Know your end-of-term policies
Know your end-of-term policies
Stressed, overworked, and beleaguered by p-sets, especially as finals draw near? No need to Occupy MIT — the Office of the Chair of the Faculty and the UA Student Committee on Educational Policy (SCEP) have established a set of academic end-of-term policies designed to ensure a fair final examination period for students. Here are your rights:
In each subject with a scheduled final exam, there may be no assignments due between Dec. 9 — the last Friday before the reading period — and the final examination period.
For all undergraduate subjects, there may be no tests given within this time frame, regardless of whether a final is scheduled or not. If a final exam is not given, at most one assignment may be due between the last scheduled class and the final exam day.
For graduate subjects only, if a final exam is not given, at most one in-class test, assignment, term paper, or oral presentation may occur between Dec. 9 and the last regularly scheduled class.
Out-of-room final examinations must: be arranged through the Schedules Office, be offered over the course of a single afternoon between 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and permit students unrestricted use of resources. The spirit of such exams should not be to increase the amount of material covered, but rather to evaluate students’ abilities to select resources and answer questions of a more integrative nature.
A student may be excused from a scheduled final for reasons of illness or significant personal problems. Undergraduates requesting an excused absence should contact a dean in Student Support Services; graduate students should contact the Dean for Graduate Education.
For complete details on end-of-term regulations, visit http://web.mit.edu/faculty/teaching/termend.html. If still dissatisfied, http://ua.mit.edu/issues/educational_policy/violations/ offers an anonymous way to report a term regulation violation.
Here’s to literally occupying many long hours with p-sets, and good luck!
—Adisa Kruayatidee