Guidance for Candidates

Examination Timetable

Exams for all courses will be held from Monday to Saturday. This includes both online exams, which will be administered through Exams ELE, and on-campus exams, which will take place at designated examination venues.

Please ensure that you check the exam timetable for specific dates, times, and locations of your exams. It is essential to be well-prepared and familiarise yourself with the details to avoid any confusion or last-minute issues.

To obtain (view and print) your personal examination timetable you will need to access MyTimetable using your IT login and password.

Your timetable will also be available via the iExeter app.

In addition to the exam dates published, in the case of unforeseen exam disruption an exam might be re-scheduled to be sat towards the end of the main examination period.

Examination Halls

Locations which may be used for examinations are:

• Amory Rooms 417 and 501
• Baring Court, St Luke's Campus
• Great Hall
• Harrison Rooms 101 / 102 / 103 / 106 / 107 / 203 / 207 / 208
• Peter Chalk Centre / Newman Rooms
• South Cloisters 2.13, St Luke's Campus
• Sport's Hall, Streatham Campus
• Tennis Centre, Streatham Campus
• The Sanctuary

• Amory 105 / 106 / 315 / 316 – Specific Provision students only
• Computer Suite Old Library – Specific Provision students only
• Hatherly Pods - Specific Provision students only
• Laver 320 – Specific Provision students only
• Old Library - Specific Provision students only
• Queen's Building - Specific Provision students only

Due to unforeseen circumstances it might be necessary to use rooms other than those listed, but advanced notice of this will be given.

Personal Timetables

Please check the information shown on your personal timetable carefully. If you discover any incorrect information, in the first instance, please contact your Info Point/Hub to ensure that the relevant module/programme change form has been completed and that this information has been updated on your record and relayed to the Exams Office. Do not assume that a spare desk will be available, space for some sessions may be limited; ensure that the problem is sorted out well in advance of your exams.

If you have requested specific provision via Wellbeing Services - AccessAbility and this is not reflected in the location of your exam(s) on your timetable please contact Wellbeing Services - AccessAbility as a matter of urgency.  The main specific provision locations are currently the Hatherly Pods, Old Library and Queen’s Building. Any specific provision location will be labelled (SP) on your timetable. NB. Online exams requiring ELE or other web-based applications may take place in standard venues not specific provision ones.

Times of Examinations

Exam start times will vary throughout the academic year, so it is imperative that you use only the times specified on your personal timetable. You must ensure that your device is set to UK time.  Unless special arrangements have been made the standard start times for exams in January, May and during the Referred/Deferred exam periods are 09:30 and 14:30.

Candidates requiring specific examination arrangements

If for some medical reason you are not able to write your answers in the usual way, or if you are disabled or suffer from any injury or condition that will require special exam seating preparation, you must book an appointment with Wellbeing Services - AccessAbility.

For more details and the latest application deadlines please see the Specific Provisions for Examinations section.

Prior to the appointment you will need to obtain medical evidence which you will need to bring along to your appointment.

This will ensure that any required needs assessment can be carried out in time for your exams. We may not be able to accommodate any requests received after these dates, especially if the condition is a long-standing one.

Time of Arrival for an Examination

You should present yourself outside the exam hall at least fifteen minutes before the exams are scheduled to commence. You are strongly advised to allow for delays caused by traffic, weather conditions etc. when planning your journey to the exam hall. If you are unable to make the journey due to bad weather, please contact you Info Point/Hub and the Exams Office to let them know, and they will advise on mitigation procedures.

If you arrive late you will be admitted to the exam hall without question during the first half-hour of the exam period, but you will not be allowed extra time in which to complete your exam. If you arrive after this time, or find you are not well enough to begin the exam, please report to your Info Point/Hub who will be able to note your arrival time and advise you on mitigation procedures.

To be Brought to Each Examination

• Candidates should bring their University (ID) Card to each exam for checking by the invigilators.

If you have lost your University card you may obtain a replacement from the Student Information Desk in the Forum or via the online store at a charge of £10 or bring a current passport or some other form of official ID which shows your name and photograph. If you fail to bring any form of approved identification, you will be required to complete an Identity Check Form, which will be checked against your registration documents.

