Final Exams Scheduling Guidelines

Winter Session Exam Scheduling

Winter Session 

Soliciting Course Section Exam Information

The department exam contact solicits course exam requests from instructors using the Examination Request form. These requests include things like exam room preference, exam duration, common exam rooms for multiple course sections, etc. Instructors should submit this form regardless of whether they require a final exam to be scheduled. 

Senate & Curriculum Services urges faculties to make full use of the formal examination periods in December and April for all courses designed for first- and second-year students. Offering exams for courses designed for third- and fourth-year students is at the discretion of the departments. Check with your department or faculty if you have questions in regards to the offering of upper level exams. For more information, please see the Senate policy on examinations.

Download the Examination Request Form (winter)

Entering Course Section Exam Information Into the SISC Exam Tab

If you do not already have update access to the SISC Exam Tab, contact SIS Security to receive update access.

• The exam tab is part of the course section information accessible via the SISC.
• Exam contacts consolidate department exam information and enter their requests via the exam tabs on the Student Information System Centre (SISC). See the Exam Tab User Guide (below) for more detail
• Note that instructors need to schedule an online exam officially in the SISC with date and time (request no location) to prevent conflict with other scheduled exams.
• To verify your SISC entries check the Exam Tab Request Report and find your department and course sections.  Note that if a course section does not appear on this report, an exam for this section will not be scheduled.
• The SISC exam tab only accepts exam requests during certain periods. Please see dates and deadlines.
• After the deadline, all requests should be directed to the examination coordinator at Scheduling Services, however, requests with exam date instructions cannot be accommodated after the deadline.

Exam Request User Guide

Download the Exam Request User Guide (pdf)

The SISC exam tab is not directly connected to the exam scheduling system. A final report is produced after the deadline for department information. Changes required after the deadline and data extraction will need to be made in writing (via email) and will not appear on the report.  Late exam requests will be added manually to the Scientia Exam Scheduler database

The SISC exam tab is not session-specific. As long as access is open to the exam tab, changes can be made to all available future sessions. For example changes to Term 2 exams can already be made during the summer. Please refrain from requesting exams for future terms as you will likely be asked to re-enter them again when the term is starting.

Verifying Exam Information Using the Exam Requests Report

• The exam tab requests report is updated manually (once a day) during the SISC exam entry period, until the department deadline for entering exams.

If an exam is not in this report, it will not be scheduled. Please double check that all exam information is correct.

If your exam request does not appear on the exam tab requests report, check the session in which you have entered the exam request. Also check if the course section is attached to the requested exam requirement. Remember that only exams for the current term should display on the report. This means that a term 2 exam request (April exam period) will not appear on the report when exam scheduling for term 1 (December exam period) is in process.

Daytime exams

The exam period is not long enough for all daytime course sections to have daytime exams, and many daytime sections may be required to write their exam during the evening. If a daytime section and an evening section of the same course need to write at the same time, the daytime section will be scheduled during the evening.

Evening exams

When creating a new exam request on the SISC for a course section with a start times of 5:00pm or later, the system will automatically designate it as an evening exam with an evening exam time of 7:00pm. Evening sections will not be scheduled for daytime exams, and departments cannot change an automatic evening assignment.  If a change is required, email the request to Scheduling Services with details for the required change.  Unless all students in the evening section agree to attend a daytime exam, a request cannot be processed. 

Exam duration

Please note that exams scheduled by Scheduling Services are normally 2.5 hours in duration. If you wish to have a different exam length, it should be noted on the Examination Request Form so that this information is entered into the SISC exam tab. Exams scheduled through Scheduling Services cannot be longer than 3 (three) hours due to associated student exams and exam room bookings and must adhere to the standard exam start times of the exam blocks. The exam duration information is posted to the SISC Student Exam Schedule tab only for department information but it does not appear on the student's 'SSC My Scheduled Exams'. Exam duration is not published to the general exam website that lists all exams.

