Testing Policies
Regular Examinations
Instructors may give quizzes and tests with sufficient frequency to enable students to have a reasonably accurate measure of the level of their work in a course as the semester proceeds.
This rule applies with special force to freshman and sophomore courses.
Final Examinations
Normally, examinations are given at the end of a course as well as at other points during the semester. Whether this is a traditional "Final," that is, an examination testing the entire course, or simply the last in a series of written exercises, the final examination is to be given during the week following the end of classes at the time scheduled officially by the Registrar. Examinations that conclude a series may be given during the last week or so of classes only if there is a comprehensive final during the regular exam week as well.
The rules above in no way affect the right of the instructor to give quizzes at any time he or she finds it useful to do so.
Occasionally, the final exam schedule prepared by the Registrar creates unusual difficulties for a faculty member or for individual students. Change in the established time of a course examination may be made, in very exceptional cases only, by permission of the Registrar.
Final examinations are not more than two and one half hours in duration. "Take-home" examinations may be distributed at the last class meeting for submission to the instructor during the examination period.
Final examinations will be retained by the faculty at least until the middle of the semester following their administration in order to permit students to review them if they are interested in doing so.
Making Up Work
Responsibility for handing in all announced papers, reports, and projects on time rests entirely with the student. Instructors may penalize late work.
A student who has missed an examination or test is responsible for making it up and must take the initiative in making arrangements to do so with the instructor. Instructors are not obliged to prepare make-up exams unless the student's absence was occasioned by serious and unavoidable reasons: Students who are members of varsity sports teams and who must miss an exam because of a scheduled sports event may make up exams. In such cases, responsibility for informing the professor of an absence for an exam and for scheduling a make-up exam date rests solely with the individual student.
If illness or some other emergency should prevent the completion of course work, the student's work in that course is temporarily marked "I" (Incomplete). Notice of necessary absence from an examination must be given by the student, or one of the Deans, to the Registrar and to the instructor of the course within 24 hours preceding the scheduled time of the examination.
Under no circumstances will a student be given an Incomplete as a substitute for failure. When a student, through negligence or procrastination, fails to complete the semester's work in any course on time, and when there are no extenuating circumstances, the grade of "F" may be assigned if justified in the instructor's judgment.
The mark of Incomplete must be removed from a student's record within the first three weeks of the semester immediately following. Refer to the section "The Incomplete" for additional information on grades of Incomplete.