The purpose of exams is to assess your capability of demonstrating your knowledge in a finite time period on the identified material ranked somewhat relative to your peers. It’s not a measure of what is inside your head, but instead is a measure of your capability of communicating ideas on paper. Now the word relative is used in that we want to ensure that there is an equal playing field across the board for all students regardless of who they are, where they’re from, what their religion is, etc… At this institution we attempt to ensure that the exams are relatively the same length / difficulty in ALL classes despite the instructor or the semester the course was taken.

To attain this noble ideal, we need rules. Rules are what govern a proper society. Without them, it’s the wild west and whoever is the quicker draw takes the loot! While there does exist people within our own society that bend the rules unbelievably, this is academia. We are better and can strive to be as impartial, objective, and as fair as humanly possible. It’s one of the reasons I took to the academic path in the first place.

For us, the rules in the examination process are to mitigate cheating. Here is the general list. Bare in mind, this list is not comprehensive and there may exists actions that are clearly out of line that would not be allowed.

Electronic Devices:

No unapproved calculators or electronic devices of any kind are allowed to be used during the exam. Doing so will result in an automatic zero based on ASU’s SOMSS policy regarding electronic devices during the exam. Therefore, no CAS calculators, laptops, headphones, smart watches, smart phones, short wave radios, hot plates, microwaves, and blow dryers. Now I would prefer to not allow any calculators at all as I feel that they are more often used as a crutch than a tool. I would encourage you to attempt to not use a calculator (I didn’t use one through all my math) as it forces you to do more work on the paper and less in your head and therefore it results in higher grades (usually) assuming you know the process of what you are doing.

Disruptions:

No talking, peaking, prying, poking, or touching of anyone around you or their work. Doing so may result in a zero. In the past I have had many students report their class mates for murmuring in another language softly. The result of this scenario was I graded the exams, had those 4 people specifically come to my office and I had them, without looking at their exam, demonstrate how they got the answer to a VERY similar problem with zero work. End result, they were turned in to the academic disciplinary department. Therefore, in the interest of maintaining the integrity of the examination process, this type of behavior will result in a zero despite what was “said” and may include academic sanctions.

Restroom Breaks:

There are no bathroom breaks. You need to plan accordingly such that you can sit in one spot for the duration of the exam. While some may view this as unreasonable, you must realize that we do not have the capability of properly monitoring students in this situation to ensure a fair exam for all parties considered. Even surrendering a phone is not sufficient to demonstrate a second device is not in your possession and for obvious reasons, instructors “patting down” students, should not be allowed.

I have had colleagues suggest that we can have proctors of the same gender follow students in the bathroom so we can identify they didn’t cheat. However, the stalls must be closed and so there is truly no way to know that. Secondly, this is just weird. I would feel massively uncomfortable if some adult was standing outside the stall while I am trying to take care of business. It borders on inappropriate in my eyes.

So plan ahead and then this will not be an issue. Now if you do have a biological issue that precludes you from sitting still for 1 hour, please contact the SAILS department so we can get this on file. They have a separate facility in which they have more capability of issuing exams in various environments for students with varied complications.

Questions:

If you have a question, please quietly come to the front. I realize it may be difficult for some people who may be sitting in the middle of an aisle, however, imagine the difficulty of me coming to you as I try to maneuver through the aisle and have every student trying to accommodate me traipsing through.

When Finished:

Since the goal is always to ensure a fair examination environment, this includes us being as quiet as possible such that we do not disturb the rest of the class. With that in mind, my procedure for submitting an exam is such. Bring the exam up with your ID. You will hold the exam up in one hand and your ID in your other both facing me. I will be able to see your smiling face, compare it with the awesome picture on your ID, identify the name on the ID and then compare it with the name printed on the exam. I’ll then give a thumbs up and point over to my backpack at which time you put the exam in the open backpack facing the same way as all the other exams below it.

Missed Exams:

If you miss the exam it will be an automatic zero. The only way around this is to have a verifiable medical excuse. This means I need to be able to call the physician / physicians assistant and verify that yes they saw you and the note is legit. I don’t need to know the malady that has led to this, that is your private information. I do however need to ensure a doctor has made the statement you were unable to attend the exam due to a medical condition.

Some of the problems with this is that students will obtain doctors notes after the exam. I cannot tell you how many times students have reached out 5 hours after the exam with issues or got a doctors note 2-3 days afterwards. I do not know how doctors could know that students were sick 2-3 days earlier. Obviously, there are conditions in which we know that it has persisted for some time, but in general situations, i.e. the flu, COVID, migraines, stomach aches, etc… notes after the fact simply do not help.

So if you truly are sick, I strongly encourage you to see a doctor prior to ensure we do not have issues. ASU’s health center is extremely good. I’ve had been going there for 20 years with Dr. Standford Ho (until he retired and they instituted a policy that faculty members cannot use it.). Other options would be to communicate with me. If you are sick over the weekend, let me know. You obviously want your symptoms to disappear (as no one wants to be sick) and so if they do you are good to go but communicate at least demonstrates you are cognizant of the due date and you are not last minute knee jerk reaction 5 hours after the exam trying to salvage whatever you can because your friend informed you of the exam you were unaware of. I can work with planners.

Usage of Pens

There shall be no pens used on an exam. Points will be deducted if you it is done. This may sound harsh but my hope is I never have to implement this. I simply have noticed a correlation of exam scores and pen usage. While there are always exceptions to rules, in general, the students who use pens end up scribbling things out, wasting room, losing room (as you cannot erase it) etc… So the motivation behind this is to actually help students improve their grades on exams. To ensure that they have the all the space they need. If you use red pen in particular, I reserve the right to take off more points.

No writing above the top problem for a given page

The top of the page is reserved for me. I keep track of points per page. It seems as the semester rolls by, I have consistently seen more and more students writing in the top corners. I think they were hoping that it will confuse me when adding up points lost? I honestly don’t know. However, given that, that is why the rule is here. For the purpose of ensuring everyone is treated equally and no mistakes were made by me due to crafty students. Trust that you ARE given all the room you need for each problem. If you feel you don’t have enough room, then either you are writing too big, showing too many steps, or simply don’t know how to approach the problem.