Room assignments

To facilitate invigilation, exams will be scheduled in rooms large enough to provide alternate seating of candidates. The gyms that are set up specifically for exam are an exception and are assigned for one student per desk. The SRC A, B, & C and OSB1 A gyms are not equipped with power outlets and wi-fi. If exams require either power or access to wi-fi, please indicate this on the SISC Exam Request Note field.

Special facilities or specific rooms required for an examination should be noted on the SISC exam tab, as well. All exams will be scheduled in separate rooms unless otherwise requested. Where a course has multiple sections and the exam is common for all or some sections, please indicate which sections should be held together on the Examination Request form for entry into the SISC exam tab. 

Requesting Special Accommodation Prior to Exam Scheduling

Requests for special date considerations for exam scheduling may be submitted prior to the distribution of the exam schedule. Requests must be authorized by the dean, associate dean, or director as appropriate, and submitted via the Exam Scheduling Support Request Form to Scheduling Services. The request should include course, section, and instructor information, and reasons for the request.

Requests will be accepted based on the following criteria:

• Unavailability of the instructor for a specified period due to UBC-related research or teaching activities and the inability of the department to provide a qualified replacement invigilator; or
• Need to convene, at a single exam sitting/time, sections of a course which are offered in both daytime and evening.

Requests for exam accommodation that are based on marking volume, instructor conflicts, TA issues, or personal preferences for instructor or students will not be accepted.

In order to process requests in time for exam scheduling, Dean approval for requests must be received by Scheduling Services no later than two (2) days after the deadline for departments to enter requests online. Final approval for date requests is determined by Scheduling Services. Please note that it is not possible to accommodate late requests as the exam scheduling process will have started already.

Publishing and Distribution of the Exam Schedule

Scheduling Services notifies departments and publishes the exam schedule. Please see Dates and Deadlines for approximate dates.

The examination coordinator posts the schedule on the exam website and the Student Service Centre (SSC).  A copy of the exam schedule is emailed to departments upon release of the "Exam Schedule" in October/February and again upon release of the "Exam Schedule with Locations" in November/March.

Making Changes to a Published Exam Schedule

The first publication of the exam schedule is intended to be the final schedule. Scheduling Services will not initiate an exam schedule change unless a typographical error has occurred. We will contact your department prior to any such changes. Any other change request is initiated by the department/instructor.

Once published, the exam schedule contains firm exam dates and times and strict procedures apply to making a change. Approval to change the date and time of an examination requires signatures from the following three people:

• Instructor
• Department Head or designate
• Dean or director

It should be noted that even in cases where all three signatures are provided, it may be impossible for Scheduling Services to make a change due to student clashes or lack of available space. The final determination is the responsibility of Scheduling Services. In all cases, the department will be notified, and all changes will appear on the students.ubc.ca exam website.

If approval is given to change an examination, any student who wishes to write at the original time must be allowed to do so.

We will process late requests for exams and cancelation of scheduled exams without Dean approval. For date and time change requests check with the exam coordinator first to inquire if a change is possible before requesting Dean’s approval. With Dean approval, the exam date and time change will only apply to the one exam and the instructor/department will be responsible for any adverse situation that may arise from this move (student hardships / clashes). No other exams will be moved or displaced to accommodate a Dean-approved change request.

Exam Clashes and Hardships

See the Exam Policies and Procedures page for details.

Summer Session Exam Scheduling

Summer Session

Summer exams are held over a five day formal examination period. Exams scheduled through Enrolment Services can only be set during this official period. Scheduling Services must be notified of any exams to be held during the summer exam periods.

Summer Exam Schedule Release Dates

Please see the 'Schedule Availability' table under Dates and Deadlines for information on the publication of summer exams.

Scheduling Summer Exams

Summer exams can be scheduled using the same process as outlined under the Winter Session Exam Schedule heading.

The process for scheduling an exam is not the same as booking a room. If you book a room for an exam and do not follow the correct process, Scheduling Services will be unable to check for exam conflicts. 

Courses with non-typical end dates

If your course does not adhere to typical term dates, you may not be able to use the official exam period. 

In these cases, the instructor/department is responsible for all exam arrangements including dealing with conflicts, making room bookings and providing exam booklets. Please note that students must be informed of non-standard exam dates by the first day of class.