• Students are only permitted to use a completely clear case or clear plastic bag for their pens, pencils, etc.
• Valuables should NOT be brought to the exam hall – no responsibility will be taken for their safekeeping.
• Please note that mobile phones, smart watches, exercise/fitness trackers or any other means of sending/receiving messages are not allowed within the exam halls. Any such devices accidentally brought into the Exam Hall must be switched off and put in a bag in the designated bag space or handed over to supervisory staff. You must also ensure that no alarms have been programmed into the phone/device, if so the battery must be removed. No responsibility will be taken for their safekeeping.  There is a possibility that either academic or financial penalities could be levied against a candidate should their mobile phone or electronic device cause disturbance during the course of the examination.  Any such electronic device found on desks/about the person after the exam has commenced will be confiscated and a report sent to the Student Cases Office and a penalty will be applied.  Non smart watches are permitted but they must be removed and placed next to your desk card.
• Reasonable quantities of soft drink/water and food may be brought to the exam hall. The consumption of these should not cause disturbance to other candidates.
• Any item considered to be causing a disturbance to other candidates will be confiscated by the Exam Hall Invigilator. Exceptions may be made for certain medical conditions; this must be previously agreed by the Exams Office.

Entry into the Examination Room

Candidates will be told when to enter the exam hall, both verbal and non-verbal communication is strictly forbidden on entry and whilst in the exam hall. SILENCE SHOULD BE OBSERVED THROUGHOUT THE EXAM SESSION.

Seating Arrangements for Main Exam Halls

In the exam halls for January and May exams your allocated desk can be identified as follows:

1. Look at the Exam Hall Floor Plan displayed outside all large main exam halls (Sports Hall, Great Hall, Tennis Centre and The Sanctuary) to locate seating area of each exam.  For all other venues please enter when advised and locate your desk. 
   
   
2. You will find your name and candidate number written on a desk card, the same colour as noted on the floor plan, and laid on a desk with an exam paper, answer book etc. The desk cards within the area are set out from side to side in alphabetical sequence by module.
   
   
3. If you have difficulty in finding your seat, ask one of the invigilators for help. On no account should you occupy any seat that does not have your candidate card on it.
   
   
4. Once seated you should place your University Card on the desk where it can easily be seen and verified during the exam by an invigilator.
   
   
5. For Referred/Deferred exams the hall will be laid out alpha numerically by duration, then module code, then family name with a separate colour indicating each duration.

Answer Booklets and Other Stationery

You will find answer booklets and other necessary stationery on your desk. You should read carefully the instructions on the answer booklet cover and complete details as requested including your registration number and candidate number for each booklet used.  The top corner should be completed, signed and fully sealed. Failure to complete the corner flap will not invalidate any misconduct proceedings, if required. 

Rough work may be written on the back cover of each booklet used.

"Open Note", "Open Book" and "Restricted Note" Examinations

These are exams which allow candidates the use of notes or reference books approved by the relevant College.

Dictionaries

The use of dictionaries during exams is NOT allowed unless specified on the exam paper. International and Erasmus students are allowed to use foreign language - English dictionaries provided they have written authorisation from their College (using the appropriate blue form). Candidates should bring a copy of the authorisation to the exam hall. Please note that the use of Electronic Dictionaries in Exam Halls is not permitted. It is your responsibility to check that there are no notes/manual additions in the dictionary. If any are found further action will be taken.  No student is permitted to use a dictionary in any exam set by the Business School.

Electronic Calculators

The use of authorised, silent, cordless non-programmable calculators is allowed in exams only if the question paper permits it. Such calculators may contain simple memory functions for use in the course of calculation.

You will need to seek approval for your calculator prior to your examinations by a representative of your College, who will identify approved calculators with a tamper-evident label.

It is the responsibility of the candidate to bring the calculator to the exam room and to ensure that a spare battery is available. In all cases calculators must be silent, and any cover removed and placed under the desk prior to commencement.

The use of any OTHER calculator or electronic device capable of carrying out the retrieval of stored numerical or textual information is strictly forbidden. This restriction does not apply to "Open Book" exams, but relates to the use of calculators only.

Failure to comply with these regulations may result in confiscation of your non-approved calculator, or, in extreme cases, exclusion of the candidate from the examination.  Do not assume that a temporary replacement calculator will be supplied.

Starting the Examination

You will be told by the Principal Invigilator when you can start the exam. The question paper MUST NOT be turned over until this direction is given, a penalty will be imposed for anyone caught looking at papers prior to the start of the exam. You should read carefully the instructions on the front of the question paper before beginning to answer the questions.

Leaving the Examination Room

In order to minimise disruption to other candidates you may not leave the exam room during the first and last half-hour of the exam session unless you feel unwell. If you do need to leave the room urgently, you must seek the permission of an invigilator. 

Toilet breaks are not permitted in the first half hour or the last half hour of the exam session.  If you need to leave the examination room at other times during the exam for a toilet break please ensure that you take your candidate card with you.  You will be subject to additional checks/searches.  

