Registration
All courses are conducted and evaluated in a continuous & internal manner by the faculty who teach these courses. The student registers for a certain number of courses each semester; the year being divided into two semesters, and a summer term, whenever offered. A faculty member, as registration advisor, helps a student to draw up his programme, suitable to his pace and needs, which is made possible by the course-wise time-table of the Institute. Every student gets, incidentally, a training in decision-making through (i) choice of load, i.e. number of courses per semester to suit his pace, (ii) selection of his own time-table to suit his convenience, and (iii) picking up courses as electives to meet his own aspirations. It is the responsibility of the student to attend classes regularly and to maintain a required level of scholastic standing.

Assessment
The performance of a student in each course is assessed by the teacher by means of continuous evaluation throughout the semester in class work, periodical quizzes, tests (sometimes unannounced), tutorials, laboratory work, home work, project, etc. and a comprehensive examination at the end of the semester. The student is thereby given a large number of opportunities to exhibit himself and be evaluated. The system encourages and rewards continuous and systematic study. It provides a constant feedback to the student as to where he stands, thus enabling him to cultivate regular habits of studying/learning and preparing himself for the future.

Unusual methods of evaluation have been evolved in the Practice School courses to take account of certain traits which do not surface in a classroom education, like professional judgement, decision-making ability, interdisciplinary approach, initiative, leadership, sense of responsibility, etc. 

Grading
The system discards the conventional emphasis on a single final examination and numerical marks as the only absolute indication of the quality of student's performance. Thus, at the end of the semester the teacher of the course awards letter grades A, B, C, D, E to the student based on the total performance of the student and it is relative to the performance of others taking the same course. These letter grades stand for quality performance : A-Excellent, B-Good, C-Fair, D-Poor and E-Exposed.

Further, these letter grades have points associated with them in a quantified hierarchy. There are also courses in which the teacher awards non-letter grades which have only a qualitative hierarchy. The teacher may also pronounce the performance of a student in a course in terms of certain reports which should not be misconstrued as grades.

Although BITS does not stipulate a minimum percentage of attendance before a student is permitted to appear in any test/examination, the Institute, being a fully residential university with internal and continuous evaluation system, expects every student to be responsible for regularity of his attendance in classrooms and laboratories, to appear in scheduled tests and examinations and to fulfill all other tasks assigned to him in every course. The system has adequate resilience to accommodate unforeseen situations through withdrawal from a course, make-up test, feedback from examinations and interaction with teachers. When in spite of all these facilities a student fails to cooperate with the teacher in the discharge of his part of the contract to such an extent that the teacher is unable to award any grade, the teacher is authorised to give a ?ot Cleared (NC) report.

A student is deemed to have cleared a course if he obtains a grade in the course. However the educational philosophy of the Institute interlinks and at the same time distinguishes between the performance of a student in a single course and his overall cumulative performance. The overall performance of a student is indicated by an index known as the ?umulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). It is the weighted average of the grade points of all the letter grades received by the student since his entry into the Institute and is expressed on a 10-point scale.

In the case of Integrated First Degree programmes the final division for the degree is decided on the basis of CGPA and there are three classifications, namely Distinction, First Division and Second Division. However, in the case of Higher Degree and the Doctoral programmes no division is awarded for the degree.

During the student's stay in the Institute, the Institute expects him to show a certain minimum performance and progress. The minimum academic requirements regarding the performance and progress for the Integrated First Degrees and Higher Degrees are:

• A CGPA of at least 4.5 at the end of every semester for integrated first degree students and 5.5 for higher degree/Ph.D. students.
• Not more than one E grade in a semester for integrated first degree programmes and no E grade in the higher degree programmes.
• The pace of progress of a student should be such that at any stage of reckoning he/she should not have spent more than 50% extra time than what is prescribed for him/her upto that stage in his/her programme.