Will’s Exam Tips and Policies

To keep everything fair and open for everybody, I’ve decided to put my exam-related tips and policies in one place.

Exam tips

Here are a few little tips which might help:

Choose the best answer. There may be other answers which are debatable, or plausible, or maybe seem decent due to some ambiguity. but there should always be a best answer. If one answer is easily good to go, and another answer can maybe be made to seem OK with a fair amount of arguing, then choose the good one.
- If you believe there’s an ambiguity or that there may be two correct answers or a mistake, first re-read the question, then raise a hand and ask.
Skip questions you don’t know and come back. Don’t get ‘frozen’ and spend a bunch of your time on a question you can’t answer. If you can’t figure it out in a minute or so, skip over it and come back when you’ve finished the rest of the questions.
Double-check your answers before you turn in the test. There’s absolutely no credit for finishing first, and this is extra important for bubble sheet exams, where it’s easy to go out of alignment (by e.g. putting question 37’s answer in question 36’s slot, thus missing every other question)
Study by explaining! Don’t just say “I can answer/explain that” and move on when looking at a study guide question or term. Instead, explain the answer to your roommate, cat, plant, or pet rock. And if there’s something you can’t explain on the study guide, make sure you ask for help in office hours or section before the exam!
If you don’t know the answer at the end of the test, write down your best guess. A blank is always going to get a 0, but your best guess might not. Maybe you know the answer better than you think!
Study in several sessions across a few days, rather than ‘cramming’. Good sleep may help you as much as frenzied studying, and sleeping through an exam, or worse, zonking out in the middle of it, is a bad plan.
Contact me about any exam accommodations again two weeks prior to the exam. Even if you’ve already sent the OSD letter, you’ll need to remind me, so we can make sure everything’s set up, and because not all students use all accommodations
- If you don’t remind me about your accommodations, we may not be able to… accommodate them

Exam Rules

For in person exams, you’re expected to follow all instructions from me, your IA(s), or the exam proctor(s). I also have the following policies:

Students must bring their student ID card and writing implement(s)
- You’ll show us your ID card as you drop off your exam
- You’ll also need to know your student ID/PID number (usually starting with A)
Bubble exams should be completed with a #2 pencil, and short answer or essay exams should use pencil, blue, or black ink
- If you’d like to use a fancy ink color for a short answer exam, show me before the exam starts and I’m happy to approve legible colors. I’m a writing instrument nerd too, I get it.
- Additional pencils, erasers, and sharpening facilities will not necessarily be provided, so bring spares.
During the exam, you’re not allowed to wear sunglasses, brimmed hats, or anything else opaque which covers your eyes
- Turning a brimmed hat backwards is fine, we just want to be able to see your eyes
Electronic devices are not allowed to be used or even visible during an exam
- Keep it in your pack, in your pocket, or in your purse, but if we see it out, it’s an academic integrity issue
- This includes…
  - Smartphones/Tablets/Laptops/eReaders
  - Electronic Dictionaries
  - Electronic Translator devices
  - Calculators
  - Smartwatches and watches with memory functions
When writing your name on the exam, please use the full name you use on Canvas
- This just makes it easier to match your work to your identity
If you have a question about any part of the exam, raise your hand
- Myself or an IA will be happy to answer your questions
Be quiet once the exam begins
- Talking with your neighbor(s) during the exam is inappropriate, and will be interpreted as academic dishonesty
- Passing notes will absolutely be considered academic dishonesty
When you’re finished, please gather your personal effects quietly, drop your exam off as instructed, show me your student ID, and leave with my blessing
Exams will end punctually at the designated time, and the impending end of the exam will be announced (e.g. ‘five minutes left’).
- When it’s over, it’s over, whether your exam is completed or not.
- If you don’t hand in an exam at or before the end of the exam, you get a zero on the exam. This is non-negotiable.
Students missing the exam without well-documented good cause will get a 0 on the exam.
- If something prevents you from taking the exam, reach out ASAP to let me know
- No ‘make up’ exams will be offered without evidence of good cause
To be fair to your classmates, students who are unable to take the scheduled exam at the scheduled time even with good cause reasons or accommodations are expected to make up the exam on or before the scheduled exam date
- If the specifics of your situation require a post-exam makeup, exceptions can be made, but depending on the timing of the quarter, you may need to take an incomplete to do so
- Please don’t assume that your accommodations entitle you take the exam after the scheduled date
Make-up exams will be administered in a format of my choosing, generally as synchronous oral exams.

Written Answer Exams

For some classes, you may be given an exam featuring written answers and an answer sheet. To see how this looks, and to view a sample completed exam, see my sample written answer exam.

Exam Notecards

For some classes, I may specify that you may create a handwritten notecard to bring to exams containing information you might want to use for the exam. The goal of this is twofold: to give people an opportunity to bring with them information they’ll find helpful, as well as to aid in the studying process by encouraging you to go back over the material during the process of creating the notecard.

This is optional, but should you choose to take advantage of it, here are the guidelines:

Your card must feature your name and student ID prominently, surrounded by a box
Your card must by 3”x5” or smaller
- 7.6cm by 12.7cm
Your card must be handwritten in pen, pencil, or marker, by you
- This means all information must be physically written on your specific piece of paper by hand
- If you have accommodations which allow you to submit assignments typed, you may submit a computer generated card, but still without photocopies, printouts, or cut-and-paste
Your card can be single sided or double sided, and paper/ink color isn’t important
You can use whatever paper you’d like, although a 3x5 notecard is the obvious choice
Your card must be written predominantly in the English language
- Foreign language examples are fine, of course, but I want to be able to see what you’ve written and learn what folks find useful to develop better handouts and tools
Your card, obviously, cannot contain or provably encode direct questions and answers from a prior exam
You cannot bring tools (e.g. magnifiers, loupes, or microscopes) to read your card, you must read it unaided.
You will submit your notecards at the end of the exam
- You won’t get them back, sorry!