Exam scheduling
Dates and deadlines
Exam scheduling
Exam invigilation
Policies and procedures
Resources
Each term, Scheduling Services typically schedules exams for 1,700 courses, involving roughly 40,000 students, and resulting in almost 100,000 student exams. All of this takes place over an exam period that is 13 days long.
The exam schedule must attempt to avoid conflicts and minimize hardships for students taking diverse and varied course loads, while taking into account additional constraints, such as trying to avoid evening exams for daytime courses. The number of potential combinations and permutations is astounding.
Our goals
Our primary aim is to minimize student conflicts and exam hardships.
- A student conflict occurs when a student is scheduled for two exams at the same time
- An exam hardship occurs when a student must write three exams within 24 hours
We are typically able to keep the number of conflicts and hardships very low. In order to give students the best chance to succeed, we want to provide optimal time to study both before and between exams, but without dragging out the end of the term.
Our student-centred timeline
Sometimes students, faculty, or staff wonder why the exam schedule isn't released sooner as it is available at some universities before the semester starts. At UBC we do things differently – and we do so precisely because of the students.
- Scheduling Services begins working on each term’s exam schedule after the course add/drop deadline in order to schedule with accurate registration information.
- We usually have a complete exam schedule three weeks after the add/drop deadline.
- This gives students maximum flexibility when registering for courses.
The alternative way to schedule exams is through a course-based schedule and we’ve explored this option in the past. This method allows students to receive their exam schedules when they register. The problem, however, is that students are limited in their course selection: they cannot take courses that have the same final exam date. This can result in extended graduation dates and unsatisfactory course selection.
This option has been presented to and explored with the AMS, and the result was that students preferred to have the flexibility of selecting courses when registering instead of an early exam schedule. At UBC, we prefer to maintain as much student choice and flexibility as possible, especially as academic programs and student interests get more and more interdisciplinary.
Please see the current exam schedule for more information.
Questions about exams?
Please contact:
Scheduling Services, Enrolment Services
Brigitte Priebe
Tel: 604.822.5926
May Chow (Summer Session exam support)
Tel: 604.822.3483
2016–1874 East Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Tel: 604.822.9946
Fax: 604.822.8186
Email: schedulingservices@students.ubc.ca
Hours: Monday to Friday 8:30 am–4:00 pm
