Just in time for final exam sea­son, here’s a use­ful Canadian expres­sion. Our British and Australian read­ers may be famil­iar with this phrase, but it was one I never heard in the U.S.

If stu­dents are granted “aegro­tat stand­ing,” they’re given credit for a course in which they haven’t taken a required exam or com­pleted all the course require­ments, gen­er­ally for med­ical reasons.

For exam­ple, sev­eral Canadian provinces, includ­ing British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba, have provin­cial exams that are required for high school grad­u­a­tion. If a high school stu­dent has been hos­pi­tal­ized and is unable to take a required provin­cial exam, s/​he can apply for aegro­tat stand­ing, which would grant credit for the course toward grad­u­a­tion, even with­out com­plet­ing the nec­es­sary examination.

Similarly, a uni­ver­sity stu­dent who is unable to com­plete cer­tain course require­ments due to ill­ness can — in lim­ited cir­cum­stances — apply for aegro­tat stand­ing and receive credit for the course.

Check your school’s pol­icy, but in gen­eral, to apply for aegro­tat stand­ing, high school stu­dents should con­tact their teacher and coun­selor; uni­ver­sity stu­dents should dis­cuss the request with their pro­fes­sor and the appro­pri­ate dean or administrator.

Photo by dcJohn (flickr)