Assessment
This policy outlines the University's commitment to transparent, equitable, and rigorous assessment practices, ensuring high academic standards while measuring learning outcomes and providing feedback to learners.
Assessment components. Learners’ performance is evaluated through various methods, including continuous assessments, project presentations, and final examinations, as determined by course instructors to provide meaningful and holistic evaluation of learning outcomes. Continuous assessments may include homework, reports, essays, and tutorial presentations.
Grading standards. While instructors consider the overall performance of the class, grades are determined by academic judgement or standards-based evaluation of learners’ achievement of learning outcomes, not by a bell curve, but within broad university guidelines to regulate grade inflation.
Fairness and consistency. Component marks may be calibrated to achieve fairness and consistency across different classes within the same course. All grades undergo a multi-level review by Boards of Examiners at the Department and Faculty, School, or College level to achieve fairness and consistency of grades awarded across the university.
The University has in place standard operating procedures to ensure that examination processes are conducted with utmost care and attention. Multiple levels of checks are built into the handling of examination answer scripts, marking and processing of marks and grades.
Feedback
Continuous assessment (CA) and examination serve different pedagogical needs. Examination serves primarily to assess a student's understanding of the subject matter, whereas CA plays in addition a formative role in educational terms. For this reason, unlike examination scripts which are not returned to students, CA is returned to students with comments and/or discussion if appropriate, so that they may improve on their work. For many courses, CA constitutes a significant percentage of the final grade.
Special Consideration
Special Consideration is designed to help students who have experienced illness or other circumstances that have impacted their attendance or performance in an examination. All requests for Special Consideration will be evaluated by the Board of Examiners (BOE) of the relevant Faculty. For any inquiries regarding Special Consideration, please contact the individuals listed in the Home Faculty directory in the exam directory.
If you are consulting a doctor at the University Health Centre (UHC) to support your Special Consideration application, please submit an online application via EduRec before your appointment. Upon your visit, please inform the UHC that you are consulting a doctor for a Special Consideration application. If you are consulting an external doctor not affiliated with the UHC, please ensure that the doctor completes Part 3 of the Special Consideration Form before you submit it online to support your application.
For detailed application guidelines and user instructions, please consult the exam directory, the Special Consideration Guidelines and the Special Consideration System User Guide
Review of Examination Results
After the release of examination results, students may request a review through the Department. This review will verify whether the examination script has been marked completely and that all marks (including CA) have been correctly transmitted to the Board of Examiners. The review will not involve marking an examination script a second time. To do so at this juncture would be out of context with no relative comparison with the rest of the class. In order to maintain consistency of assessment for all students, the University therefore does not allow re-marking unless certain parts of the answer were not taken into account in the original assessment.
In addition, the University reserves the right to review current students' results at any time and make revisions to these results in accordance with NUS' guidelines and policies. These reviews may arise from audit on past semesters' results or routine checks and reviews conducted by faculties during the semester.