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Planning for the End of Term
- Dates
- Scheduling Final Examinations
- Exercises After the Last Scheduled Class
- Excused Absences from Final Examinations
Undergraduate Subjects
- End-of-Term Tests
- End-of-Term Assignments for Subjects with Finals
- End-of-Term Assignments Subjects without Finals
- Ex Camera Finals
Graduate Subjects
- End-of-Term Assignments for Subjects with Finals
- End-of-Term Assignments for Subjects without Finals
To ensure that student and faculty workloads do not become overwhelming, the Faculty regulates examinations and work assignments at the end of term. Nonetheless, each term violations of these regulations arise in a number of subjects. While usually well intended, requirements that are in violation of the rules often impose hardships on students. When such violations occur, the Faculty Chair has the responsibility to resolve them. The Chair will contact the instructor, and, in the case of an undergraduate subjects, will inform the Department Head as well.
It is often difficult and awkward to resolve such situations late in the term in a way that is fair to the students and that preserves the educational value intended by the instructor. For this reason, please read these guidelines carefully and contact the current Faculty Chair, Professor Bish Sanyal (exam-termregs[at]mit[dot]edu) early in the term with any questions.
Students are entitled to expect that no faculty member will deviate from these rules except with prior permission of the Faculty Chair (exam-termregs[at]mit[dot]edu) for undergraduate subjects and the Committee on Graduate Programs (CGP) for graduate subjects, and that any such approved exception will be announced and appropriately emphasized early in the term. Having students vote on some deviation from the rules is not an acceptable procedure.
Section 2.50 of the Rules and Regulations of the Faculty on assignments and examinations.
Dates
| Last Test Date for undergraduate subjects | Friday | December 5 |
| Last day of classes | Wednesday | December 10 |
| Final examinations | Monday - Friday | December 15 - 19 |
See 2008-09 Academic Calendar for additional dates.
Scheduling Final Exams
Final examinations are held during the final examination period at the end of each term and are scheduled through the Schedules Office. A final examination should last at least one hour and not more than three hours; ex camera examinations for undergraduate subjects are the only exception to this regulation. Final examinations may not be cancelled once they are announced, and, after the final examination schedule is published, the time of the final examination may not be changed.
Students are responsible for attending the final examinations required in the subjects for which they are registered. The schedule of final examinations is issued several months before the examination period. Students should obtain a copy of the schedule and report any conflicts in examinations to the Schedules Office before the time limit given.
Exercises After the Last Scheduled Class
No required classes, examinations, exercises or assignments of any kind may be scheduled after the last regularly scheduled class in a subject, except for final examinations scheduled through the Schedules Office. (The architecture design reviews that occur during finals week are considered to be equivalent to final examinations and are scheduled by the Department of Architecture.)
Formal reviews should be held during regular class periods, but the rule does not exclude the possibility of sessions after December 10 at which the instructing staff is available to answer questions of students who choose to attend.
An instructor may give an extension to an individual student, but blanket extensions should not be given to the entire class.
Excused Absences from Final Exams
A student may be excused from a scheduled final examination for reasons of illness or significant personal problems. Undergraduates should contact a dean in Counseling and Support Services and graduate students should contact the Dean for Graduate Students if they wish to seek an excused absence; faculty members with questions about this process should contact the appropriate office. See definition of "O" and "OX" in Section 2.63 of Rules and Regulations of the Faculty.
The faculty member in charge of a subject may excuse a student from a final examination for such reasons as conflicts either between examinations or with religious holidays. In these cases, a mutually satisfactory agreement should be reached between the student and the faculty member, the agreement ratified in advance of the examination by the head of the department in which the subject is offered, and the faculty member prepared to submit a grade based on other evidence.
Undergraduate Subjects
End-of-Term Tests
In all undergraduate subjects, there shall be no tests after the Last Test Date, December 5 (Section 2.53 of the Rules and Regulations of the Faculty defines the Last Test Date as the Friday preceding the start of the Reading Period). Unit tests may be scheduled during the final examination period.
End-of-Term Assignments for Subjects with Finals
For each subject in which there is testing during the final examination period, no assignment may fall due after Friday, December 5.
End-of-Term Assignments for Subjects without Finals
For each subject in which there is no testing during the final examination period, at most one assignment may fall due between December 5 and the end of the last scheduled class period in the subject. This single assignment may include both an oral presentation and a written report if the two derive from the same project. Optional assignments between December 5 and the last scheduled class period in the subject should be for self-study and may not be used toward part of the grade in a subject, even for extra points or as substitutes for earlier assignments.
Ex Camera Finals
In some undergraduate subjects, final examinations may be ex camera (out-of-room) examinations. Ex camera examinations are a different mode of testing intended to give students access to computers and libraries and evaluate their abilities to select resources and answer questions of an integrative nature. Ex camera examinations are not intended as a way to increase the amount the material covered. A faculty member must obtain the permission of the Chair of the Faculty to hold ex camera final examinations. Permissions will be granted for no more than five years. The ex camera examination must:
- be scheduled through the Schedules Office,
- be offered over the course of a single afternoon — starting at 1:30 P.M. and ending no later than at 7:30 P.M., and
- permit students unrestricted use of resources.
Graduate Subjects
End-of-Term Tests and Assignments for Subjects with Finals
For each subject with a final examination, no other test may be given and no assignment may fall due after Friday, December 5.
End-of-Term Tests and Assignments for Subjects without Finals
For each subject without a final examination, at most, either one in-class test may be given, or one assignment, term paper, or oral presentation may fall due, between December 5 and the end of the last regularly scheduled class in the subject. An in-class test given during this period is limited to one normal class period (or to one and one-half hours, whichever is shorter).
