Exam Week Policies

2024-25 Academic Year

Please note the following specific information about the end of the term. All students should follow the guidance provided by their faculty in the syllabus and consult the Exam Week policies below the exam schedule.

To view the Fall Semester 2024 Schedule in Daily Grid View click here

*students in first-year language need to consult their instructor to confirm their exam time

More information regarding exam week may be found in the recent email from the Registrar’s Office and in the faculty policies on this page. Requests for exceptions to this policy - including a faculty need to reschedule a final exam - must be made as through the Office of the Registrar (student requests) or Academic Affairs Office (faculty requests) prior to the Monday of Week 14. Faculty should email academicaffairs@augustana.edu to request a petition for a change. Students must meet the requirements for a change noted below and complete the online form linked below no later than Monday of week 14. Requests made after that deadline will not be considered. 

• Requests for moving final exams will not be considered for leaving campus early or transportation home.
• All other questions should be addressed to your instructors.  

The final examination schedule for the following academic year is published annually in the summer.

Students traveling in groups for an Augustana-sanctioned event must have a group form submitted by the program director, coach or department supervisor by Monday of Week 12. The group/team coach/advisor/faculty member should contact Liesl Fowler regarding travel and submit a copy of the Group Travel Form.

Please see the final examinations schedules and policies for the appropriate year below.  The schedule for the following academic year will be available annually in April. Please be careful in consulting the correct academic year; see future year schedules at bottom of the page if available.

*students in first-year language need to consult their instructor to confirm their exam time

January Term 2025

Any J-term final exams, papers, projects and/or final presentations will take place at the end of J-term in one of the final class meeting times for the course. Consult your syllabus and instructor for more information.  

Preview of Spring Semester Exam Schedule- click here for Exam Schedule

Spring Multi-Section Exams - schedule coming soon! 

2025-26 Exam Schedule (will be available in July 2025)

Exam Week Policies

The following policy statements apply for exam week.

1. Final Exam Week: The fifteenth week of each term is set aside for final examinations. The term "final examination" here means the last examination of the term, either comprehensive or unit examination.

2. Unit Exams: During the last week of classes no final examination may be given. A unit exam may be given only if it is in addition to the regularly scheduled final exam.  The Provost must approve exceptions.  Papers/presentations may be due during the last week of classes with or without an additional final exam/assignment.

3. Change of Exams/Presentations: No final examination/presentation may be changed from its scheduled period except with the approval of the College Registrar.  Travel arrangements, vacations, employment plans and convenience will not be viewed as sufficient reasons to change an examination/presentation. The following are examples of reasons that are not approved: family events, transportation home or on vacation, flight times (regardless of booking date or destination), start dates for internships, job or graduate school interviews, summer coursework, employment, legal proceedings or jury duty, non-emergency or elective medical procedures and appointments, special events, etc. Students who make travel arrangements for any reason that conflicts with exams will be expected to adjust their travel plans, even if there are additional financial consequences for the student. Final exams at Augustana should be considered a priority over other plans. The deadline to submit a petition requesting to change a scheduled exam is the Monday of week 14 each term. Requests after this deadline will not be considered.

4. Take home examinations: Take home finals may be assigned with the final examination period as the due date.

5. Major assignments:  Major assignments due during Exam Week in a class with no final exam must be assigned with a due date of the class's final examination period or 6:00 p.m. on Friday of exam week.  Exceptions include assignments, such as art projects for public display, that have special scheduling needs.

