Faculty of Science: Deferred Examination Petitions FAQs

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As a Faculty of Science undergraduate student, learn what to expect when requesting a deferred exam including eligibility, documentation, and decision timelines.

Before You Request: Eligibility

Under what circumstances would a student submit a deferred examination petition?

Students are expected to write the final examination for a course as scheduled by the Examinations Office. A scheduled final examination represents a formal academic deadline for learning and applying their knowledge of the course content within the term. Students are expected to meet their academic responsibilities, even if they are not experiencing optimal physical or mental wellness. Most students complete a degree without ever deferring a final examination. Should a student: 1) not be available to write the examination at the scheduled time due to documentable, extraordinary circumstances known in advance, or 2) miss a final examination due to documentable unforeseen extraordinary circumstances, the student must appeal for deferred examination privileges.

Deferred examinations will be granted for legitimate, documentable, extraordinary circumstances only, such as serious incapacitating illness or extraordinary personal or family circumstances (e.g., death of a close family member).

I think that I may be unwell at the scheduled time of my upcoming examination. How soon in advance can I submit the deferral form?

Students are expected to meet their academic responsibilities, even if they are not experiencing optimal physical or mental wellness. Deferral appeals based on medical grounds will not be accepted prior to the scheduled time of the examination, as a student cannot be certain that they will be medically incapacitated at the scheduled time of the examination. We are unable to provide verbal or written assurances prior to the scheduled time of the examination that your deferral appeal will be granted as the form will take multiple days to be processed. If you are medically incapacitated at the time of the scheduled examination, not just experiencing minor symptoms, it is presumed that you cannot attend the scheduled examination. If an examination is missed due to medical grounds, the deferral appeal must be submitted no later than three business days after the scheduled date of the examination. Delayed filing may result in a denial of your appeal.

How It Affects Your Studies

Will deferring a final examination influence my course registrations for the following term or my program progression?

A student who has not earned credit in a Faculty of Science course by end of the term due to deferring the final examination may be de-registered from any course in the following term for which the incomplete course is a pre-requisite. For example, a student who defers the final examination in CP104, will be de-registered from CP164 in the following term. Deferring a final examination may also delay a progression decision for continuing in your program or graduation for a student in their last term of study.

Is there a limit to the number of deferrals permitted during the completion of a degree?

Most students complete a degree without ever deferring a final examination. Each deferral will count towards the maximum of five examination deferrals permitted during the completion of a degree. This is not to be interpreted that every deferral petition that is filed by a student will be granted up until the maximum is reached. Each petition decision is based on established policies and regulations. For more information, please refer to the Deferred Examination Policy in the academic calendar.

A petition for a deferred examination (for unforeseen circumstances) must be submitted no later than three business days after the scheduled date of the examination.

Submitting Your Deferred Exam Petition Request

To whom would a student submit a deferred examination petition?

Deferred examination petitions are submitted to the Faculty offering the course. Courses are offered by the Faculty of Science on the Waterloo Campus, Brantford campus (BR sections) and Milton Campus (MC, MV), including Virtual (VA, VH, VS) sections. Faculty of Science offerings include the following course codes: AS, BI, CH, CP, CLIM, DATA, ES, GESC, GG, GL, HE, HN, KP, MA, PARA, PC, *PS, SC, ST, UU150, WASC. Deferral petitions for courses with these codes are submitted to the Faculty of Science Academic Advising Office through the Faculty of Science Final Deferred Examination Appeal Form. *Exception: Deferral petitions for Psychology (PS) courses offered at the Brantford campus (BR sections). Deferral petitions for these PS courses are submitted to the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences.

Is the Faculty of Science deferred examination petition available online?

The Faculty of Science Final Deferred Examination Appeal Form can be found online on the students.wlu.ca website. Simply search for the phrase “deferred exams” or visit students.wlu.ca/academics/exams/deferred-exams.html. A petition for a deferred examination (for unforeseen circumstances) must be submitted no later than three business days after the scheduled date of the examination.

How would a student submit a deferred examination petition to another Waterloo campus Faculty (Arts, LSBE, Music)?

The online forms for courses offered by other Faculties are available on the deferred examination webpage:
• Faculty of Arts Final Exam Deferral Petition Form
• Lazaridis School of Business and Economics Final Exam Petition form
• Faculty of Music Petition Form

I am a Waterloo campus student registered in a Brantford campus-based course (Faculty of Human and Social Sciences or Faculty of Liberal Arts). To whom would I submit a deferred examination petition?

