The Exams Office, Division of the Academic Registrar, provide centralised services and logistics to ensure consistent and optimal conduct of written formal examinations across the University. 

• Process overview
• What's our role?
• Information for unit of study coordinators
• Support

Process overview

Learn more about the process guide for the creation and submission of in-semester and final exams into Canvas.  The information is relevant to exams whether they are being proctored (supervised) or not, and whether they are being scheduled by the Exams Office.

What's our role?

Examinations (assessments)

The Exams Office is primarily accountable for the timetabling and administration of final exams, which includes formal written end of semester exams, replacement exams, out of session exams (courses adhering to a different academic calendar) and alternative arrangement exams.

Educational Innovation is primarily accountable for the set-up of Canvas exam sites, performing technical checks and adding students to exam sites and scheduling proctored exams for both in-semester and final exams.

However, the two teams work closely together to ensure the effective delivery of online exams, this includes continuous review and improvement of the process.

Task overview

Information for unit of study coordinators

Unit of study coordinators are required to:

• specify the assessment regime for their unit of study in Sydney Curriculum (including information about exam types, weighting, duration and timing) and publish an online unit of study outline
• discuss requests/seek approval for exceptions to the standard timetable dates and times for in-semester and final exams with their Associate Dean (Education)
• enter information about permitted materials in the In-semester Tests Portal and/or Final Exams Portal for in-semester tests and final exams that run in the two weeks of in-semester test and final exam periods
• check the draft exam timetable for final exams and provide feedback by the stipulated date
• design and build formal and replacement exams in the exam-specific Canvas site created for their unit ensuring that each exam undergoes a faculty quality assurance and peer review process.

Coordinators will receive emails to prompt and remind them about the process and key deadlines.

Refer to this exams guide for:

• Important deadlines for in-semester tests
• Important deadlines for final exams
• Process for in-semester tests
• Process for final exams

For more information about submitting exam details and uploading exam papers using the Exams Portal, download the Examiner user guide (pdf, 706KB). 

Exam scheduling principles and individual requests

Each semester the Exams Office schedules around 700 exams (with more than 100,000 exam sittings) within the two-week formal exam period. This involves entering a complex array of exam requirements (e.g. proctoring requirements, duration) into an automated system that creates the exam timetable. Our primary goals when creating the timetable are to:

• minimise or eliminate clashes for students
• ensure that large online exams with live proctoring do not run into the following session on any given day. (A maximum of 300 students only can commence in any given 2-hour period)
• ensure no students are required to sit more than two exams in one day and provide appropriate adjustments for students with a disability
• where possible schedule exams for larger cohorts earlier in the exam period to allow more time for marking.

We will also aim to accommodate the following requests:

• non-standard exam durations e.g. recitals or practicals that are run over a whole day
• exams that must be run concurrently due to shared content
• practical exams that must be scheduled before/after theoretical exams
• clinical placement and hospital/clinical work required during the exam period
• requests for evening exams for postgraduate and other students.

Other requests will be considered and accommodated if feasible.

Support

If you have a question about scheduling or exam administration in general, please contact the Exams office.

If the exams portal doesn’t work on your computer, or you require technical assistance of any kind, please contact ICT.