Staff & Faculty
Staff & Faculty
For more information regarding exams, visit the Exams website
Once a request has been received and processed by the faculty office, it is the responsibility of the students to follow up with the instructor. It is up to the instructor to determine the date of the deferred examination, in accordance with their departmental policy on deferred examinations, if applicable. Deferred examinations could be scheduled up to the end of the subsequent term. Any further extensions based on continued extenuating circumstances will require a written appeal to the Associate Dean (Academic).
Please consult the Instructor Handbook on Academic Considerations for Extenuating Circumstances for further information.
In the early 1990s Senate endorsed a policy that would ensure that final examination question papers used in a course would normally be made available to students for reference purposes.
The goal was to ensure that all students had equal access to final exams administered in earlier versions of their courses. In practice, exams from the previous academic year are published in October on the Exambank.
The release of exam question papers also encourages good practice in terms of academic integrity by encouraging instructors to construct new exam questions in subsequent offerings of the same course.
While exams should normally be released to the Exambank, exceptions to the Senate policy may be granted under rare and occasional circumstances. Exams designated as “confidential” will never be released to the Exambank. If confidential exam status is approved, instructors are obliged to provide students with sample study questions.If your exam contains the following, it may be considered for confidential status:
As of Fall 2019, instructors no longer need to seek approval each term to have their exams treated confidentially. Upon initial approval, the course will be included on the Faculty of Arts and Science's Confidential Exam master list. The approval will apply to all future iterations of the course, until the Faculty Office is notified by the department that the exam no longer needs to be confidential. Please contact the Faculty Office at asc.academic@queensu.ca for inquiries about whether a course is on the Confidential Exam master list.
New requests for confidential exams must be made to the Associate Dean (Academic) by the following dates:
December Exam Period | October 1 |
April Exam Period | February 1 |
June Exam Period | May 1 |
July Exam Period | June 1 |
Please contact the Faculty Office at asc.academic@queensu.ca for inquiries about whether a course is on the Confidential Exam master list.
Where confidential status is appropriate for an exam that has not previously been approved, the instructor will fill out a Confidential Exam Request Form and forward it to the Associate Dean (Academic), in person to Dunning Hall – First Floor, or by email to asc.studies@queensu.ca, by the deadlines noted above.
Please note: In every semester that a previously approved confidential exam is run, the instructor will need to indicate on the exam request webform, sent by the exams office, that an exam should be treated confidentially.
Deferred Exam Period Dates
Guidelines
Information for Instructors
The Faculty of Arts and Science has designated specific periods for deferred exams. The decision to defer an exam for a student is at the discretion of the course Instructor based on a documented academic consideration. An academic consideration can be requested by students experiencing extenuating circumstances using the Faculty of Arts and Science request portal. Students can only write an exam early with approval from the Associate Dean (Academic) and support from the instructor. Approval for early exams is only granted in exceptional circumstances.
The deferred exam period is held during the start of the subsequent academic term (see the Faculty of Arts and Science [website] for this year’s dates). Note that you are expected to be available to write a deferred exam at any time during the deferred exam period.
Deadlines for the Deferred Exam Process | ||
F2021/W2022 | Action | Notes |
Dec 28th / May 4th | Instructor sends the list of students approved for deferred exams to Exams Office. | The list should be sent by email to exams@queensu.ca using the spreadsheet template (to be provided by the Exams Office). The template will be used to indicate course code and whether or not a new exam is to be sent. The list must include each student’s name, ID and email. |
Jan 3rd / May 9th | Exams Office to send instructors a draft Deferred Exam schedule with a 2-day turn around for approval. | For remote exams, the onQ exam (or exam ‘shell’) must be in place by this date for the Exams Office to input accommodations. The Exams Office will forward the list of students writing a remote exam to Arts and Science Online. |
Jan 5th / May 11th | Exams Office notifies students of their deferred exam schedule. | For remote exams, Arts and Science Online will follow up with an invite for students to book an Examity Exam appointment, or with instructions for how to access the exam in onQ. |
Jan 13-16 / May 12-15 | Deferred Exam Period | Exams will be run in the evenings on weekdays, and mornings through evenings on weekends. |
The policy approved by the Senate Committee on Academic Procedures states that exams will be continued after a disruption provided that the exam hall can be cleared for re-entry within one hour. If the exam hall cannot be cleared for re-entry within one hour, the exam will be abandoned and instructors consulted. (This step is taken to ensure that the exams scheduled for the next time slot are not delayed.) The policy reads:
“If an examination is evacuated with greater than 30 minutes remaining in the exam period, students should expect that the exam will resume if the venue is declared safe within a reasonable time interval. Instructors will be notified as soon as possible and will have the responsibility to decide how to deal with the interruption and its effect on the exam. In all cases, information will be posted on the departmental web site as soon as possible after a disrupted exam.”
1. Be present at exam.
To minimize the impact of a disrupted exam, instructors should be present at the exam. If an exam is disrupted, an instructor is a reassuring presence to students and also has first-hand knowledge of the opportunity students may have had to discuss the exam and judge the extent to which the exam may have been compromised
2. Follow up with students.
If the exam resumes after evacuation, or if it is discontinued because of a lengthy delay or real emergency, students will be anxious to know how their performance on the exam will be assessed given the time lost during evacuation, the break in concentration, individual differences in the order the exam questions were answered, etc. Communicating instructions and plans to students clearly and without delay is key to minimizing the effects of a disrupted exam.
Options for ensuring fairness in assessment as a result of an exam disruption are noted in Assessing the Impact of Exam Disruption on Students’ Grades (below).
3. If the exam must be re-scheduled.
If the exam cannot be continued due to a real emergency, or if the instructor determines that the integrity of the exam has been compromised and results of the exam unusable, the instructor will be given the opportunity to request a re-scheduling of the exam. If the decision is made immediately after the disruption, the exam may be rescheduled for the next available exam time or to a Sunday afternoon or evening).
| Scenarios | Options for Instructors |
|---|---|
| Disruption occurs in only one building, but you have students writing in multiple buildings. | When posting instructions, keep in mind that instructions apply only to the students whose exams were disrupted and do not apply to students who wrote the exam without disruption. |
| Before resuming exam, students may have accessed texts, notes or talked with other students while waiting outside exam hall. OR Exam is abandoned as a result of a real emergency. | i. Use exam results as set out in existing marking scheme. ii. Provide alternative marking scheme for whom the timing of the disruption worked against them. iii.Re-schedule exam for later in the exam period with an alternate exam paper (make request through the departmental exam liaison staff). Note that there will be students who cannot write at the new time and will need a deferred exam for which the instructor is responsible for arranging and administering. iv. Schedule an optional exam early in next term. Post instructions for the affected students to Departmental Website. |
If, after consultation with the instructor, the examination attempt is not considered valid, permission for the student to re-write the final examination may be granted for documented cases at the discretion of the instructor(s) and the Associate Dean (Academic). Alternatively, other options for the student to complete the course may be provided."
The Faculty Office is currently revising the ''Permission for an Incomplete Grade or Deferred Examination'' form to align it with the new Academic Consideration Policy and Protocol. In the meantime, instructors are welcome to use it or adapt it if they wish to formalize their agreement with the student regarding the date of the deferred exam.
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