You may not eat food in the classrooms while taking your exams. Be sure to turn off cell phones and all other audible alarms. You may leave the exam room quietly as needed during the exam, but please be respectful of the needs of your fellow test takers. Please make sure to put a space in between you and the next person in your row if you are taking an exam at the Law School.

For take-home exams you must enter your exam ID number to access your exam from the EXAM4 website and you will enter your exam ID number into the EXAM4 software. For in-class proctored exams you will need to write your exam ID on your index card and hardcopy exam questions. You may find your exam ID online via the University Student Portal (my.uchicago.edu, Academics Tab, My Academics, Term Information, Current Quarter). Please look up your exam ID prior to exam day and bring it with you to the exam. Your exam ID number changes each quarter.

All such details are prescribed by the faculty. The information will be available via the exam cover page/instructions and/or may be provided by the faculty (in class, via the syllabus, etc.). The Office of the Registrar also includes the information in the quarterly exam schedules (e.g., http://www.law.uchicago.edu/students/registrar/examschedule). The schedule is updated periodically as exams are submitted by faculty to the Office of the Registrar.

Students are able to search word documents notes on OPEN LAPTOP and OPEN NETWORK exams only.

Students can bring printed notes to an open-book exam if permitted by the instructor. We highly recommend that you not rely solely on your laptop-stored notes. Notes stored on your computer are not available during CLOSED exams. It is always best to have a redundant source in case of computer failure.

Do not update your operating system to a new version within 1 week before exams and until you receive your final grade, unless it is a critical security update.

Students are permitted the use of a single laptop during each in-class exam. The use of cell phones, tablets (iPads, iPods, etc.), second laptops, or other similar devices is strictly prohibited, absent use of such a device as an approved ADA accommodation. Cell phones must be turned off completely during in-class exams.

Use of a second monitor for in-class exams is prohibited. You may do so during a take-home exam.

Students are able to listen to music during exams. Students must use ear-buds, headphones, etc. and may only listen to music via the laptop used for the exam. Please be courteous to your fellow students and disable all external audible cues, alarms, etc. 

Please note that additionally for:

Closed-book exams: All your laptop applications will be disabled. Thus, you may not use your laptop as a music source.

Limited-open-book exams with no internet access: You may listen to music stored locally on your laptop.

Open-book exams: You may listen to music from your laptop, streaming from any source. 

Take-home exams: You may listen to music from any source.

Students are not permitted to download or cut/copy and paste into their in-class or take-home examination answers any material(s) from outside the examination OR cut/copy and paste any material(s) from inside of their examination to an outside source.  This rule also strictly prohibits a student from drafting an answer into Microsoft Word or another word processor and copying that answer into the exam software.  In other words, the only time cutting or copying and pasting is permitted during an exam is when a student types information into one answer field during the exam and moves it into another field during the exam. This rule applies to both in-class and take-home exams that use the EXAM4 software. Audits of student exam files are conducted each exam period, and violation of this rule may subject a student to disciplinary action. 

If your computer crashes during the exam, immediately notify your proctor. The proctor will notify the Office of the Registrar 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 because of the crash.

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

In case of illness during the exam, please notify your proctor, who will notify the Office of the Registrar. 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.

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.

Yes, you may “suspend” your exam via the following navigation: click “End Exam” (upon doing this, your exam is saved); End Exam Now; Confirm - OK, end exam; Suspend Exam; then click File and Save Options; Exit; I’m sure-Exit Exam Software. Suspending a take-home exam will allow you to safely close your laptop in order to continue your exam at a later time. Please note: Suspending an exam does not pause the time you have to complete an exam. For example, if you have an eight-hour exam, have completed three hours, and suspend your exam for two hours, you have three hours left to complete the exam (not five!). After suspending an exam you will re-enter the exam by choosing the “Select existing exam” option when reopening the EXAM4 software program. Select the correct exam and click “Begin Exam.”

For in-class exams: The wall clock in the room governs. You should periodically check the wall clock and compare it to the warning and end times written on the board. 

For take-home exams: You are responsible for keeping time and ending the exam on a timely basis. The exam will not shut-down automatically when the time limit is reached.

To end an exam, students must click the “End Exam – End Exam Now” menu options in EXAM4 to end the exam and start the final upload process. 

For in class exams the proctor announces ‘Please stop typing’ when students should end the exam. 

For take-home exams, student must keep track of when eight hours (or whatever the exam stipulates) has elapsed since you downloaded the exam questions file.

Students may print a copy of the exam questions for personal use. Students may not share or give a copy to anyone. Doing so would be grounds for disciplinary action. Students must personally download your take-home exam from the Exam4 website. Exam time starts when students download the exam question file for take-home exams. Please be sure not to download an exam unless you are ready to start the exam. 

EXAM4 supports character and word counts, but not page counts/limits (as this depends on the formatting specified at printing time). Faculty are asked to express all such limits in character or word counts. Hyphenated words count as one word.

You may view your word count for each question and for your overall exam using the “Show/Hide Document Stats” feature in the right-hand column or from the Tools option “Show Document Statistics” shown below.

EXAM4 saves your work every ten seconds and automatically backs-up your answers to your laptop on exit. You should not delete any EXAM4 files or uninstall the EXAM4 program, nor delete any other file that might be related to the software installation until you have received your final grade. In the unlikely event of an issue with the submitted materials, having the backups on your laptop will provide a ready source for resubmission

Please look through this extensive FAQs page. If you have additional questions please reach out to registrar@law.uchicago.edu.