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Implementation of examinations
Examination venues
Written examinations are implemented at Åsgårdveien 9 and/or on the university campus.
The main examination venue on the university campus is the main auditorium in the Administration Building. Other venues on the campus are also utilised for examination implementation.
Specific details about where actual examinations shall be implemented are available at the relevant department/faculty. Lists are displayed detailing course/discipline, date, time and place. The information is also published on the Department of Research and Academic Affairs’ website around May 1 for ordinary examinations in the spring semester and November 1 for ordinary examinations in the autumn semester.
Written examinations commence no earlier than 9am. Students shall be seated at their respective desks a minimum 15 minutes prior to the start time. Refer to Regulations for Examinations.
Oral examinations are determined and organised by the relevant faculty.
Important: you will require your student card as ID!
Examination rules
1. Before the examination question papers are distributed
Examination candidates must arrive in sufficient time and sit at their respective places no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the examination. The desks which may be used are marked with a sign and copies of these regulations are placed on them. Examination invigilators will show candidates where to place outdoor clothing and bags. Candidates are not permitted to take jackets, coats, bags, mobile phones, pagers and the like to their desks. The following items are permitted at the examination desk: food, drink, writing utensils, identification and permitted examination supports.
Candidates granted special arrangements will be shown to places marked with their name.
Electronic examination supports such as mobile telephones and pagers are not permitted. In the event that a candidate brings such items to the examination, they must be switched off and placed in the candidate’s jacket, coat or bag or handed to an examination invigilator.
Examination supports:
All permitted examination supports shall be listed on the examination paper. Items not listed on the cover page of the examination paper are not permitted. Candidates shall follow such stipulations and not enter into discussions about to what extent specific examination supports should in fact be permitted.
For examinations in law, particular books and publications are permitted examination supports. These shall be approved in advance. Routines are in place for the submitting, approving, safekeeping and issuing of such books and publications.
Any candidate found in possession of an examination support not specified on the examination paper, or which has not gained prior approval, will be regarded as an attempt to cheat.
Identification:
Candidates must have a valid form of identification at their desk. Any candidate unable to present valid identification should expect to be excluded from the examination.
2. Examination progress
Examination question papers will be distributed precisely at the examination’s stated start time. Answer papers and rough paper will also be distributed. The candidate must produce identification and sign the examination candidate list for attendance and will at this time be issued a candidate number, which must be entered on the cover sheet. Candidates must note and retain their candidate number until they have received the examination result. Candidate numbers will not be provided over the telephone. Examination results are stated by candidate number on lists displayed on notice boards in the relevant faculty. Examination results will also be published on studweb.
Candidates must write their examination answer in black ink using a felt tip or ballpoint pen. The reason for this is that several copies of your examination answer must be produced before it is sent to the examiners. Answers written in pencil or various types of blue ink have been known to produce copies of poor or unclear quality, which has caused problems with assessment.
Copy of answer paper:
Candidates wishing to retain a copy of their examination answer may request blank paper and carbon paper from the examination invigilators prior to the start of the examination.
Toilet visits:
When visiting the toilet during the examination, candidates may close the cubical door, but not lock it. Exceptions to this rule may be made if the examination invigilator is of the opposite gender.
Breaks:
Any smoking break or break of another nature should be limited to 10 minutes’ duration. (This does not apply for candidates who have been granted “resting time”.) Candidates having breaks at the same time shall not attempt to communicate with each other in any way. Candidates are not permitted to go to the kiosk/shop during their break. If the candidate departs the examination building during the break, he/she must remain in the vicinity of the door. During breaks, candidates shall not have access to newspapers, other written material or electronic equipment.
Withdrawal during the examination:
Any candidate wishing to withdraw during the examination must complete the form “Withdrawal during an examination”. This procedure must also be followed if the basis for withdrawal is sickness. In these circumstances, the candidate must submit a medical certificate within 48 hours in order to have the right to implement a re-sit examination.