6. Rescheduling Exams: A student may petition the instructor and the College Registrar to reschedule an examination if they are scheduled to have three examinations/presentations in one day. First-Year Foreign Language, Calculus or evening course examinations may not be the one rescheduled. A student desiring to reschedule an examination/presentation for a reason other than as stated here in #5 may petition the Office of the Registrar. A decision will be made by the College Registrar who may consult with the faculty member(s). Students scheduled for three or more final examinations/presentations in one day because of a multiple section examination may petition the College Registrar to be released from that final and reschedule it for another time during exam week. Such students must be given the option of a make-up examination (or other suitable arrangement) by the instructor of the department giving the multiple section final examination (see multi section exams in #9 below.) No final exams will be rescheduled to take place outside of exam week (i.e. week 14.). Under the Department of Education guidelines the college is not permitted to truncate the required enrollment period for any student, so all students are required to participate in their registered coursework from day 1 of the term through their exam week (exam day for J-term) obligations. The only exception is in the case of an emergency when an incomplete is assigned, and the exam would be taken at a later time following the conclusion of the term. For the purposes of rescheduling an exam for three exams in one day, a music jury may not be considered one of the three exams and music juries must be scheduled so they do not conflict with other exams/presentations.

7. Schedule Rotation: The final examination schedule will be rotated each semester and each year.

8. First-Year Second Language and Calculus: Rooms for these examinations will be available three weeks prior to the end of the term.

9. Multi-Section Exams:

• Faculty Requests: The exam blocks from 3:00-5:00 p.m. Wednesdays/Thursdays and from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Mondays/Thursdays are reserved for the scheduling of common final examinations for courses with multiple sections. An additional time period for multi-section exams alternates in the noon-2:00 pm block on Wednesdays/Thursdays each semester. Intro level second language and calculus courses are not eligible for multi-section exams because they already have a dedicated time period for their courses. Instructors or departments may request a multi-section exam by completing the on-line request form prior to the start of the semester. Requests made after the semester begins will not be considered. Faculty will receive a confirmation email when the multi-section exam date/time/location has been scheduled. All final exam blocks with the date/time/locations should be published on the course syllabus and adhere to the final examination policies of the college noted here as well as meet the policies in the Faculty Handbook. Departments who wish to combine events including Senior Inquiry (SI) presentations into a single exam period may request to schedule those events through the Academic Affairs office prior to the start of the term by completing the on-line request form. Requests made after the term begins will not be considered. Department chairs will receive a confirmation email when the combined event’s date/time/location has been scheduled.
• Student Requests: Students scheduled for three or more final examinations in one day because of a multiple-section examination may petition the College Registrar (see #6 above) to be released from that final. Students with approved petitions must be given the option of a make-up examination (or other suitable arrangement) by the instructor of the department giving the multiple-section final examination.

10. Hourly Periods: Sections meeting during hourly periods, including labs and FYI-100, should consult their instructor regarding the time of their final exam. Some hourly-period courses will have their final exam at the scheduled time of the closest corresponding period (i.e. an 8:30 a.m. hourly class meeting on Tuesdays corresponds with 8:30 class, both beginning at 8:30 a.m.) or meet the guidelines for module course exams below.

11. Module Courses: Courses that meet for fewer than 14 weeks, or are offered for 1-2 credits may, upon the discretion of the instructor, give a final examination during the 14-week semester or at the conclusion of the course. This alternate final exam time will be listed in the syllabus, or the exam will be given according to the published annual schedule.

12. Senior Inquiry & Independent/Directed Study: Finals Week presentations that fall outside the scope of regular courses should be scheduled at a time that does not conflict with students' other scheduled final examinations/presentations and on a day when students do not have two or more other examinations/presentations already scheduled.

13. Evening Classes: Courses that regularly meet in the evening will give their final exam on Monday of exam week from 6:00 - 8:00 pm or according to the schedule for J and K blocks linked above.

14. End of the Semester: The Faculty Handbook notes that "the Committee on Advanced Standing and Degrees and the Faculty have determined the end of the semester to be 6:00 p.m. on Friday of exam week, or the last meeting day of J-term, unless an earlier date is specified in the instructor's syllabus." If the course meets a non-standard length, the end of the term is defined as the last day of the course as defined in Arches.

Instructors who violate these rules should be reported to the Office of the Provost.

The Provost shall confer with the instructor and take appropriate action.

Make-up Examinations - If a student is absent at the giving of an examination, permission to make it up is at the discretion of the instructor. Appeals may be made by following the normal procedures for appealing a grade.

Approved by EPC 

Adopted by faculty 3-28-18

updated for new rotation 7.21.23