University guidance on exams & assessments
Visit the University of Oxford website for their guidance on examinations and assessments.
Alternative Exam Arrangements
If you believe you require adjustments to your exam arrangements please contact the Student Support Coordinator, student.support@lmh.ox.ac.uk or the Academic Registrar at the earliest possible time. If you have a learning difficulty or disability that requires special examination arrangements, permission can be granted once at the start of your course for all your undergraduate examinations. Permission for special arrangements for long term conditions must be requested by the deadline for exam entry. If there is an unanticipated problem during the examination period itself, it is essential if the problem is medical that you contact your Personal Tutor, the Senior Tutor/ Tutor for Graduates, and the Academic Registrar at the earliest possible time. You will need to obtain medical certification (please contact the College Nurse in the first instance). If it is not medical you will need other documentary evidence pertaining to your situation immediately, which will be submitted in consideration of any adjustment.
There is further guidance on Alternative Exam Arrangements available on the University website.
Mitigating Circumstances
If you have a problem before or during your exams which you think will have had a severe impact on your performance, you can make a mitigating circumstances application so that the examiners are aware of this. You will need to obtain medical certification or, if it is not medical, you will need other documentary evidence pertaining to your situation. If you are an Undergraduate Student, please contact the College Nurse, your Personal Tutor and the Senior Tutor as soon as possible after the examination. If you are Graduate student, please contact the Deputy Academic Registrar or the Tutor for Graduates.
If you have exam allowances in place for a disability or long term condition, but you think that your performance has still been affected by your disability or condition despite the alternative arrangements, or you suffer another serious problem such as an acute illness just before or during the exams, you can also apply for mitigating circumstances to be taken into account. (Please note that most mitigating circumstances applications do not result in any changes to marks.)
Further guidance on mitigating circumstances can be found on the University website.
Examination Regulations and Student Handbook
The Examination Regulations will be the definitive reference for your detailed examination syllabus, including specific submission deadlines and the general University requirements that qualify you to sit for a degree. You will not be given a hard copy of this, as only certain sections will relate directly to your course – please ensure you read these.
The University’s Student Handbook (incorporating the Proctors’ and Assessor’s Memorandum) contains valuable information on University procedures, requirements and conduct.
Departmental handbooks will present much of the subject-specific examination information for you, but you are expected to have read and to rely upon the relevant sections of the Examination Regulations which will take precedence over any information in the Undergraduate and Graduate departmental Student Handbooks.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s work without acknowledgement as if it were your own. Typically, this involves copying an essay from another student or from the internet, or copying passages from a book without quotation marks and a clear page reference. It is a very serious offence to plagiarise someone else’s work, and there are serious academic penalties which may include the offender being sent down from the College and the University. Please be aware that poor academic work practices, such as copying sections directly from academic articles into your notes for information, might lead to unintentional plagiarism, but that unintentional offences will still be dealt with severely by the University and the College as ‘reckless’ plagiarism.
Students sometimes share their academic work and notes with other students, and these can be good sources of information. However, the student who allows their work to be plagiarised will be penalised just as heavily as will the person plagiarising. Students are warned, therefore, to be discerning about sharing work. Any acceptable sharing will probably be on a reciprocal basis after both parties have completed the relevant assignment.
You should ensure that you are familiar with the University guidelines regarding plagiarism.