A student submits a petition for a deferred examination to the Faculty offering the course. The Faculty of Human and Social Sciences (Brantford Campus) manages multiple Waterloo campus and virtual courses including those with the following codes: CC, HS, OL, PD. The Faculty of Liberal Arts (Brantford Campus) manages multiple Waterloo campus and virtual courses including those with the following codes: HR, ID, SOJE, UX, YC. Any course with a “BR” section is also offered by a Brantford campus Faculty. The petition forms for courses offered by Brantford campus Faculties are available online on the Deferred Exams webpage:
• Faculty of Human and Social Sciences (Brantford) petition form
• Faculty of Liberal Arts petition form

Most students complete a degree without ever deferring a final examination.

Time Conflicts & Special Situations

I have two examinations scheduled at the same time. How do I re-schedule one of these examinations?

If a student has a final examination scheduling conflict (i.e., two examinations scheduled at the same time) the student must complete the appropriate campus-based form: the Waterloo Final Exam Conflict Form or the Brantford Final Exam Conflict Form or the Milton Final Exam Conflict Form) to have one of the examinations re-scheduled by the Examinations Office (finalexams@wlu.ca). If a student will be taking examinations administered by Accessible Learning (AL), the student must contact AL directly to have examinations re-scheduled.

My examinations are scheduled close together. Is it possible to defer one, or more, to a later date?

Based on university regulations, students are not normally required to fully complete more than two final examinations within a 24-hour period. To receive relief under this regulation, the third "offending" examination must start and finish within 24 hours of the beginning of the first examination. For example, you will not receive relief under this regulation when your examinations begin at 3:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on one day, and 3:30 p.m. on the following day.

If the second course in the sequence of exams is a Faculty of Science course, submit a petition for a deferred exam through the Faculty of Science Final Examination Form.

Submit the form ideally prior to the start of the examination period, but no later than three business days before the first of the three final examinations is scheduled. No other examination scheduling/load concerns will be favourably considered by the Faculty of Science.

I am a Laurier student who is cross-registered for a course at UW and their course examination conflicts with one of my Laurier examinations. How do I re-schedule one of these examinations?

Examination scheduling conflicts involving cross-registered courses will be resolved at Laurier (i.e., the home university). The student must contact the Examinations Office directly (finalexams@wlu.ca) to have one of the examinations re-scheduled.

I am cross-registered for a course at UW and I need to appeal for a deferred examination for documentable extraordinary circumstances. How do I defer the examination?

Appeals for deferred examination privileges must be submitted to UW (i.e., the host university).

I am living in another time zone. Am I expected to write the final examination for a virtual (VA, VH VS sections) course in the middle of the night based on my local time?

Students will not be required to complete a Faculty of Science examination for a virtual course that extends into the period of 12:00 midnight to 5:30 a.m. for their local time zone. To receive relief under this policy, the problematic examination must start or finish within this period. In the explanation, you must specify the country / time zone in which you are residing. If this information does not match your home address on record with Enrolment Services, you may be asked for documentation to support your appeal. Students completing both in-person and virtual courses do not qualify for this relief. If you are electing to defer an examination under this policy, you should submit your petition as soon as possible, and no later than seven calendar days before the scheduled examination. The deferred examination will be written during the regularly scheduled deferred exam period.

Fees & Documentation

Is there a fee for a deferred examination?

The standard non-refundable deferred examination fee (approximately $70 will be charged to your Laurier student account for each deferred examination).

What is supporting documentation? Do I need to submit documentation with my form?

Supporting documentation consists of a document or letter from an official source that supports the explanation and timeline presented in your petition. The expected documentation is described online for each type of common extraordinary personal circumstance.

Supporting documentation, specific to the scheduled date of the deferred examination, is required for all extraordinary personal circumstances, except medical grounds. However, the student may elect to submit medical documentation to support their appeal. A medical document dated after the scheduled date of the examination, in which a student reports to the physician that they were medically unfit to write an examination, does not provide support to the petition.

If you have documentation on file with Accessible Learning for a relevant chronic condition, you may contact your disability consultant and request that a copy of the documentation be forwarded to the Faculty of Science to support your appeal for a deferred examination.

The re-deferral of a final examination is infrequently granted. A student is expected to write a granted deferred examination as scheduled. Supporting documentation, specific to the scheduled date of the deferred examination, is required for this type of petition, including medical grounds.

All relevant documentation should be scanned and uploaded to the form for a complete petition package. There are free scanning apps available for you to use (e.g., Microsoft Lens). It is important to ensure that an uploaded document is not password protected. Photos or screenshots will not be accepted as supporting documents. Submitting a document in an unacceptable, or unreadable, format will delay consideration of the petition as the student will be requested to re-submit the entire form with a scanned supporting document.

