Detailed examination policies, procedures and regulations will be posted on the Registrar’s website prior to each examination period. Students must familiarize themselves with all examination requirements and policies.
Time and Place: All students must report to regularly assigned exam rooms unless otherwise instructed by the Registrar. Students must report to the assigned exam room prior to the time specified by the Registrar, allowing enough time for students to set up and to hear the exam instructions. Computer users who arrive without leaving enough time to set up their computers may be required to write the examinations. (See Computer Use During Exams, below.)
Accommodations: See Accommodations under the Other Academic Policies tab in this Handbook.
Computers may be used to take exams only as part of the Law School’s computer exam program or as specified for take-home exams. Computers may be used as a resource (material permitted) if the professor so specifies. See the exam regulations published each term for more specific information. Students participating in the computer exam program must register and complete online training during each semester in which they wish to use a computer. Training will not be waived under any circumstances.
Students participating in the computer examination program must use their own laptops. These must be approved as suitable by Academic Computing. A limited number of computers are available for students who do not own laptops, and are assigned on a first come, first served basis. All efforts are made to insure that there are no problems with saving and retrieving examinations, and someone from Academic Computing is on call while exams are being administered. In virtually all instances, Academic Computing has been able to resolve problems with exams on computers. In the rare instance where an answer is irretrievably lost, the student assumes the risk of a lost examination, including the possibility that the student may have to retake the examination. Should a problem with a computer arise during an examination that the Academic Computing team determines presents too great a risk of possible loss, the student will, at the sole discretion of Academic Computing, be required to complete the examination using pen and paper.
Ebooks, or ereaders, such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, or Apple iPad, may not be used to access materials, such as your textbook, during exams.
Should an emergency or serious illness arise preventing a student from getting to school to take an exam, the student must immediately contact the Registrar (610-519-7017) or, in her absence, the Office of Academic Affairs (610-519-7053). The student must not speak to the Professor whose exam may be affected, as this may interfere with the Law School's anonymous grading policy. Written documentation of the illness will be required.
Should an emergency or serious illness arise during an examination, the student must immediately contact the Registrar or, in her absence, the Office of Academic Affairs or the Honor Board Proctor. The student must not speak to the Professor whose exam may be affected, as this may interfere with the Law School’s anonymous grading policy.
Examinations are graded anonymously using numbers instead of names. These numbers are available to students each semester on their class schedule in Novasis. The Registrar’s Office cannot distribute exam numbers on the same day the student is taking the exam, nor during the time just before exams are being administered. Examination numbers only, and not names, must be typed into the exam software, written on blue books or answer sheets and on the examination.
Improper Disclosure: Because of scheduling conflicts and other matters, some students may not have taken exams that others have finished. Students must not disclose the form, content, degree of difficulty or any other information pertaining to an examination, or discuss the exam with students who have not taken the exam.
Honor Code Violations: All students are bound by the Code of Conduct. It is published in this Student Handbook and all students are deemed to know the Code’s provisions. Students are required to report Code violations of which they are aware.
Authorized examination materials and equipment for each examination will be posted on the Registrar’s website, and stated in the Professor’s examination instructions. Use of unauthorized materials in an examination is a violation of the Code of Conduct. Students may not possess mobile phones of any type nor other electronic devices of any kind during examinations unless their use is explicitly approved in the examination regulations/materials permitted. Students will be required to leave all such devices at the front of the examination room and may claim them after the examination is over.
When examination regulations/materials permitted specify that the use of a hand held calculator is permitted, this refers to a non-memory basic mathematical calculator only.
Some exams from past semesters are available from the online exam database. Exams are provided at the discretion of the course professor and are only available to current law students.
All questions during a scheduled exam are handled only by an Honor Board Proctor or the Registrar, who may contact the Professor, the Registrar or the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Students must not attempt to contact the Professor directly during the examination. Honor Board members will be available throughout the exam outside the examination room.
Examinations are rarely rescheduled. A student may request a reschedule if two or more exams directly conflict (same time, same day). In extremely rare circumstances, a student may request a reschedule because of a direct conflict with a compelling personal obligation that cannot be rescheduled. If the reschedule is approved by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, the rescheduled examination will be administered on the next available exam day or on the reschedule day at the discretion of the Office of the Registrar.
Take home examinations are distributed electronically. Each student must download their own exam (and only for the student’s own use) according to the instructions specified by the Registrar’s Office. The Registrar’s Office carefully monitors when each student downloads each examination question and uploads their examination answer and reports any anomalies to the Office of Academic Affairs for appropriate action. Students are not permitted to collaborate on take home exams.
If a required religious observance conflicts with a regularly scheduled exam, including fasting, the student should contact the Registrar as soon as possible. The Registrar will make every reasonable effort to accommodate the student’s needs.