Note: Exam viewing requests will only be accepted after final marks have been released in Mosaic.

To request an exam viewing, students must contact the School of Interdisciplinary Science office and follow the procedures outlined below.

1)   Exam Viewing Request

Students who wish to view one of their exams must submit an email request per the requirements noted below.

If a student wishes to view more than one exam, the email must also include a list of all course exams the student is requesting to view.

For iSci exam viewing requests, please ensure to include the discipline title for the examination.

A Student’s request to view a final examination script must be submitted to the School of Interdisciplinary Science via email no later than:

• June 30th for Fall/Winter courses
• October 15th for Spring/Summer courses

Note: Requests may be submitted via email only, we will not accept verbal requests. The request should come in the body of the email, which must contain the following information:

1. Subject line: Exam Viewing Request (Course Number and Term)
2. Student Name and Student Number
3. Course Name, Year, and Term (or listing of multiple courses, year, and term)
4. Reason(s) for viewing – Please include any discrepancies of which you are aware
5. Contact information including telephone number and McMaster e-mail address

Email should be sent to the School of Interdisciplinary office at sis@mcmaster.ca.

2)   Contacting the Course Instructor

After a student has viewed their final exam, they may contact the course instructor to discuss it further. Please note that at this stage, the instructor is not obliged to meet and will not remark the exam, except to correct obvious errors (e.g., a mistake in totaling the marks).

3)   Remarking of the Final Exam

Please note that the viewing of a final exam does not imply that it will be remarked. The exam viewing session (step 1) is intended to provide students with an opportunity to view their final exam paper. After this, and only if further discussion is required, students should contact the course instructor directly (step 2).

If a student wishes to have their final exam remarked (step 3), they are required to file for a formal review with the Associate Dean of their Faculty (Please note: there is a formal review fee of $50).

Please click here to refer to the Associate Dean’s Policy and Procedures for Re-Reads & Re-Assessments

Exam Viewing Guidelines:

1. Time Duration for Exam Viewing:
   The duration of an exam viewing shall be determined at the discretion of the course instructor and/or the SIS Director and will be communicated to the student once the exam viewing is confirmed. As a general guideline, students are allotted 10 minutes of viewing time for each hour the exam was scheduled, up to a maximum of 25 minutes. For example, a 1-hour written exam allows for 10 minutes of viewing time, while a 2-hour written exam allows for 20 minutes of viewing time.
2. No Materials Permitted:
   Students are not authorized to bring any course materials or tools into the exam viewing session. This includes laptops, phones, textbooks, custom courseware, lecture notes, articles, or any other study materials.
3. Note-Taking and Digital Recordings are Strictly Prohibited:
   Students are not authorized to take notes or use any digital recording capture during the viewing session or to submit notes while viewing their exam.
4. Marking Key Access:
   Course instructors may choose whether or not to provide a marking key for consultation and are not required to provide a marking key on request. If a marking key is made available, students may view it alongside their copy of the final exam. Students are not authorized to keep or copy the marking key.
5. Supervision of Exam Viewing:
   A staff member from the School of Interdisciplinary Science will supervise all exam viewing sessions and will remind students of these guidelines.

By attending an exam viewing session, a student agrees to follow the instructions outlined above and those provided at the exam viewing session.

Last revised: Feb 2026

Students are advised to create a conflict-free schedule. If circumstances arise that include a conflict between two courses students are advised to speak with the School’s Academic Program Advisor. No course conflicts will be approved without completion of the Faculty of Science Course Conflict form.

Completed course conflict forms should be submitted to the Office of the Associate Dean (Undergraduate Studies) by their online contact request portal.

The form requires signatures from both instructors involved in the conflict. (Email messages from both instructors is accepted if you don’t have their signatures on the form.) If you are requesting an ISCI course conflict, you can submit your form to sis@mcmaster.ca with the non-ISCI instructor signature only, and we will facilitate ISCI approval if the conflict is permissible.

Note: these waivers are only for LIFESCI and SCICOMM courses.

All School of Interdisciplinary Science courses require students to meet the prerequisites to enroll. If you do not have the prerequisites, you may submit a waiver request for consideration.

• It is the instructor’s discretion as to whether course prerequisites may be waived. No exceptions to this rule will be made.

**Please note that a waiver does not guarantee a seat in a course but only the opportunity to attempt to obtain a seat. If a seat is not available, you will have to monitor enrollment until the end of the drop and add period, or take the course in a future term.

Waiver Requests 2026-27

• Complete the Online Waiver form on the School of Interdisciplinary Science Website.
• Life Sciences student: Waivers will be reviewed per the dates and deadlines noted on the last page of the online form.
• Non Life Sciences student, requesting a waiver into Life Sciences: waivers are reviewed after Aug 15^th.

All official transcript requests are made via the Office of the Registrar.

It is common for iSci students to request a formal breakdown of course component grades for ISCI 1A24, 2A18, 3A12, 4A12 to accompany their official transcript. This breakdown might be needed for applications, scholarship opportunities, and other reasons for which formal grades are required, and is called a “Transcript Supplement.”

To request an institutionally verified copy of your iSci Transcript Supplement, which will accompany and be attached to your official McMaster transcript, students and alumni can make a request through the Office of the Registrar’s transcript request service page.

For your reference, this is an example of what an iSci Transcript Supplement file looks like.

Important Dates:

Students can request their official McMaster transcript and accompanying Transcript Supplement at any time of year, but timing of your request will impact the version you receive.

The newest version for a given academic year will not be available until June 1^st.

Given that ISCI courses are multi-term (A/B), final grades are not available until the conclusion of the course at the end of the winter academic term.

Grades at the conclusion of the fall term are therefore formally noted on transcripts as In Progress (IP).

Requesting any time before June 1 will provide the file from the year prior.

For example:

• You can request a formal copy of your 2024-25 Transcript Supplement as of June 1, 2025.
• You can request a formal copy of your 2025-26 Transcript Supplement as of June 1, 2026.

For informal copies of grades, and mid-year grades, students are asked to refer to other sources such as Avenue2Learn.

McMaster Honours Integrated Science equivalency letter to accompany Transcript for iSci program entry in 2019-2023

McMaster Honours Integrated Science equivalency letter to accompany Transcript for iSci program entry in 2024-current

Recruiting Research Participants Through SIS

If you are conducting research involving human participants and would like SIS to share your recruitment call with students, please review the requirements below.

Eligibility Requirements

SIS can only distribute recruitment materials for studies that:

• Have active REB approval
• Include a valid ethics certificate number
• Align with the approved recruitment protocol

If you are a student researcher, your supervisor must be copied on the request email to confirm:

• Ethics approval is in place
• SIS is authorized to distribute the recruitment materials

Requests submitted by students without supervisor confirmation will not be processed.

What to Submit

Email your request to sis@mcmaster.ca and include:

• Ethics certificate number
• Approved recruitment parameters (where and how recruitment is permitted)
• Target student population(s) (e.g., iSci, Life Sci, Med Rad Sci, all programs)
• Finalized recruitment wording, exactly as it should be posted

Important Notes

• SIS posts recruitment calls on Avenue to Learn (A2L) message boards only.
• SIS does not edit recruitment wording or verify external links.
• Requests that do not include all required information will not be posted.

If you are unsure whether your study qualifies for distribution through SIS, please contact sis@mcmaster.ca before submitting your request.