Exam Procedures

STUDENT EXAM NUMBERS

Law School examinations are graded anonymously. At the start of each quarter, each student is assigned a new examination number, which will be distributed prior to the exam period of each quarter. Law students will go to the University Student Portal (my.uchicago.edu, Academics Tab, My Courses and Grades, Additional Information) to retrieve their exam number. Non-law students will receive their numbers from the Registrar ahead of the exam period. Exam proctors also have exam numbers available on the day of the exam.

ALL EXAMS

Law School examinations are either proctored (in-class) or take-home. All exams are taken on laptops (unless the format of the exam prevents laptop use, which would be communicated to you by the instructor ahead of the exam period).

All exams are turned in electronically via the internet to https://totality.uchicago.edu/exam (unless the format of the exam prevents laptop use, which would be communicated to you by the instructor ahead of the exam period). This website may be accessed using almost any popular web browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari 4 Beta).

PASSWORD: "UCLAW Password"

To access the website, you will need your UCLAW login and password. If you do not know your UCLAW login or password, you need to contact the Law School IT department (contact information is at the bottom of this page).

Prior to starting your take-home exam or reporting to your exam room, you should create and save a document, in Word or WordPerfect. If you use a different word processing program, the answers must be readable by Word. This document should contain a page on which you have set up headers containing Student Exam Number, Course Name, Professor Name, and Pagination (1 of 6, 2 of 6, etc.) [and for students graduating at the end of the quarter, the word GRADUATING]. Format your answers in a 12-pt common font (Times New Roman, Courier, etc.). Double space your answers and set one-inch margins. You are strongly encouraged to save your final exam file as a pdf and upload that file rather than the Word or WordPerfect file.

When you upload your exam answer document this is taken as a statement of your integrity, affirming that the exam answer is exclusively your work, written during the exam time.

TAKE-HOME EXAMS

Take-home exam questions must be downloaded from and answers uploaded via the exam administration website, known as Totality (https://totality.uchicago.edu/exam). Take-home exams may be started at 8:00 a.m. on the first day of the exam period. Take-home exams must be completed and uploaded via Totality by 5:00 p.m. on the last day of the exam period. Answers are due eight hours after the exam was started (unless a different time frame is specified). Hard copies of take-home exams are NOT available for pick-up.

Remember that the Law School is not staffed 24 hours per day. If you run into exam problems in the middle of the night, you may send an email to the relevant personnel listed below, but should not expect a response before the next business day. Email is always a better option than phoning.

First-year students must complete take-home exams on the scheduled day as shown on the exam schedule. The exam will be available at 8:00 a.m. and must be uploaded via Totality by 5:00 p.m. on the same day. Answers are due eight hours after the exam is started or 5:00 p.m., whichever comes first unless otherwise specified. Hard copies of the take-home exam are NOT available for pick up.

If an exam is submitted late, this will be noted and communicated to the instructor. If problems of any kind arise during the exam process, students should NOT contact the instructor directly; they must instead contact staff in the Office of the Registrar or the Dean of Students' Office.

While take-home exams may be taken anywhere, designated classrooms are made available whenever possible, and the library is always available.

IN-CLASS/PROCTORED EXAMS

Proctored exams are usually 3 hours in length. They may be open or closed book. In some cases a faculty member may limit the specific types of materials and study aids that can be brought to the exam. Proctored exams take place in the classroom wing. Exam room assignments are posted in the classroom wing. Prior to reporting to your exam room, you should print out any outlines and notes you need, in case of a computer failure.

Report to your assigned exam room no later than 15 min. before the start of the exam. If you arrive when the exam is already in progress, you must report to Room A. You will not receive extra time if you are late for an exam.

On arriving in the exam room, pick up and fill out one index card according to the proctor's instructions. Scratch paper will also be available. Plug in your laptop and open to the file you have created in advance for the exam. After a brief introduction, the proctor will distribute exams, face down, in exchange for your filled-out index card. Once all exams have been distributed, "Start" will be called and the time written on the board. Your proctor will post and announce 15 minutes remaining and 5 minutes remaining.

Remember to save your work frequently.

When STOP is called, the exam is over. YOU MUST STOP WORKING. You will be given a few minutes to save and upload your exam answer document. Students working past the stopping time will be noted as late by the proctor. Failure to stop in a timely fashion is construed as cheating and may result in a disciplinary proceeding.

IN CASE OF COMPUTER FAILURE OR ILLNESS

If your computer crashes during the exam, immediately notify your proctor. The proctor will notify us and then escort you to the IT department, who will address the problem. Once the problem is resolved, you will resume your exam in a different room (on a new laptop if necessary). You will not lose any time for the crash.

In case of illness during the exam, please notify your proctor, who will notify us. Arrangements will be made for you to complete your exam in a separate room. If you become ill prior to the exam, do not start the exam. Once started, exams must be completed. Contact the Office of the Dean of Students or the Office of the Registrar if you become ill prior to the exam.

Professors should not, under any circumstances, be contacted about exam-related issues.

IN CASE OF QUESTIONS REGARDING EXAM INSTRUCTIONS OR CONTENT

If you have questions regarding the exam instructions or the exam questions themselves, please notify your proctor for in-class exams or the Office of the Registrar for take-home exams as soon as possible. We will attempt to clarify issues with the instructor during the exam.

FOR YOUR COMFORT

You may bring food and drink in to the exam room, but be considerate: no stinky or noisy food, please. Be sure to turn off cell phones and all other audible alarms. You may listen to music with headphones, as long as you and only you can hear your music. You may leave the exam room quietly as needed during the exam, but please be respectful of the needs of your fellow test takers.

CONTACTS DURING EXAMS

REGISTRAR:

Roberto Koch, Registrar - 773-834-5315 - rkoch@uchicago.edu

Jeanine Alonso, Administrative & Faculty Support Specialist - 773-834-4255 - jalonso@uchicago.edu

IT DEPARTMENT:

David Blood, Lab Manager - 773-702-4493 - dblood@uchicago.edu

IT Helpdesk - 773-834-5300 - helpdesk@law.uchicago.edu

OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF STUDENTS:

Amy M. Gardner, Dean of Students - 773-702-3955 - amgardn@uchicago.edu

Shannon Bartlett, Associate Director of Student Affairs - 773-702-6769 - sbartlett@uchicago.edu

Professors should not, under any circumstances, be contacted about exam-related issues.