Exam time and the new SIS
How will the new Student Information System (SIS) affect you during exam time?
“While most of the SIS improvements relating to exams happen at the administrative level — behind the scenes — there is an immediate improvement in communication,” says Linda Hull, manager of course registration, examinations and academic scheduling.
The most obvious benefit, Hull says, is when you view your personalized exam schedule. For the first time, you will be able to see your deferred exams, alternate exam schedules and special arrangements online in the My Student Centre dashboard, where you can also report exam conflicts for regular exams.
“The dashboard shows you the exact location of your exam, instead of showing all 20 exam rooms for a large course. It isolates your actual room number,” says Hull, who reports that soon you’ll be able to resolve exam conflicts in the new system. “Eventually, all this exam-related information will be in one location. This will lessen anxiety around exams when you forget the examination room number, or the section of the course in which you’re enroled.”
Less snail mail
The Examinations Office used to send hundreds of paper letters about alternate exams and deferrals to students, and those letters had to be uploaded into the old system, printed out and filed.
“But now you’ll get an automatic email referring you to My Student Centre to obtain exam date information for regular, alternate and deferred exam dates,” says Hull. “It’s a better process.”
The exam deferral process
If you missed a final examination due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control, you may be able to write it at a later date. Be sure to review all the university regulations concerning DEF or MED notations, in section 16.3.8 in the undergraduate calendar.
“Making a request to defer an exam shouldn’t be done lightly,” says Bradley Tucker, associate vice-president of Registrarial Services and University Registrar. “You need to have a legitimate reason, such as a medical emergency, and you must supply proper supporting documentation.”
To set a request in motion, either download the application request form, get a form at Birks Student Service Centre or pick up a form at the exam site on the day of the exam. The completed form must be handed in at Birks, where you’ll pay a $25 fee per missed exam — not per request. Note that there’s a deadline for deferral requests. The deferral form deadline for courses ending in April 2015 is May 15, 2015.
“At that point, the new SIS is a big help to us in the Examinations Office, where we process the requests,” says Hull. “If a student’s request for deferral was granted, they’ll get an automatic email telling them when — what academic term, not the date and location yet — they’ll sit the deferred exam. When the exam schedule for that term is finalized, students will be able to see their deferred exam information in their dashboard. We also send an email to let them know it’s posted.”
For all students, Hull has some general advice: “Know your examination room number and bring a valid ID card, with your photo and a signature. Also, read the front and inside cover of the exam booklet, where it spells out the rules and regulations. The most common cause of academic misconduct is when students tear pages out of the exam booklet.”
Read important details about examinations at Concordia.