FAQ

Any SFU undergraduate student who feels that they would benefit from an opportunity to become more comfortable and confident in their academic literacy skills is welcome to register in FAL X99.  FAL will help students become effective and confident writers, problem-solvers, thinkers and learners.

Any new SFU student who does not meet the literacy competence requirement when admitted to SFU is required to take FAL X99.  You will find the admission standards for literacy competence requirement by visiting the "Admission Standards for English Competency" link on our "Useful Links" page.  You much register within your first 30 credits at SFU and successfully complete it within your first 45 credit hours, and before you will be eligible to register in W courses.  It is strongly recommended you take FAL X99 as soon as possible. 

FAL X99 will provide you with an opportunity to practice and become comfortable with your own voice as a writer in a variety of disciplines, gain confidence in your ability to communicate effectively in writing, explore a variety of ways of presenting your thoughts and ideas, become comfortable using writing as a way of exploring and learning, and receive constructive feedback on your writing and academic literacy skills.

These skills will help you in all your SFU courses, and particularly as you take W and B courses.  The skills gained in FAL X99 will help you better understand the hallmarks of good writing in both your own discipline and in other disciplines.

The LPI, or Language Proficiency Index, is a standardized test designed to measure an individual’s competence in English.  For more information about the test and what it measures, click here.

If you are a BC high school student, your English 12 final grade is provided to the University by the BC Ministry of Education, and is calculated based on a combination of your final grade in your English 12 course work and your provincial exam grade.  For information about your final grades, contact the SFU Admissions Office or the BC Ministry of Education.

If your final grade in English 12 was 75% or higher, you are eligible to register directly into writing-intensive (W) courses.

If your final grade in English 12 was 60-74%, you must either write the Language Proficiency Index (LPI) test successfully or register directly into the Foundations of Academic Literacy (FAL X99) course.

If you opt to write the LPI, you must achieve a grade of 4 on the essay portion and a minimum of 50% on all other parts of the exam to be eligible to register in writing-intensive (W) courses.

If you score below 4 on the essay portion or 50% on any of the other sections of the exam, you must register in FAL X99.

You may re-write the LPI with the hope of meeting the threshold grade, but re-writing the LPI will take time and cost money with no guarantee that you will meet the admission minimum grade.  You will likely benefit more from completing FAL X99 and taking the opportunity to gain more practice and confidence in your academic literacy skills.

If your English 12 class work grades are well above 75%, you likely don’t have too much to worry about – but if you think your mark on the provincial exams might bring your final grade below 74%, you should make arrangements to write the LPI while you wait for your grades.

If your English 12 class work grades are anywhere in the 60-74% grade range, you should make arrangements to write the LPI exam as soon as possible.  The final decision about whether or not you will be required to register in FAL X99 will be made more quickly when your application for admission to SFU is being processed if both your English 12 grades and LPI scores are submitted early.

You will find the FAL X99 listings in the course catalogue under F.  You can register in any section of FAL X99 that still has space available through goSFU, using the same process that you do for your other courses. FAL X99 is offered in all three terms at the Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver (Harbour Centre) campuses.

If you are required to take FAL X99, you must do so before you will be eligible to register in your first W course.  You must register in and successfully completethe course during your first three enrolled terms at SFU.

Students who fail to obtain a grade of C or better in FAL X99 after attempting it a maximum of two times will be blocked from further course registration.  Registration will be permitted again once they demonstrate that they have acquired the necessary proficiency in written English.

If you have completed a post-secondary English course that is transferable to SFU for English credit or one that has been certified by SFU as a transferable Writing intensive course with a grade of C- or better, you will be deemed to have met the FAL admission requirements.

If you do not meet either of these conditions, you will need to meet the same admission standards as high school graduates.  Question 6 above tells you how to achieve credit for FAL.

If you have written the IELTS test and scored 6.5 or better, you have credit for FAL and are eligible to register in a W course.

If you have received an acceptable score in another test of English language proficiency (TOEFL, CAEL, etc) and successfully completed the LPI (received a score of 4 on the essay component and received a minimum score of 50% on each of the other sections), you have credit for FAL and are eligible to register in a W course.  If you scored below the minimum scores on the LPI exam, you must complete the Foundations of Academic Literacy course with a grade of C or better before you will be eligible to register in a W course.

Details of acceptable scores in tests of English language proficiency are available at SFU Student Services.

FAL is additive credit and does not count towards your credits required for your graduation. For example, you need 120 credits to complete your degree and you take FAL you will end up with 124 credits. FAL counts towards your GPA and it will help you to receive better grades on your other courses.

Contact our office by e-mail at fal-office@sfu.ca, and we will do everything we can to answer your questions.