A candidate choosing to withdraw from the examination or who has submitted his/her examination answer is not permitted to leave the examination venue until a minimum one hour has elapsed since the start of the examination (quarantine period).
3. Conclusion of the examination
Examination invigilators will inform the candidates when the examination time has elapsed. Candidates will then have an additional 15 minutes during which they must complete the header section on all sheets forming part of their examination answer, including the cover sheet.
The following details must be entered in the header section of all sheets: candidate number, date, page number and course code. The candidate’s name shall not be entered. Candidates may only submit complete sheets of paper. Page numbers may be corrected using correction fluid/tape, or by crossing out the incorrect page number and clearly writing the correct page number beside. Candidates shall number pages in numerical order and not utilise “A” and “B” pages.
The additional 15 minutes may only be used for the above-mentioned task. Candidates are not permitted to continue working on their examination answer once the examination time has elapsed, e.g. proof reading, correction or errors etc. This also applies where the candidate has chosen to utilise the actual examination time for page numbering etc.
It is the candidate’s own responsibility to have his/her examination answer ready for collection when the additional 15 minutes has elapsed. In other words, it is not the examination invigilator’s responsibility to prepare/number an examination answer which the candidate has not completed within the allocated time. In instances where a candidate has not finished preparing/numbering his/her examination answer when the extra 15 minutes has elapsed, the examination invigilator shall confiscate the examination answer. Such answers will be placed in an envelope in the condition in which they are confiscated, the envelope shall be sealed and the following details shall be written on the envelope: candidate number, time and a brief explanation of why the examination answer is not correctly prepared.
Candidates must then depart the examination venue as soon as their examination answer has been submitted or immediately after the initial one-hour quarantine period.
Candidates are not permitted to remove the university’s answer sheets, written or unwritten, from the examination venue. This will be the subject of specific checks.
Postponed examinations
Postponed examinations are an extraordinary examination which is implemented for candidates who had acute sickness at the time of the ordinary examination.
Candidates who submit a medical certificate to the Department of Research and Academic Affairs within 48 hours of the ordinary examination in question have the right to implement a postponed examination and need not make an application. However, the candidate must still register for the postponed examination within the stipulated date, which is August 15 for the autumn semester and January 15 for the spring semester.
NB! Candidates may not cancel registrations for postponed examinations.
A student who is suffering from an acute sickness has the right to implement a postponed examination. The term acute sickness refers to sickness which has arisen less fewer than 14 days prior to the examination in question. The candidate shall submit a medical certificate to the Department of Research and Academic Affairs within 48 hours of the ordinary examination in question. The medical certificate must state for which examination and period of time it relates. Medical certificates intended for an employer are unacceptable. The certificate must relate to the specific examination.
The information about the period of time is important both to confirm that the illness is acute and also to enable the Examination Office to set a date for the postponed examination. In accordance with the Regulations for Examinations Section 21, the postponed examination shall be implemented as soon as possible after the basis for absence has ceased, and normally no later than one month after the start of the next semester. In practice, there is normally more than one candidate who has the right to a postponed examination for a particular course, so the date is fixed to enable all candidates to implement the examination simultaneously.
A postponed examination is offered on only one occasion. In other words, in the event that a candidate does not attend the postponed examination or chooses to withdraw, the candidate will not have the opportunity to implement a new postponed examination and must wait for the next ordinary examination offered for the course in question. This is also the case if illness prevents the candidate in question from attending the postponed examination. A candidate who fails a postponed examination must also wait until the next ordinary examination to re-sit the examination (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations).
Illness which arises during the actual examination:
A candidate who falls sick during an examination must complete a withdrawal form. This form informs the candidate that they must consult a doctor and submit a medical certificate to the Department of Research and Academic Affairs within 48 hours in order to have the right to implement a postponed examination.
