Repeating a Grade 12 course: which mark each Ontario university uses

Updated August 22, 2026

Nearly every university uses the highest grade, which is why repeating is usually safe. The exceptions are the ones students repeat courses for: Queen's uses the most recent attempt, Western averages your attempts once you have three repeats, Laurier's Science and Business programs weight your first and latest try, and U of T engineering and Rotman may not count the repeat at all. Read your targets before you register.

The short answer, and the universities it is wrong for

19 of the 23 universities that answered use your highest grade. Repeat Advanced Functions, go from a 71 to an 84, and the 84 is what counts — the 71 stays on your transcript and stops mattering. That is why repeating a course in summer school or night school is usually the right call when one mark is dragging a whole average.

The exceptions are few and they are exactly the universities students repeat courses for. Before you register, read your targets below.

• 19 universities use your highest grade

  Algoma · Brock · Carleton · Lakehead · Laurentian · McMaster · Nipissing · OCAD · Ontario Tech · RMC · Saint Paul · TMU · Trent · Guelph · Guelph-Humber · Ottawa · Windsor · Laurier (Waterloo) · York

• 1 university uses your most recent attempt

  Queen's

• 1 university may not consider repeats at all

  U of T (St. George)

• 1 university assesses repeats case by case

  Waterloo

• 1 university averages your attempts past a threshold

  Western

The exceptions, one by one

Queen’s uses your most recent attempt

Not your highest — your latest. Queen’s wording: “We use the grade from the most recent attempt to calculate the admission average.” Repeat a 78 and get a 74, and Queen’s counts the 74. A repeat at Queen’s is a bet that you will do better, not a free roll.

Western averages your attempts once you have three repeats

“If a student has 3 or more repeats, we will take the average of their attempts. If a student has 2 or fewer repeats, we will take the highest attempt.” Two repeats are safe. The third turns every repeat — including the first two — into an average of the attempts. A student who repeats three courses to lift three marks can end up lower than they started.

Laurier: it depends on the faculty

For the Faculty of Science and the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Laurier uses “a weighted average of the first and latest course attempts for required courses only.” A required course — the Calculus for a BBA application — is averaged between your first try and your last. Everything else, and every other Laurier faculty, takes the highest grade.

U of T: engineering and Rotman

“Generally, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Admissions Committee does not consider repeated course grades.” And: “Rotman Commerce, within the Faculty of Arts & Science, will consider only the first attempt at each subject.” For those two, the repeat may not count at all. The rest of U of T “reserve[s] the right to take into account repeated courses” and invites a request for special consideration in extenuating circumstances.

McMaster may ask for a letter

Highest grade, but: “We may ask students who repeated more than 2 courses, or individual courses more than twice, to provide a letter detailing any extenuating circumstances.” Not a penalty; a pattern they notice.

Waterloo has a newer answer than the guide

The counsellor guide says Waterloo “will consider each case individually.” Waterloo’s own page for the cycle you are applying to is more specific, and it is quoted below as a correction to the guide.

• Waterloo

  The guide says Waterloo considers each case individually. Waterloo has since published a clearer answer for the cycle you are applying to: “If you repeat a course and apply to any program at Waterloo for September 2027 entry, you will not be penalized in the application process. If you repeat a course, we’ll use your highest grade in that course when calculating your admission average.” Treat Waterloo as a highest-grade university.

  Read it on the university’s site · checked 16 August 2026

Where the repeat happens matters too

Most repeats are done in summer school, night school or online, and that is a separate policy. Nearly every university grants equal standing to any Ministry-inspected school, but a few programs say more. Night school, summer school and online, by university.

And in the calculator: enter the mark each target would use. For most that is the higher one; for Queen’s the latest; for a Western application with three repeats, the average. How the average is built.

Every university, verbatim