MS Program

Guidelines for Letter Grading System for MS Program

for all the departments under the Faculty of Science & ISRT
Session 2009-2010 and onward

1. Course of study for a MS degree in the Faculty of Science shall extend over a period of one
academic year. A student can enroll either in Non-thesis or in Thesis Group where applicable.
A student must earn a total of 30-36 credits for the award of MS degree. The distribution of
credits will be decided by the respective Department/Institute. However, the MS courses in
the Faculty of Science will be conducted under the following general rules and regulations.

2. Admission into MS Courses

Students who have completed BS (Hons.) degree from a Department/Institute with minimum
CGPA of 2.5 in the scale of 4 will only be eligible for admission to MS courses under the Faculty
of Science.

3. Duration of the Program

The duration of MS program will be of 1 (one) academic year to be distributed as follows:

Classes 24 weeks
Time for preparation of final examination 04 weeks
Course final examination 04 weeks
Submission of thesis/projects/practical/examination/seminar/internship 16 weeks
Publication of results 04 weeks

4. Credits Earned
A student must earn 30-36 credits in order to complete the requirements for the award of MS
degree from a Department/Institute in the Faculty of Science.

5. Evaluation of Students
The performances of the students will be evaluated on the basis of continuous assessment and
course final examination. The marks in a course will be distributed as follows:

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(a) Theory Course
Department/Institute
Physics Others
Class attendance 10% 05%
In-course assessment/tutorial/assignment 30% 25%
Course final examination 60% 70%

(b) Practical Course

Department/Institute
Physics Others
Class attendance 05%
In-course (non-thesis) assessment *see 5(c)(i) 35%
Course final examination 60%

(c) Distribution of Credit for Thesis and Non-Thesis students

The distribution of credits for Thesis and Non-Thesis students will be according to the
following format as recommended by the respective Department/Institute.

Department of Statistics
Thesis Non-Thesis
Theory compulsory 14 credits Theory compulsory 14 credits
Theory optional 8 credits Theory optional 8 credits
Thesis 6 credits Practical 6 credits
General viva 2 credits General viva 2 credits
Total 30 credits Total 30 redits

(d) Marks for Attendance

Department/Institute
Physics Other Department/Institute
Attendance (%) Marks (%) Attendance (%) Marks (%)
95 and above 10 90 and above 05
90 to 94 08 85 to 89 04
85 to 89 06 80 to 84 03
80 to 84 04 75 to 79 02
75 to 79 02 60 to 74 01
60 to 74 01 Less than 60 00

6. In-course Assessment (Theory Courses)

(i) The course teacher will announce the dates of in-course examinations at the
beginning of the course. The in-courses assessment will be based on tests/
assignments/seminars or class-presentations. The number and distribution of tests/

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 assignments/seminars/class-presentations or any combination of them will be
decided by the respective teacher. The in-course assessment will be of one hour
duration and the teacher concerned will be responsible to assess the students sitting
in his/her course. There will be 2 tests for 3 and 4 credit course and one for 2 credit
course. For 3 or 4 credit courses average of the two should be considered to finalize
the grade.

Answer scripts must be shown to the students.

(ii) No make-up test will be arranged for a student who fails to appear or wish to re-
appear in his/her in-course test/tests. Absence in any in-course test will be counted
as zero for calculating the average in in-course test for that course. However, a
student can request special permission for re-take of in-course test if recommended
by the course teacher through the academic committee of the Department only under
extraordinary circumstances (e.g., accident, death of a close-relative, etc.).

7. Course Final Examination (Theory Courses)

(i) The course final examination will be conducted by the Controller of Examination as
per existing rules of the university.
(ii) The course final examination will be of 3 hours or 4 hours duration for 3 or 4 credit
course and 21/2 hour for 2 credit course.
(iii) There will be two examiners to evaluate an answer-script. One of them must be the
course teacher and the external examiner will preferable be from outside the
respective Departments. In case a suitable person is not available as external
examiner a teacher from within be Department may be appointed with prior
permission from the Vice Chancellor.
(iv) Examination of practical courses for non-thesis students will be conducted as per
existing rules of the University.

