Confusion after 85% of students fail final exam at Canadian university
Roughly half the students taking one course at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) managed to score below 26% on their final exam, sparking heated conversations on the state of higher education.
The course in question, MAT224 — Linear Algebra II, is a prerequisite for several third-year math courses at UTM and one of many classes students can choose from to complete their mathematics major requirements in their second year.
According to a course-wide email sent to students, instructors revealed that the average for the final exam was 29%, with 94 out of 110 students receiving an F and only one student receiving an A grade.
“The course instructors have never seen an exam average so low. We reflected deeply on possible causes of this. In particular: did we create a fair exam and whether the grading was appropriate. The exam was heavier on theory than computation, but this reflects how the written assignments were focused on theory,” the email reads.
85 per cent of a UTM math class failed a final exam, sparking discussion about how U of T teaches and assesses students taking math courses.https://t.co/v0JIqAgz7D
— The Varsity (@TheVarsity) January 22, 2024
“We largely believe that the exam was fair, and that the course materials (slides, tutorials, quizzes, and assignments) set students up for success. That being said, our expectations for complete solutions on the long answers were too high, and we awarded some bonus points to make up some of the difference,” the instructors continued.
“This method was chosen to reward people who made some progress on the long answer questions.”
According to a UTM spokesperson who spoke with U of T’s official student newspaper, The Varsity, 28.4% of the students failed the course, most of whom did not take the final exam. The spokesperson said that 93% of those who actually took the exam passed the course.
“The questions on the exam weren’t too crazy, it just had a lot of ‘Man, I wish I had looked at that slide before this’ moments. I know I would have gotten 100 on some questions if I looked at [the] relevant slide right before,” one MAT224 student, who preferred to remain anonymous, told blogTO.
“The exam didn’t really have a lot of computation either, which was kind of surprising because I — and my peers — practiced a decent amount of matrix decompositions,” the student said, noting that they ultimately received a B in the course.
“The course itself was fine, the weekly quizzes were essentially free marks and the assignments were challenging. The courage average is typical for MAT224 — and higher than a recent year because the exam balanced the final marks.”
The student also noted that the professor for the course remains “one of the best math professors at UTM,” telling blogTO that they’ve never missed one of his lectures.
Another MAT224 student, who also preferred to remain anonymous, told blogTO that many may have found the course a bit challenging because of the unfamiliarity with vectors.
“With thorough practice, a lot of YouTube videos, and re-reading textbook chapters that you find difficult, people can see their grades will improve,” they said.
A post discussing the course’s low final exam average made rounds on Reddit last month, with multiple students and TAs (outside of the course) pitching in their two cents about what contributed to the poor grades.
Is this MAT224 final average fr? (not my class, friend sent me)
byu/Advisor_Dry inUofT
“I was in MAT224 last year and it was definitely not this bad (final average was C+). I wonder what happened this year,” one former student wrote.
Many didn’t instantly place the blame on the professors involved and instead criticized the structure of some of the prerequisites mathematics students are required to take beforehand.
Some suggested that while the course itself was smooth, the final exam did not accurately test the materials students were taught, while others noted that pandemic-related effects might be catching up to students — especially those who spent the majority of high school in lockdowns.
According to statistics presented by Toronto Public Health (TPH) staff to the Board of Health in 2023, more mental health resources are required for children and youth who continue to suffer negative impacts from lockdowns.
TPH staff found that 59% of Ontario students reported that lockdowns left them feeling depressed about the future, and 39% reported that it made their mental health worse.
Data was sourced from Toronto’s Population Health Profile (2023), the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (2022) and the 2022 ParticipACTION Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.
A 2023 Statistics Canada report also found that the pandemic caused detrimental changes to health behaviours in youth, revealing that the percentage of youth meeting the screen time recommendation on school days dropped from 40.7% in 2018 to 13.2% in 2021.
“My first-year students (I teach at another university) are suddenly unable to remember the core ideas from the course — the online tests during the pandemic and now reliance on ChatGPT means that students have gone three important, formative years not developing test-taking skills,” one professor wrote under the Reddit thread.
blogTO reached out to UTM for comment on the course’s low final exam average but has not received a response at the time of publication.
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