Winter Session exam scheduling
For information on the summer exam scheduling process, please see Summer Session exam scheduling.
On this page
- Soliciting course section exam information
- Entering course section exam information into the SISC exam tab
- Verifying exam information using the Exam requests report
- Daytime/evening exams, exam duration and room assignments
- Requesting special accommodation prior to exam scheduling
- Publishing and distribution of the exam schedule
- Making changes to a published exam schedule
- Dealing with exam clashes
- Exam hardships
Soliciting course section exam information
The department exam contact solicits course exam requests from instructors using the Examination Request Form (below). 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.
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 and is accessible via the SISC and the FSC Scheduling, UBC section details screen. We recommend that you use the SISC when working on adding and updating exam requests as access is quicker and it requires fewer screen changes. However, when creating a new section via FSC scheduling, the exam information can be added along with completing the typical section details. This is useful when creating new first- and second- year sections that will require an exam.
- 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 Manual (below) for more detail
- 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.
The SISC exam tab is not directly connected to the exam database. A final report is produced after the deadline for departments to enter exam requests online via the SISC exam tab. Changes made to the exam tab after the data extraction will not appear in the exam database.
The SISC exam tab is not session-specific. As long as access is open to the exam tab, you can make changes to all available future sessions. For example changes to Term 2 exams can already be made during the summer. Please remember that these types of changes will not appear on the current exam tab requests report. If you need a printout of future information, contact the examination coordinator at Scheduling Services.
Verifying exam information using the exam requests report
- The exam tab requests report is updated manually once a day during the SISC exam entry periodically until the department deadline for entering exams.
- Most exam requests roll over from the previous session and may require updating as notes from previous years may not apply
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 Exam Required box has been checked for that section. Remember that only exams for the current term will 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 should not change an automatic evening assignment, unless all students in the evening section can attend a daytime exam.
See the Exam Tab Manual for information on changing day/evening exam assignment via the SISC exam tab.
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 and 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. Special facilities or specific rooms required for an examination should be noted on the SISC exam tab. 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 in writing (by memo, email, or fax) 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 specific dates.
The examination coordinator posts the schedule on the exam website and the Student Service Centre (SSC). A paper copy of the exam schedule and a department exam schedule are mailed 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 change. Approval to change the date and/or 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 exam website.
We will process late requests for exams and cancellation of scheduled exams without Dean approval. For date and time change requests check with the exam coordinator first to inquire if 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). No other exams will be moved or displaced to accommodate a Dean-approved change request.
Dealing with exam clashes
We do our best to avoid a schedule where there are exam clashes. However, each term we typically have eight to 12 exam clashes that cannot be resolved. We ask students to contact the instructor first as many are willing to accommodate the student. Those that cannot be accommodated are asked to complete a clash form at Enrolment Services. Courses & Registration will contact both instructors for a copy of the exam, and the student will write the examinations back-to-back on the original examination date, under supervision.
Exam hardships
At all times, exam hardships are the responsibility of the department/instructor. For the official examination hardships policy, see the Academic Assessment section in the Academic Regulations chapter of the Calendar.
The student must notify the instructor of the middle examination no later than one month prior to the examination date for Winter Session courses or no later than two weeks prior to the examination date for Summer Session courses. Look at the student’s exam schedule carefully to determine if there is an actual hardship.
Many students think that their situation is a hardship situation even when the third exam falls just outside the 24-hour period. According to Senate policy, this is not the case. For example, if the first exam is on Monday at 8:30 am, the second exam is on Monday afternoon at 3:30 pm, and the third exam is on Tuesday at 8:30 am, there is no official hardship because the third exam starts just after the 24-hour period expires. Such a sequence is a tight schedule but does not qualify for accommodation under the hardship policy.