8. Evaluation of Thesis
(i) Thesis will be evaluated as per existing rules of the University with two external
examiners from outside the respective Department.
(ii) Oral examination of the MS thesis students will be conducted by the members of
Examination Committee consisting of three internal and one external examiner and
approved by the Academic Council of the University. Supervisor of a student will be
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 requested to be present at the time of the presentation. He/she may participate in
discussion but not in evaluation.

9. Grading System
Marks obtained by a student in different courses will be converted to grades. A basic four point
(4.00) grading scale will be followed. The following letter grade and grade point will be used to
determine the student’s grade point average (GPA).

Marks Obtained Corresponding Grade Point

Letter Grade
80% or above A+ 4.00
75 to 79% A 3.75
70 to 74% A- 3.50
65 to 69% B+ 3.25
60 to 64% B 3.00
55 to 59% B- 2.75
50 to 54% C+ 2.50
45 to 49% C 2.25
40 to less than 44% D 2.00
less than 40% F 0.00

10. Improvement
(i) If a student obtains a grade C+ or lower in a theory course he/she will be allowed to
repeat the term-final examination only once with the following batch for the purpose
of grade improvement, but he/she will not be eligible to get a grade better than ‘B+’
in such a course. A student failing to improve his/her grade in a course can retain the
earlier grade.
(ii) A student will be allowed to take improvement of 25% of the total theoretical credits
taken.
(iii) A student obtaining ‘F’ grade in one or more courses (theory and practical) will not
be awarded degree. However, a student obtaining ‘F’ grade in a course may be
allowed to retake that course only once with the next batch of students in order to be
awarded a degree. A student obtaining ‘F’ grades in more than one courses will not
be allowed to repeat any course.

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11. Calculation of GPA
The GPA (grade point average) will be calculated according to the following formula:

∑(grade points in a course credits for the course)

𝐺𝑃𝐴 =
total credits taken

12. Eligibility for Sitting in Course Final Examination

(i) A student must attend at least 75% of the total classes in a course held in an academic
year to be eligible for appearing in the final examination in a course.
(ii) A student attending at least 60% of classes in a course will be allowed to sit for course
final examination after payment of non-collegiate fees as decided by the University.
(iii) A student attending less than 60% classes in a course will not be allowed to sit for
final examination.

13. Readmission
(i) A student failing to complete the MS course in a year may seek readmission with the
next available batch of students, provided he/she applies within one month of
publication of the result of the concerned year.
(ii) A readmitted student will be allowed to retain his/her in-course/class
assessment/tutorial marks earned in previous year.
(iii) A readmitted student may be allowed to take up thesis work as decided by the
department Academic Committee.
(iv) The transcripts of successful readmitted student will bear the letter ‘R’ after GPA
with a foot note explaining ‘R’ means Readmission.

14. Requirements for MS degree

A minimum GPA of 2.50 on a scale of 4.00 must be obtained in order to be awarded MS degree.

15. General Regulations

(i) The Departmental Academic Committee will design courses of studies, frame
syllabuses of different courses, propose examination committee and panel of
examiners as per rules of the university.
(ii) The course teacher will provide the students a course outline, schedule of class
assessment and relevant information in the first class of the term.

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(iii) The course teacher shall announce the results of the in-course tests within four weeks
of the date of holding the tests and submit the marks to the Chairman of the
Examination committee for the respective batch and also a copy to the Controller of
Examinations at least two weeks before the start of the final examination. He/she
should also submit a statement showing the total number of classes held and the
percentage of attendance of each student in his/her course to the Chairman of the
Department.
(iv) Tabulation work will be started only after all the marks of the course final
examinations for the year are received by the Chairman of the Examination
Committee. Marks received by the Chairman of the Examination Committee shall
remain in the sealed envelope as sent by the Examiner/Examiners until tabulation
work is started.
(v) The present system of conducting course final examination and publication of results
by the office of the Controller of Examinations shall continue.
(vi) For any other matters not covered in these rules, the existing rules of the University
of Dhaka will be applicable.

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