1) The student must contact the course director or the course director’s secretary in person or by telephone or email within 48 hours of the test or examination. You must clearly state the following:
- your name (it helps to spell your last name)
- your student number, course and section
- phone number at which you can be reached time best to call you back
2) If you cannot contact the secretary or the course director during this 48 hour period, subsequent documentation accounting for the delay must be provided.
3) Appropriate documentation verifying the circumstances for the missed test or examination must be provided at the time specified by the instructor. Failure to provide appropriate documentation will result in a grade of F on the missed test.
What is appropriate documentation?
a) medical circumstances – tests/exams missed due to medical circumstances must be supported by an attending physician’s statement or a statement by a psychologist or counselor. The physician’s statement must include the following:
- full name, mailing address, telephone number of the physician.
- state the nature of the illness and its duration (i.e., specific dates covered), and
- an indication of whether the illness and/or medication prescribed would have SERIOUSLY affected the student’s ability to study and perform over the period in question.
NOTE: the physician's office may be contacted to verify that the forms were completed by the physician.
b) non-medical circumstances – tests/exams missed due to non-medical circumstances must be supported by appropriate documentation, i.e., death certificates, obituary notice, automobile accident reports, airline/bus ticket/receipt for emergency travel (with date of booking on ticket), etc. Airline/train/bus ticket/receipts for emergency travel must indicate destination, departure, and return dates. Having to work at the time of a test is not considered a valid excuse for missing the test.
4) The manner in which the missed test (which has been legitimately documented) is handled will be at the discretion of the course director, and should be outlined by the instructor within the first two weeks of the course.
Eg.,
In the case of a make-up test/exam, the student must be prepared to write the test at a date set by the instructor (this may be as early as a week following the missed test). Although the content to be examined will be the same, the format may or may not follow that of the original test/exam. YOU must check with the course director's secretary or teaching assistant for the date and time of the make-up. A conflict in another course during the time of the make-up is not an acceptable reason for missing the make-up (unless there is an examination in the other course at that time). The course instructor may choose to set the deferred test/exam on a "common date" determined by the Department of Psychology (See details below). You should be aware that if you miss the tests before the official drop date, you will not have the requisite 10% feedback on your course work to determine if you need to drop the course or not. As a result, it is in your best interest to write the tests at the time they are scheduled by the course director.
NOTE: Only extremely unusual circumstances would warrant a second chance at a make-up.
5) Please keep in mind the total value of any test(s) or examination(s) given in the last two weeks of classes in a term must be worth no more than 20% of the final grade for the course. Deferred tests should not be set during the final examination period (unless it is with the consent of the student). The weighting of missed tests can be added to a final examination, but a test should not be written along with a final examination (i.e., a student should not be required to write a two or three hour final exam, and a deferred test back to back, unless the student has consented to the arrangement.)
Cheating/Plagiarism/Impersonation
The University does not look favorably on cheating of any kind and the penalties for doing so are very harsh. Become familiar with the rules and regulations regarding cheating/plagiarism. You can find them listed in the Undergraduate Psychology Supplemental Calendar. In summary, you can avoid problems by following some simple rules.
- Do your own work and present your own ideas in your own words. Do not merely repeat or reword sections from other sources.
- Don’t copy from friends or neighbors and don’t let friends or neighbors copy from you.
- If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of what you are doing -- ASK.
