Examination Procedures and Reporting of Grades
Examination Procedures
Individual examination numbers are distributed each semester through UA Law Forums accessible through the College of Law website. New examination numbers are distributed each semester. After logging onto Forums, go to "Profile." Your exam number will be displayed there with other information such as your class rank (after completion of your first year) and the list of courses you are taking in the current semester. These examination numbers are randomly generated and replaced each semester. The purpose of this process is to insure anonymity during grading.
On examination day, you should report to the room assigned for your exam at least thirty(30) minutes before your examination is scheduled to begin. You must furnish your own examination bluebooks or laptops unless you have made arrangements to use a law school computer. You should check the IT webpage on the law school website to see complete instructions for taking examinations by computer. You should take only your bluebooks or laptops and necessary writing instruments into the examination room unless otherwise instructed.
Examinations may be taken only in the rooms specified on the examination instruction sheet or in the examination computer room. Students are not allowed to take examinations in the library or any other location. If for any reason you must leave a classroom during an examination, the bluebooks and all examination materials must remain in the classroom. ALL STUDENTS ARE INDIVIDUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING THE CORRECT TIME AS GOVERNED BY THE ROOM CLOCK AND FOR STOPPING WHEN TIME IS UP. Where space permits, students are to take alternate seats in the examination rooms. Before writing, all students must place their examination number, the course name, and the examining instructor’s name on their bluebooks.
When the allotted time expires, you must immediately stop writing. Each student is responsible for keeping track of time. You may not make deletions or corrections after the time has expired. Anyone who does so is in violation of the Honor Code. Upon expiration of the examination time, hand in your examination questions and answers. If you finish before the expiration of the allotted examination period, you may hand in your examination questions and answers and leave quietly so as not to disturb those still taking the examination. Please refrain from discussing the examination in or around the classroom area before the allotted time has expired, even though you may have finished the examination and turned in your examination answers. Even after time has expired, if anyone is still uploading or handing in their examination questions and answers, everyone should refrain from discussion. The examination does not officially end until all students have handed in their examination answers. ONCE THE EXAM HAS ENDED STUDENTS MUST REFRAIN FROM ANY DISCUSSION WITH THE PROFESSOR ABOUT THE EXAM UNTIL AFTER GRADES HAVE BEEN TURNED IN TO THE REGISTRAR.
Examination schedules are released prior to registration each semester or summer session. Any changes to the examination schedule are also posted on the College of Law website.
Use of Computers, Typewriters, and Other Devices to Write or Calculate Answers on Examinations
Students may write examinations in longhand, by typewriter, or, with instructor permission, by computer, subject to the following rules:
- If an examination is written in longhand, ink should be used and answers should be written on only one side of each page, unless the professor specifies otherwise. Students generally are required to provide their own examination blue books, available for purchase at the University Bookstore.
- If an examination is written with the use of a typewriter, the typewriter may include an automatic self-correcting key, but shall not include a device that contains any memory or programming feature.
- If an examination is written with the use of a computer, students must use software selected by the College of Law, which for the duration of the examination disables a computer's programs except desktop word processing, and must perform in a timely manner all necessary steps for obtaining, downloading, and becoming familiar with the the software in a timely manner. Students who do not own their own laptop computers may use College of Law computers, on an as-available basis, provided they comply in a timely manner with the College's procedures governing requests for using College of Law computers and, before the exam, undertake the necessary steps to become familiar with the required software.
- Unless an instructor specifies otherwise, the use of mechanical or electronic calculating devices are permitted to calculate answers on examinations, but models with programming capacity are not permitted.
- Special exceptions for students with disabilities may be made upon petition to the Executive Committee through Dr. Willie Jordan-Curtis.
Instructors may schedule examinations other than the final exam, but should obtain the approval of the Vice Dean before doing so.
Change of Final Examination Time
An instructor may not change the time for which his or her final examination is scheduled without the approval of the Vice Dean. A student may not change the time of his or her final examination without the approval of the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs or Executive Committee, which may only be granted in extraordinary circumstances. For purposes of this section, three examinations in three consecutive calendar days does not constitute "extraordinary circumstances." A student's petition to the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs or Executive Committee to change an examination time may not be acted upon until the instructor involved has been informed about the petition and had an opportunity to confer with the Assistant Dean or appear before the Committee.
Conflicting Examination Schedule
If a student has more than one examination scheduled at the same time, or more than one examination on any calendar day, a petition setting forth these facts will be granted. Examinations on successive days shall not be sufficient ground for a change of schedule. No accommodation will be made for personal inconvenience, travel complications or similar matters. Any examination which is deferred from its scheduled date must be taken on the next open date in the student's final examination schedule. All deferred and rescheduled examinations must be taken no later than the end of the relevant semester's (or summer session) examination period. Any time a student has received a deferral to take an examination and fails to complete that examination by the end of the relevant semester's (or summer session term's) examination period, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs shall refer the matter to the Executive Committee for its determination. The Executive Committee may take whatever action it deems appropriate. If the Executive Committee determines that the examination should have been taken within the examination period at the time the examination was scheduled for that student, the student shall receive a "W" in that course.
Students having an illness which is sufficiently serious to warrant deferring an examination must bring to the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs a written note from a doctor which documents the illness before the examination time will be changed. Students who are unable to report for a final examination due to illness or other emergency circumstances, should contact the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs or, in her absence, the College of Law Registrar, or the Chair of the Executive Committee, prior to the beginning of the examination. A student who has an examination time changed because of illness or other emergency must take that examination at the earliest practicable time.
Students with documented disabilities who will require special examination accommodations should first contact the University Disability Resource Center and then make the necessary arrangements with the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs. Notwithstanding reasonable examination accommodations, all examinations must be taken on the date of the regularly scheduled examination. Any deferred or rescheduled examination must be taken no later than the last day of the relevant semester's (or summer session's) examination period. Any time a student has received a deferral to take an examination and fails to complete the examination by the end of the relevant semester's (or summer session's) examination period, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs shall refer the matter to the Executive Committee for its determination. The Executive Committee may take whatever action it deems appropriate. If the Executive Committee determines that the examination should have been taken within the examination period at the time the examination was scheduled for that student, the student shall receive a "W" in that course.
Failure To Take or Complete Examination
- Failure to Take Examination. A grade of "E" shall be awarded to a student who fails to take an examination unless the Executive Committee is convinced that extraordinary circumstances, which could not have been communicated to the Executive Committee, its Chair, or the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs prior to the scheduled exam, prevented the student from taking the exam. The instructor for the course involved does not have any discretion to award a grade under the circumstances covered by this rule. If a prior request to be excused from taking an examination is refused by the Chair of the Executive Committee or the Assistant Dean, and the student still elects not to take the examination, he or she may appeal the refusal to the full Executive Committee on the ground that the requisite extraordinary circumstances did exist. If the student elects to take the examination, however, there shall be no right to appeal the refusal to the Executive Committee in order to obtain relief from the grade received.
- Failure to Complete Examination. If a student feels that he or she cannot complete an examination after the examination has started, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, after consultation with the instructor whose examination is being given, has complete discretion to grant relief in the event of extraordinary circumstances or to deny relief if the Assistant Dean determines that such circumstances do not exist. There is no right to appeal the decision of the Assistant Dean.
Updated: 09/01/2011