The main goal of the marking process is to ensure fairness and consistency, both within the current class, and evaluations in previous years. There is no quota system for the marks; but because of the large number of students in first and second year courses, one expects class averages to not vary much over time. Typically, class averages in calculus courses are in the C+ to B- range, i.e., between 2.3 and 2.7 grade points.

Midterm marks (and potentially also final exam marks) will be scaled to take into account the difficulty and length of different exams. The final course mark is computed using the formula given at the beginning of the course. Some instructors provide an option for a larger weight on the final exam, and students obtain the higher of the two marks computed with different options. Other instructors feel that the marking scheme ought not to be changed, but perhaps provide a fairly large weight for the final exam. Either way acknowledges that what counts is how much you know after taking the course.

To give you a rough idea on how scores out of 100 correspond to letter grades you may use the following guidelines. A final course mark of 60% will usually be sufficient for a straight C, about 70% will usually give a B range mark (B-, B, B+), and course marks higher than 90% will definitely result in an A letter grade (A-, A, A+). A course mark of less than 50% usually results in a D, scores below 45% will translate into an F. The exact break points on the scale are subject to fine-tuning.