The purpose of this procedure is to give specific guidance to assist the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM) with implementation of, and ensure institutional compliance with, WVSOM’s Institutional Policy GP-04: Grading Scale in regards to the removal of Incomplete (I) grades and the Reassessment (R) category, as those terms are defined in Institutional Policy GP-04.
This procedure applies to any situation where Incomplete grades are assigned or the Reassessment category of Institutional Policy GP-04 is triggered.
WVSOM reserves the right to amend this procedure at any time.
For purposes of this procedure, all capitalized or defined terms have the same meaning as assigned to them in Institutional Policy GP-04.
The requirements for the removal of an Incomplete (“I”) should be obtained from the Associate Dean of Graduate Programs. A grade of I must be removed within the time period specified in Institutional Policy DO-04.
When the student receives an I due to an excused absence from the final exam, the I will be removed upon completion of the make-up exam.
If the grade of I is not removed within the appropriate time period, a grade of failure (“F”) will be recorded for the course as specified in Institutional Policy GP-04. A grade of F will be entered by the Registrar in place of the I grade on the transcript.
Students are eligible for a Reassessment (“R”) designation when:
their grade at the end the semester in a course is less than a C- (excluding lab courses and seminar courses). The Reassessment will be a cumulative retest and may cover all course material. The material to be covered will be designated by the course director in consultation with teaching faculty. The Reassessment will be at a similar level of difficulty as the original course assessment(s), but may be in the form of a multiple-choice exam, fill in the blank, oral, or any other format chosen by the course director after consultation with the teaching faculty; and
they have no more than one (1) other current R grade during a given semester.
If a student is eligible for a Reassessment designation, a grade of R must be submitted to the Registrar at the end of the course by Associate Dean of Graduate Programs. The time allotted for preparation and reexamination will be included in detail in the course syllabus and must occur within its scheduled time period.
Reassessment consists of student self-guided, independent study of the course material, followed by an examination requiring a grade of C- or greater. Failure to achieve a C- or greater results in a grade of F being entered by the Registrar in place of the R grade.
A student who is successful on the cumulative reassessment in achieving a C- or greater will have their R grade converted to a course grade of C- that will be recorded on the student’s transcript. The original course grade will not appear on the student’s transcript. A student who is unable to take the cumulative retest at the scheduled time for any reason will have their R grade reverted to the original course grade of F.
A student may have only one (1) course grade of R at any one time. Only one (1) R grade is allowed per semester in the graduate program. If a student has an R grade for a course that has not been removed, any subsequent course grade of <C- will be considered a course failure and may not be eligible for reassessment.
A student is not eligible for assignment of an R grade if the initial course failure was due to violation of WVSOM’s standards of academic integrity (cheating, plagiarism, etc.) or other professionalism issue.
A course must be reassessed in the same semester in which it occurred.
In the case of one (1) failed reassessment, the student may be eligible to remediate the course. A student with one (1) course failure per academic year, for more information, see Institutional Policy GP-09: Remediation.
A student who fails more than one (1) Reassessment per academic year will be sent to the Graduate Academic Performance Committee as described in Institutional Policy GP-01: Academic and Professional Standards.