Organising assessments
From assessment periods and deadlines to invigilators and organising digital assessments. Everything you need to think about for planning, organising and communicating assessments.
On this page
Scheduling an exam
Exam periods
The exam periods are shown on the Academic Calendar. The interim exams and constituent exams are held in the study weeks in October and March. The concluding exams are held in the exam periods at the end of December / beginning of January (split due to the holidays) and the end of May.
The resit periods are at the end of January (for the exams held in December) and during the study week in March (for the exams held at the beginning of January) and in June.
Date and location of exams
The exam dates are part of the education timetabling and are therefore set during the winter period for all the next academic year.
Organising a digital exam
Preparation of timetables and rooms for exams and constituent exams primarily takes place in consultation between the study programme’s education coordinator and the faculty’s Education Preparation team (Onderwijsvoorbereiding).
If you’re using digital summative assessments in Remindo or Ans, it’s important that you submit a request to ECOLe and receive their assistance. Instructions are given here.
Depending on the location, university laptops may be available for a digital exam, or students will use their own laptops. Don’t forget to take scribble paper to the exam yourself.
Deadlines for assessment assignments
If the exam or constituent exam is not in the form of an on-campus exam, but instead involves independently writing or completing a paper, essay or assignment (at home or elsewhere), the specified exam date serves as the deadline for its submission. You should give the students a clear assignment in good time, and explicitly draw their attention to the deadline.
Date and location of inspection and feedback session
After the results of an exam have been announced, students have the right to inspect their graded papers and receive feedback. You should schedule this well in advance. For more information, see: Inspection and feedback session for exams.
Assessment paper
Small groups
When exams are for small groups of students (i.e. no more than 50 students), you’re responsible for preparing the exam yourself (reproducing the exam papers etc.) and can collect the necessary paper from the Education Administration Office.
Large groups
When exams are for large groups (more than 50 students), you should send the formulated exam to the Education Administration Office (EAO) no later than seven days before the exam; the EAO will inform you exactly how far in advance it has to be supplied. The EAO will then take care of reproducing the exam papers and will keep the package in a locked safe. You can then collect the package, including enough answer paper, before the exam.
Optical mark reader answer sheets
If the exam consists of multiple choice questions and you want to use optical mark reader (OMR) answer sheets (also known as ‘bubble sheets’), you should inform the Education Administration Office when you send the exam, and they will organise the correct paper.
Invigilators
Examiners are responsible for invigilation during their own exams. For large exams, you can request additional invigilators, if necessary in consultation with the education coordinator, until four weeks before the exam. For more information, see: Invigilation.
Communication to students
Students have the right to transparent information about the assessment, and you should provide this punctually in the Prospectus:
- The course description in the Prospectus must state how exams or constituent exams will be held (in written, digital or oral format, or in another way).
- You must also state the number and format of the constituent exams and the weight assigned to each of them in determining the final grade.
- If your course includes practical assignments (see the Definitions section of the Course and Examination Regulations for the meaning of ‘practical assignment’), you must specify the type and the amount of work involved for students, and which ones they need to pass in order to participate in the other parts of the exam.
- If applicable, you must specify which constituent assessments (e.g. practical assignments) cannot be retaken and how, in such cases, students can still pass the course in the resit.
- If the resit of an exam or constituent assessment uses a different format than the original one, you must state this explicitly in the Prospectus.
- If you set additional requirements for constituent results, for example that some or all of the constituent assessments have to be concluded with at least 6.0, you must also include this in the course description.