´ºÓêÖ±²¥

Student Life

Instructions and Policies

Exam Scheduling Instructions

Scheduling Regular Exams:
  1. Logon to your STARS account and choose DR Exam Scheduling Request Form.
  2. Choose a course from drop down list.
  3. Choose the date of the exam or quiz. Before scheduling exams on alternate dates, please be sure to discuss this with your professor. Professors will receive notification of the date and time that you have scheduled your exam.
  4. Choose a begin time for your exam. Please make sure that your begin time allows for your extended time within exam services operating hours (8am-4pm) and without conflicting with your other courses. The system will not allow you schedule exams that run beyond operating hours or that conflict with other courses. Please schedule exams at the same time as the rest of the class unless this would be a barrier to accommodations.Ìý
  5. Tell us how long the rest of the class will get for the exam. Often you will not need to change this for regular exams because the professor will give the entire class period and our system lists the entire class period. However, for longer courses, particularly evening courses, you may need to change the amount of time. Also, you will need to change this when scheduling finals, as all final exam periods are an hour and 50 minutes.
  6. Choose the accommodations that you want to use for this exam. If you are eligible for double time, but you feel that time and a half will be plenty of time for a particular exam, please choose the time and a half option. If you are eligible for a reader, but a tape recorded exam will work for you, please choose a tape-recorded exam. When choosing a reader, please choose a private room, when choosing a tape-recorded exam, please choose a semi-private room if that will work for you.
  7. Give us any additional information that will make your exam experience go more smoothly. For example, if the exam is online, we will not know that you need a computer unless you tell us that it is an online exam. If you are allowed to use notes or a calculator, you can let us know in the additional comments section.
  8. Once you have completed all sections, click the submit button.
  9. If you attempt to schedule an exam outside of SDSC operating hours or one that conflicts with a class, you will get a red error message at the top of the screen and your exam will not be scheduled. You will have the opportunity to try scheduling the exam again by pick a different start time that will not cause a conflict.
  10. All midterm exams must be schedule at least 3 business days in advance of the test date to allow us time for communicating with professors and processing exams and accommodations. This means, if you have a test on a Monday, you must schedule it by at least the Wednesday prior to the exam. If you attempt to schedule the test after the 3 business-day deadline, you will receive a red error message at the top of the screen.
  11. If you have difficulty scheduling your exam, please contact the exam services staff at 309-298-1884, DRC@wiu.edu or come to the office at 125 Memorial Hall.
Scheduling Finals:
  1. Professors do not set their own final exam times. The University sets them according to a master schedule that can be found atÌý Final Exam Schedule. Please use this schedule to determine when you finals will be. This link is provided on the exam scheduling screen within the STARS system.
  2. Schedule finals using steps 1-8 above.
  3. Be sure to change the class exam length to 1 hour and 50 minutes. All finals are 1 hour and 50 minutes. If you do not think that you will require the full amount of time for your final, please adjust the class exam length so that time is available to other students who need accommodations.
  4. Be sure to avoid conflicts. Remember that finals are 1 hour and 50 minutes long. If you get extended time (time and a half) and have an 8:00 final, your final will last from 8:00-10:45. Therefore, if you have a 10:00 final, you will have to begin it at 11:00. Please schedule all finals as close to the scheduled final start time as possible. If an alternate time is needed, you must get it approved by the instructor.
  5. It is imperative that you schedule final exams as early in the semester as possible. The number of exams given by the SDSC during that week requires a great deal of planning ahead. The only way to ensure that you are able to take your final at the SDSC with accommodations at the scheduled time is to schedule it 10 business days in advance of finals week. Students who do not schedule before the deadline run the risk of having to take exams on the Friday of finals week or with the rest of their class without accommodations.

Requesting Text Conversion Services

The following outlines the process for requesting and receiving alternate format(s) of books and classroom materials for students registered with the Disability Resources in the Student Development and Success Center.Ìý

  • The student must provide SDSC Disability Resources a purchased book upon making an alternative format request.
  • Each textbook should be accompanied by anÌý Alternative Format Request form.
  • Requests received more than 2 weeks before the start of a new semester, will not need to be accompanied by a syllabus as the entire textbook will be converted.
  • Requests made within 2 weeks of the start of a semester or after the semester starts, should be accompanied by a syllabus as we will need to prioritize your readings by date needed.
  • If requests are not submitted at least two weeks before you need them, requested materials may not be available when needed.
  • Proof of payment for books/materials must be provided to us before we are able to release converted materials to the student.
  • We will make every attempt to request an electronic version of the textbook from the publisher.
  • In the process of scanning textbooks staff will cut the pages from the binding. When the conversion process is completed, upon the student’s request, we will rebind the textbook(s) and have it ready for the student to pick up. The Union Bookstore will buy back rebound textbooks under the same criteria as any other used textbooks.
  • The student may not reproduce or distribute e-text in any other format nor can anyone else be allowed to do so. Any further reproduction or distribution is considered copyright infringement.
  • The student will be notified at their WIU email address when books/materials are ready for pick up at the SDSC, 125 Memorial Hall.

Exam Services Policies

Alternate Dates and Times:

Exams should be scheduled as close to the date and time that the rest of the class is taking the exam as possible. Alternate dates and times must be discussed with instructors prior to scheduling. You will not be required to miss class to get accommodations or to forgo accommodations because of concurrent course scheduling; however alternate plans must be communicated to your instructors for prior approval.

Tardy for Exams:

A student who is more than 20 minutes late to take an exam will be asked to get the approval from the instructor before being allowed to begin the exam.Ìý Professors may modify our policy to bring it inline with their classroom policy.Ìý It is always best to be on time for your exam. Ìý Exam end-times may still stay the same, even if the student is late getting to the SDSC to start their exam.

Missed Exams:

If a student misses an exam, he or she must get the professor’s permission to reschedule the exam at the SDSC. The professor should send notice of approval via email to DRC@wiu.edu or by calling 309-298-1884.

Using Additional Materials:

It is the instructor’s responsibility to notify the SDSC of any additional materials that students are allowed to use during exams. It is discriminatory for students in the classroom to be allowed the use of additional materials, when students testing at the SDSC do not have access to those same materials. As such, it is our practice to believe students when they tell us that the rest of the class is allowed to use notes, calculator, etc. Any additional materials that students use during exams will be reported to instructors and copies made when possible.

Cheating:

Exams administered at SDSC are monitored by video camera or by a live proctor. All unapproved materials are to be left in the exam services area prior to entering the test rooms. A student caught cheating will be asked to stop the exam immediately. The exam and any additional materials used will be sent back to the instructor along with a SDSC summary of the situation. In addition, exams monitored by video camera are recorded and will be made available to instructors. It is the instructor’s choice how to handle incidents of academic dishonesty.