If you have completed your paper before the specified time and wish to leave, do so as quietly as possible, so as not to disturb the other candidates, taking your completed exam script with you and hand it into the relevant invigilator, usually at the rear of the exam hall. Once your exam script has been logged permission to leave will be granted from the invigilator. 

If you remain in the hall for the full duration of your exam you must stay in your seat whilst scripts are collected, an invigilator will advise when you can leave.

Illness/Disruption during an Examination

If you feel ill during an exam you should inform an invigilator immediately, similarly any other form of distraction, e.g. excessive noise causing an adverse effect on your performance, should also be reported at the time of occurrence. You will subsequently be asked to complete a mitigation form by your College, who may wish to use this prior notification as part of the mitigation process.

Completing the Examination

Candidates are reminded that they should read the rubric of the examination before completing any questions. You should ensure that you read the instructions carefully.

Where candidates do not need to complete all questions on the paper (e.g. please answer two out of five questions in Section B), only the number of questions specified in the rubric will be marked (unless the rubric states differently).

To ensure that the marker is able to identify which answers to mark, the questions that have been answered should be clearly indicated on the front of the exam script and answers which should not be marked should be clearly crossed through. Where it is not clear which answers need to be marked, the paper will be marked in chronological order until the specified number of answers have been marked (following the above example two answers would be marked). Everything else written in the script after this point will be disregarded.

Exam paper queries

Emergency Exam Hall Procedures

In the event of a fire alarm or other emergency necessitating the evacuation of the examination room, the following procedure is to be followed:

1. On instruction from the Principal Invigilator all students will cease writing and leave their answer booklets on the desk.
   
   
2. Evacuate the examination hall as quickly as possible. Do not stop to collect bags/coats, etc.
   
   
3. Leave the building and assemble at the appropriate assembly point  (follow the instructions of the Principal Invigilators or see blue and white 'Fire Action' notices in each building).
   
   
4. Do not return to the Examination Hall to collect personal items until advised by the Invigilators that it is safe to do so and until all examination papers have been collected by Examinations Office staff.
   
   
5. You will be sent an email within 24 hours confirming the incident and this will be followed within 3 working days with an official email notification giving details of the decision relating to the incident, providing further arrangements if required for that particular examination.

Misconduct in an Examination

A candidate may be liable to such penalties as the Senate may determine for:

• taking into the exam room, or possessing whilst in that room, any books, notes or other material or mobile device which has not been authorised
• aiding or attempting to aid another candidate, or obtaining or attempting to obtain aid from another candidate
• passing yourself off as another candidate
• such repeated behaviour as may in the view of the Principal Invigilator prejudice the performance of other candidates.

It should be noted that the Principal Invigilator is empowered to discontinue the exam of a candidate suspected of misconduct and to expel that candidate from the exam room.

All cases of suspected misconduct will be reported at once by the Principal Invigilator to the Student Cases Office's representative. Any notes or similar unauthorised material introduced into the exam room by the candidate must be handed over to the Principal Invigilator who will attach them to the report.

Plagiarism/Cheating

Cheating in a University assessment is a very serious academic offence, which may lead ultimately to expulsion from the University.   Cheating can take one of a number of forms, including:

• (i) The use of unauthorised books, notes, electronic aids or other materials in an examination
• (ii) Obtaining an examination paper ahead of its authorised release
• (iii) Acting dishonestly in any way including fabrication of data, whether before, during or after an examination or other assessment so as to either obtain or offer to others an unfair advantage in that examination or assessment
• (iv) Collusion, i.e. the representation of another's work or ideas as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement or referencing, where the owner of  the work knows of the situation and both work towards the deceit of a third party
• (v) Plagiarism, i.e. the act of representing another's work or ideas as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement or referencing.   There are three main types of plagiarism' which could occur within all modes of assessment (including examinations)
• (a) Direct copying of text from a book, article, fellow student's essay, handout, thesis, web page or other source without proper acknowledgement
• (b) Claiming individual ideas derived from a book, article etc. as one's own, and incorporating them into one's work without acknowledging the source of these ideas
• (c) Overly depending on the work of one or more others without proper acknowledgement of the source, by constructing an essay, project etc. by extracting large sections of the text from another source, and merely linking these together with a few of one's own sentences

(Colleges may wish to extend these definitions for specific subject areas and provide students with examples as appropriate.   The correct referencing system for making quotations explicit and acknowledging sources should be available through personal tutors or supervisors, specific tutorial sessions in Colleges, and Colleges' student and research handbooks.)

