I'm a little interested in different countries (or unis within a country) exam practices. Stuff like: - How long are you exams? - Do you have midterms? - What grade scale do you use? - At what % do you pass/fail? - What kind of things are you allowed to use during the exam?
I'm a Norwegian 3rd year ME student. My exams are usually 3 hours, however first and second year maths courses are 5 hours. Usually nothing else than a calculator and pen and paper, but this years maths exam allowed everything written and printed (vector calc). Also the exams usually come with a relevant formula sheet and necessary tables for data you might need. Also no midterms, only hand ins where you have to complete 80% of them to be able to take the exam, and most of the subjects the exam is 100% of the grade. Passing % is >40% which I personally think is laughable.
Panama boi here >- How long are you exams? 2 hours - Do you have midterms? Yes, like 3 or 4 that count for 40% of the grade most of the time. Except one time a professor decided they were 0% and final was 100% - What grade scale do you use? 0 to 3 - At what % do you pass/fail? You pass at 71%. Fail at anything below that
In the end you can be allowed to pass a course with a 61% if the professor thinks you are worthy but you are basically in academic probation and any other fail means you are out boi
- What kind of things are you allowed to use during the exam?
Math major here and they let us use calculators and flash cards with professor approved theorems. That means high school tier trig identities that are not worth to memorize.
However once a professor allowed me to use my cellphone in a test because I didn't bring my flash card lol. In the end I didn't even use it though. I will note that only I was allowed this, this isn't a normal thing.
Jeremiah Ortiz
UCL in UK here >How long? about 2 or 3 hours for maths exams >midterms for some modules but they are only worth ~5% of our grade and are mainly practice >grade scale? Same throughout the UK, 40% to pass and the highest grade, a first, is 70% >What are we allowed to use? Nothing normally, sometimes a calculator
Lucas Morris
>71% to pass I actually like that. There are people in my class that barely know how to do basic integration, and it kind of makes me upset that these people are worth the engineering title after 3 years.
Seems like your exam rules arent so strict, as we face a fail + one to two year suspension from any exam in higher education if we get caught even with a phone on us during the exam (or any breach of the exam rules).
Seems a little weird to have >70% for an A and then the rest of the grades B-E in the range between 40-70%
Bentley Russell
what is third year ME? VG or ungdom?
Gavin Jenkins
new york here >length the length of the regular class, which is 1.5 hours >midterms it's up to the professor, some have them and make them worth a lot, some don't even have them >grade scale roughly: over 90% = A, over 80% =B, over 65% = C, over 60% = D, less than 60% = F and then there are B-, B+, etc for the points in between with A being the highest (no A+) >pass/fail 60% (D) is technically passing, but most classes require that you got a C or better in the pre-requisite in order to take the class so usually you need a 65% or better >What kind of things are you allowed to use during the exam? for math? non-graphing calculators and nothing else rarely, a professor will hand out a supplemental sheet of information with the test or say text books are allowed depends on the professor
Connor Ortiz
Ontario, Canada. Typically 1.5-3 hours. Usually 2 or 2.5 hours. Typically we have midterm which are 1-1.5 hours. They are not mandatory. Entirely dependent on the class. Varies with university: percentage, 4 point, 7 point, 10 point, 12 point. At McMaster where I go, 12 point: 90-100: 12: A+ 85-89: 11: A 80-84: 10: A- 77-79: 9: B+ 73-76: 8: B 70-72: 7: B- 66-69: 6: C+ 63-65: 5: C 60-62: 4: C- 57-59: 3: D+ 53-56: 2: D 50-52: 1: D- Below 50: 0: F You need 50 or higher to pass a class and get credit.
Materials allowed during exams vary with exam/subjects/class/school.
Alexander Rogers
Argentina doing engineering
the system is more or less like this: you have long courses and short courses( short courses are half the duration of the academic year, long courses are the entire year) during the course you have "partial" exams. exams are graded from 1 to 10 usually can be passed with shit grades, sometimes 4 or more, 6 or more, or are not graded at all (you either pass or you don't pass) if you pass the partial exams( which are usually 2,3 or 4 depending if the course is long or short) you have "regularised" the course. which means you can go on to further courses down the academic tree. when you regularise a course, you have three attempts to take a final over three years. if you fail, you have to retake the course. you can take the finals whenever you want within those three years. also if you pass the partials with good grades (8 or more, usually) you can sometimes skip the final. the rules for this stuff is usually decided by the main professor of the course you are taking i like this system
Isaiah Mitchell
Gernany, CS masterrace (I was that one who posted his exams in s thread)
- Exams are mostly 2 hours long - Sometimes you need to pass a midterm do not fail the class but you cannot up your grade with it - 1.0, 1.3, 1.7, 2.0, .., 4.0 and 5.0 - 1.0 is best and 5.0 is a failed class - In most courses at 50% - A pen, no calculator except in numerical analysis
Our finals are our complete course grade
Michael Smith
btw, exams are usually two hours long. only math professors disallowed calculators, but not all of them. no open book exams as far as I've seen. some courses allow you to bring at most handwritten cheat sheet(very rarely) i think getting a 40% pass is OK.