Sickness during examinations which comprises several module assignments:
In the event of sickness which arises during examinations comprising several module assignments, for example a take-home examination, a written examination and a final oral examination, postponed examinations do not provide the opportunity to implement parts of the examination which were implemented during the ordinary examination (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations).
Take-home examinations:
A candidate who falls acutely sick prior to or during a take-home examination, must submit a medical certificate to the faculty’s examination co-ordinator or student co-ordinator no later than two days after the final date for submitting the take-home examination in question has passed in order to have the right to implement a postponed examination. With respect to examinations comprising several module assignments, for example a take-home examination, a written examination and a final oral examination, in some circumstances the candidate must implement all modules as a postponed examination and in some instances only some of the modules.
This will depend on the duration of the medical certificate and the terms of the examination. For example, a candidate may be sick during the take-home assignment, but have fully recovered on the date the written examination shall be implemented. In the event the candidate shall have an oral examination after the written examinations, the candidate shall implement only the take-home and oral examinations as postponed examinations.
Re-sit examinations
A re-sit examination is an extraordinary examination which may be implemented for candidates who do not pass the previous ordinary examination. Re-sit examinations are not implemented for candidate who fails a postponed examination or another extraordinary examination.
The final date to register for a re-sit examination is August 15 for the autumn semester and January 15 for the spring semester.
NB! Candidates may not cancel registrations for postponed examinations.
Special adaptations during an examination
Special adaptations may be granted for candidates who for particular reasons have a requirement for special adaptations for a written examination. Such adaptations must be requested at the time of registering for the examination in question. Such applications for adaptations must be submitted to the Director of Research and Academic Affairs within the deadline for registering for the examination.
Applications must include a recent medical certificate or specialist’s declaration unless such adaptations are not medically related. Applications shall be sent to the Department of Research and Academic Affairs for a decision in accordance with the Regulations for Examinations at the University of Tromsø.
NB: The final date for applications is February 1 for the spring semester and September 1 for the autumn semester.
Dispensation from these deadlines is granted only in exceptional circumstances.
For practical and administrative reasons, applications received more than four weeks after the final date for applications will not be handled.
Objective
Section 26 of the Regulation for Examinations at the University of Tromsø states that the objective of making special adaptations during an examination for students with disabilities is so that any disadvantages the disability causes can be rectified to the greatest extent possible so all candidates can be tested equally. The special adaptations granted shall be sufficient, but will not always be optimal in relation to the candidate’s own requirements or the assessment of requirements.
Requirement for documentation
In order to achieve the fairest and most reasonable practise concerning special adaptations, the University of Tromsø has sent a letter outlining the requirements for documentation to medical centres and specialists. Please make your doctor aware of this.
You may take a print-out of the letter with you to your doctor’s appointment.
Special adaptations shall normally only be granted to students with long-lasting/chronic suffering. Candidates who become acutely sick may not claim special adaptations. In the event that the problem occurs immediately prior to the examination, the candidate has the right to implement a postponed examination and special adaptations will not be granted.
A brief explanation of the procedure for the most common disadvantages examination candidates may have during an examination:
- Candidates who on the basis of acute suffering cannot implement an examination do not have a basis for special adaptations (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations, Section 28). Candidates with acute suffering do not have access to the use of a word processor
- Candidates with specific literary problems may receive the offer of implementing their written examination utilising a word processor (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations, Section 29). Documentation from a therapist is required.
- Candidates suffering from asthma or allergies are not granted special adaptations during an examination (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations, Section 30). In serious/special circumstances, additional time can be provided during written examinations to rest and/or receive necessary medication.
- Students who suffer from tenosynovitis/problems writing by hand receive time to rest during the examination and/or the option of utilising a word processor for written examinations (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations, Section 31).
- Candidates who have Norwegian as a foreign language receive additional time (with reference to the Regulations for Examinations, Section 33). Such arrangements do not apply for students attending programmes taught in English or for students who had Norwegian as their second language at secondary school.
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