Contravention of the above Regulations will be treated under the Procedures for Handling Cases of Suspected Cheating, including Plagiarism, in University Assessment which can be found on the University Website.

Scripts/Legibility

It is your responsibility to provide a script that is clearly legible. Candidates who submit scripts which examiners are unable to read will be invited to produce a word-processed transcript. This transcript must be a true copy of the original. If any embellishments are found, this will be treated as suspected academic misconduct following guidance under Chapter 12 – Academic Conduct and Practice.

Where a candidate is not able to produce a transcript in person, word-processed transcription will usually be created by a scribe, and should be at the candidates own expense.

End of the Examination

At the end of the exam you will be told to stop writing by the Principal Invigilator. This should be done IMMEDIATELY, you should then remain seated and have made sure that you have completed all the details required on the exam answer booklet or answer book cover, and have fastened them together with any other material (e.g. graph paper etc) using the tag provided, inside the answer booklet, and that you have fastened all additional rough work to the back of the answer booklet.  Please note failure to do this may result in un-attached work not being submitted for marking.

You should remain in your seat until you are told that you may leave the room. Your script will be collected while you are seated. Once you have been told that you may leave, you must exit the exam room as quickly and quietly as possible. Out of consideration to other students, you should not cause any noise disruption in the vicinity of Exam Halls.

Do not begin talking until you are well away from the exam hall.

You may not take any exam materials, used or unused, including scrap paper, out of the exam room other than:

(a) the materials you brought to the exam, and
(b) the question paper, unless the rubric states otherwise.

Lost Property

Property left behind in exam halls will be stored by the Student Information Desk in the Forum for a period of four weeks after the exam session has finished. After that time, property will be taken to a charity shop.

Publication of Results

Your results are usually made available to you via i-Exeter.  For further information and details of results you must contact your Info Point/Hub, not the Examinations Office.

Referred/Deferred Examinations

Referred/deferred exams will commence on the 10th August 2024. Students will be required to sit their exam(s) in Exeter or Cornwall for Cornwall-based students during this time - students should make sure that these periods remain free from all other commitments, such as overseas travel/holiday/work.  Should you miss referred/deferred examinations, you are likely to be deemed withdrawn from the University, unless you provide valid medical evidence confirming your inability to sit your exam.

Absence from an Examination

In all cases, students must provide in writing to their College Hub a note explaining any absence from an examination, which will be considered by the relevant Board of Examiners or Assessment, Progression and Awarding Committee (APAC). If you are absent due to illness you must supply medical evidence to your College as soon as possible.  Where reason for absence is not provided, the candidate will normally be deemed withdrawn.

Circumstances Affecting Student Performance in Examinations

It is the responsibility of each individual student to inform their College Hub of any circumstances affecting performance, by means of a deferral request/mitigation form, and e-mail it no later than one working day after the date of the exam.  However, we would recommend that you apply to defer well before your exam, so that you can have a response from your College before your exam is due to take place. Documentary supporting evidence should be provided in every instance. For more information on mitigation, please refer to Chapter 10 of the Assessment, Progression and Awarding Handbook; Taught Programmes.

Aegrotat Awards

Aegrotat awards may be granted where a candidate has been prevented by illness or exceptional personal circumstances from attending the whole or part of a deferred assessment for a Degree, diploma, certificate or other award (the relevant Ordinance is available on the University Website - https://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/policies/calendar/part1/ordinances/16.

Students wishing to be considered for an Aegrotat award must contact the College Hub in writing as soon as possible; this must be accompanied by a medical certificate relating to the exam(s) missed. Evidence of illness will not normally be taken into account by the Board of Examiners or College APAC unless substantiated by a medical certificate signed by a doctor. It is the responsibility of the candidates to arrange with their doctor for any medical evidence to be sent to their College Office. Neither the University nor any of its officers will undertake to obtain medical certificates on behalf of candidates. The candidate must ensure that the doctor clearly understands that the medical certificate must cover absence from or illness during, the exam.

The relevant Board of Examiners or College APAC will then consider the presented circumstances, along with the candidate's academic record including coursework and performance in previous assessments in the University. If they are satisfied that the programme of study leading to the deferred assessment had been completed, and that the assessment would have been passed had the candidate not been prevented from taking it, the Board of Examiners or College APAC will make appropriate recommendations to the relevant Board of Faculty based on the circumstances and evidence provided.

An Aegrotat pass will be permitted on one occasion only during the course of a student's programme of study.

Student Academic Appeals

Students have a right of appeal to the Senate of the University in respect of exam results and the consequences of academic failure. Appeals procedures can be referred to on the University Website.