The full year calendar can be found here: Year Calendars . Please see the current year calendar and your assessment breakdown to know the weeks that you will need to be available for assignments and exams.
Terminology and Regulations. ‘Exam’ is the term we use to describe official, invigilated, University-run assessments, while we often call in-class and online components simply ‘assessments’ or ‘assignments’. The University only runs exams for students in second year (level 5) and for those at higher levels. In other words, foundation and first year students do not sit University-run ‘exams’. Exams are scheduled in University-designated weeks at the end of teaching periods, and are subject to a number of University Regulations – see also Student Facing Policies and Procedures.
Missing An Exam. The University expects students to be available for the entire Exams period designated for each module. This facilitates unexpected and rare events, such as re-scheduling due to extreme weather conditions. You should thus not book holidays during your Exam periods. Missing an examination may have very serious consequences for your studies. In such an event, you should consider whether the circumstances may allow you to submit a Personal Mitigating Circumstances (PMC) case. Details of the PMC process can be found here (overview) and here (guidance).
Exact Timing of Individual Exams. The University co-ordinates the exact timing and the timetables for official examinations. It is the University, and not Academic Departments such as Physics, that organises exactly when and where each Exam will be scheduled. The University then notifies students in the weeks leading up to each Exam period. The timing of all other assessments is specified at the start of each academic year – within module Learning Briefs (provided on blackboard) and is also given in Assessment Summaries.
Assessment Components. There are usually two components in the assessment of a module, though some modules such as projects may have three. A component may consist of a single assignment or exam, or can be broken down into a series of tasks (such as laboratory experiments whose results are collected together within a single journal). ‘Short-fat’ one-trimester modules tend to have one assessment during the trimester and one at the end of the trimester. ‘Long-thin’ two-trimester modules will typically have one assessment before the Christmas Vacation and another assessment near the end of trimester 2.
Summer Reassessments. For students who do progress to the following year by the end of trimester 2, there is also a summer reassessment period. Unless an accepted PMC dictates otherwise, individual reassessment scores are capped at a maximum of the pass mark (which is 40% for BSc courses).
In-Year Retrieval. For foundation and first year students that do not pass individual assessments at first attempt, where possible, they can be offered re-attempts at failed assessments (with scores usually subject to capping at the pass mark) before the summer reassessment period.
Progression. Students on the BSc programmes will progress through the programme in line with the Academic Regulations for Taught Programmes. Students who achieve a minimum module mark of 40% (the pass mark) will be awarded the credits for that module. A total of 120 credits must be obtained at each level to progress to the next level, such as when a student passes all their modules for that level. When a total of 100 credits is obtained and, for the failed 20-credit module, a minimum mark of 30% is obtained then (subject to other criteria, such as a year average of not less than 40%) the missing 20 credits can be automatically credited to give the student a full 120 credits (and hence allow the student to progress to the next level).