Failure to provide satisfactory documentation, where applicable, may result in a decision on the petition being delayed, the appeal being closed, or the petition being closed.

All documentation is subject to confirmation. You should keep the original document(s) for the duration of the petition process as they may be requested. Fraudulent or altered supporting documents provided with your petition submission is considered a serious academic offense and will result in immediate denial of your petition. Allegations of academic misconduct will also be considered by the Associate Dean, Academic, for possible further penalties.

What kind of documentation is not considered appropriate?

Photos or screenshots will not be accepted as supporting documents. Examples of documentation that are generally not considered to be appropriate for a petition are screenshots of a partial text message or email conversation, photographs of medical conditions/injuries suffered by yourself or another person, photographs of a car accident, photographs of prescription bottles, financial documents (e.g., banking or credit card statements) or medical records for a person other than yourself. Documentation containing the personal information of another person should not be submitted without their permission.

For re-deferral appeals based on medical grounds, where supporting documentation is required, what information is expected on the medical document?

For a deferral petition based on acute incapacitating medical grounds, you should make it your first priority to attend Health Services, your family physician, a walk-in clinic or the emergency room (as appropriate) in-person to be examined and treated by a physician and obtain medical documentation (if required) to support your appeal.

  • Medical certificates for acute medical circumstances must be signed and dated by the physician/medical professional on the day of the final examination. For cases of lengthier serious medical conditions (e.g., mononucleosis, pneumonia, concussion) or surgery, the stated recovery time on the medical certificate must be inclusive of the date of the scheduled examination.
  • The original Laurier Verification of Illness Form and/or an original medical certificate should be completed by the medical professional and must include, the date(s) and time(s) you were examined in-person by the physician/medical professional, the date(s) of illness, the nature of the illness and the expected time of convalescence. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that all requested information is included on their submitted Laurier Verification of Illness form/medical certificate.
  • Reporting symptoms to a medical professional in a virtual appointment for the purpose of obtaining a medical note does not meet the expected documentation standard of being examined and diagnosed in-person.
  • All medical certificates are subject to verification. Any falsification or fabrication of documentation will be addressed through academic misconduct procedures.
  • Note that deferred examination petitions based on medical grounds will not receive favourable consideration by the Science Petitions & Regulations Committee if a student writes another examination within 12 hours of the examination for which a deferral is being requested, unless justifiably accounted for in the petition.
Deferral appeals based on medical grounds will not be accepted prior to the scheduled time of the examination.

After Your Request: Decisions & Next Steps

How will I be notified of the petition decision?

The petition decision, and any other related correspondence from the Faculty of Science, will be conveyed via your mylaurier.ca e-mail account only. You must regularly check your mylaurier.ca e-mail account for important correspondence.

Who is involved in granting or denying the petition?

The Chair of the Faculty of Science Petitions & Regulations Committee (Associate Dean: Academic) oversees the deferral petition procedures on behalf of the Faculty of Science Petitions & Regulations Committee. Precedent has been established by previous Petitions & Regulations Committee rulings for various types of deferrals such that a decision by a delegate may occur. Each petition will be considered on individual merit, and a decision will be made based on the student’s unique academic or personal extraordinary circumstances. 

How long can I expect to wait for the decision correspondence?

The time required to process the deferral petition will vary from 2 to 20 business days (or more depending on the number of petitions received), after the form and official supporting documentation (if applicable) is received. Examination deferral petitions will be processed as quickly as possible, typically in the order that they are received. Failure to provide all requested information and appropriate supporting documentation (if applicable) with form submission, or in a timely manner following a request for information / documentation, will delay the decision.

Do not submit a second petition form, or inquire as to the status of your petition, unless a minimum of 20 business days has passed since the form was submitted.

When will I write my deferred exam?

If granted, most students will write the Faculty of Science examination during the next scheduled period for deferred final examinations. The Spring and Intersession 2026 Deferred Final Examination period is Aug. 30 - Sept. 5, 2026 (it is at a different time for the 6-week courses in the Summer term, which is from Sept. 20-26, 2026). Students are advised to not to make commitments during this time (i.e., travel, work). Note that the posted Deferred Examination Schedule is different from the regular examination schedule.

The Faculty of Science has one “Slip Day” reserved for deferred examinations for students who have appealed for religious accommodations. Religious accommodations must be submitted by the regulation deadline (seven calendar days before the final day of classes of the term).

Deferrals will not be scheduled prior to the original date of an examination to suit a student’s personal circumstances.

Questions?

See the deferred examinations website.

If you have a general question regarding the Faculty of Science final examination deferral
process, submit a Faculty of Science Academic Advising Inquiry form to initiate a request for information.