a petition concerning performance on an examination.
Furthermore, if you choose to write an examination against medical advice, you should do so
knowing that you will not be given consideration after the examination has been written. Your
reasons for needing the course as a pre-requisite or to enable you to graduate sooner will not be
accepted as grounds for proceeding with an examination against medical advice. Students must not
only take responsibility for making appropriate decisions about their fitness to attend examinations,
but also must accept the outcome of their choices.
20. Illness during an Examination: If you become ill at an examination, you must notify the Chief
Presiding Officer immediately, sign the Anomaly Form and leave the examination. You cannot do
this at the end of the examination. The CPO will ask you to sign a form and submit all examination
materials. The examination will not be graded. You may then petition through your college
registrars office to re-write the examination. The Faculty identifies this type of request as a rewrite because you have seen the examination and may have even written parts of it. You must
immediately seek medical attention and provide the University of Toronto Student Medical
Certificate to support your petition. You will then be treated under the same guidelines as students
who apply for a Deferred Examination.

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