What does the term “take an incomplete” mean? I have never hear this term. I can only guess it is referring to "having incomplete knowledge of something"and needing time to consider a matter/think it over. I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich
"In the parlance of the universities where Obama spent so much of his time before 2004, when it came to a terror army running rampant through Iraq and beheading Americans, Obama was admitting he hadn’t done the reading, needed an extension on the paper, had to take an “incomplete.”
At many universities, if one fails to complete all the coursework for a given class, you may have the option to have it appear as “incomplete” on your transcript, especially if there were extenuating circumstances. Depending on the policy, you may be able to complete the work at a later time to receive a grade in the class, or repeat the class as a whole in another semester, in which case the “incomplete” is removed from your transcript.
An “incomplete” is a university grade for a course - marking that the requirements of the course were not completed (i.e not all papers turned in or exams sat).
This is different to a fail - sometimes an incomplete can be completed in a subsequent semester, particularly if the completed work is of a passing grade. It also may help avoid some restrictions placed on students with too many failing grades. Each university has it’s own rules.
In the context, what Obama meant was that he hadn’t been fully briefed on the subject and (rather than go by his gut reaction) he preferred to study it in greater depth and then make a decision. So it was a metaphoric extension of its use in university settings.
Around here, you have one semester to fix it. If you do not, you get an automatic “F” even if you would’ve been in the higher range otherwise. Also, it can only be done with the consent of the instructor, unlike say a withdrawal*. The instructor then requests a grade change when the requirements are satisfied.
*If you drop a class during the drop period, it never appears on your transcript, but if you miss it, you may withdraw before the withdraw date. That gives you a grade of “W” (not a red flag necessarily), but you don’t get your tuition back normally, at least not in full.
To add a refinement, the usual requirement for an Incomplete is a prior record of satisfactory work as well as a reasonable excuse for initially missing the remaining work (usually something like a final exam). And then if not resolved the I turns into an F.
Or, in some cases, not a ‘grade’ as such at all: just the status you have for that subject until your instructor submits your results. Which is why it is up to your instructor to submit a grade change. And your instructor has a deadline before which to do so: after that you are automatically graded (as a fail).