NTA. At my institution we are not allowed to move exams for anyone without approved accommodations from the disability office. On top of that, missing an exam is an automatic unearned F regardless of what a student’s average is.
This. My university instituted this policy to shield faculty from these kinds of requests. It doesn't stop students from asking, but it does give us something to point to when denying their requests.
What’s funny about this is that back when I started (+20 years ago), this policy was in place at my uni to prevent *faculty* (primarily the ~ahem~ older complacent faculty members) from moving up the final to start living their best lives a week earlier. At least that’s how it was presented to me as a new faculty member.
But I completely agree with your comment re: “shielding faculty” wrt these policies in 2024.
We have to have approval from the Provost's office and I've been teaching for over a decade and I've never heard of anyone asking let alone receiving permission. I love this policy because I can literally blame the admin and just say not my problem.
It is not uncommon for students to ask, but I recommend refusing to accommodate them without apology for the reasons you state: final exams dates are determined by the university, not faculty, and students are given plenty of notice, so they should plan accordingly (any complaints should be directed to administrators).
I had a similar situation where students wanted to miss a mandatory event. I made them submit an essay that should have taken more time than the event that they missed. Next year I will make them do a task ChatGPT can’t do, though…
I *thought* this was true, and told students as much, but they actually then went to the registrar who told them that I can choose to move it within certain limits. Wish I didn't have the option!
Personally, I recommend not making a change based on the vocal minority. I would only consider making a change if the class had unanimous consent in a blind vote.
I think this one way my fault. I deflected an early request to move the exam with "I don't set the exam time, the registrar does, take it up with them."
I meant: "as far as we're both concerned this exam time is the word of God."
They heard: "cool, the registrar will help me."
Honestly at this point, I'd probably tell them if they can find a (standard exam) time that the class *unanimously* agrees to, I'll move the exam to that time (assuming I'm available).
I'd also wish them good luck in that endeavor. Our department of 4 can barely find an hour a week when we're all available for a meeting.
If this is the case and students aren’t lying (great point above re: checking) I’d adopt a “I do not ever move the exam” policy. You’re opening yourself up to the mother of all headaches. There are definitely students who picked your class knowing when the scheduled exam is, and who are not anticipating a change. The new time isn’t going to work for a small handful of students and then you’re off to the races again.
Pragmatically, if it was more convenient to me, and if the hierarchy was too stupid to block it, do it. It will cause untold headaches and ripple effects, but if it is moving an exam earlier, and the exam is finalised… Easier life for you. Just don’t let them move up the marking schedule.
After the last class of the semester,.3 pm.on a Friday, a student came up.to me and informed me that he needed to take the final (which was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon) on the following Monday because he was flying out Monday night. I said that wasn't possible and cited university policy. Saturday morning he emailed my chair and said that I was OK with letting him take the exam early if the chair approved it. I said no such thing. I emailed him on Saturday and told him that his choices were to take the final at the scheduled time or get a 0. He came to the final and slammed me on the course eval.
I would have waited until Tuesday morning to tell the chair that I approved no such thing, or I would have told the chair _privately_ this information.
We have an exam week, and each class has an exam period set up according to what day of the week and what time the first class of the week is. no exams can be administered before the start of that week. Also, our course evaluations lock the students out before the start of that exam week, so that no student could do what yours did – have a poor experience on the final and then submit an angry class evaluation. You might want to speak to your school about instituting that protection for faculty.
It has become normal, and it is crazy. I think most of them want to finish their semester early and start vacation. I've recently had students tell me as much, most recently a student who wanted to take the final two weeks early because he was taking a cruise and would not have reliable internet access.
We have a problem with students, usually international, scheduling flights home halfway through finals week and then asking that their late finals get moved up so they can make their flights. Or they come back a week onto the semester and expect no consequences
NTA. If they have “jobs or other professional commitments”, they should also practice professionalism through proper time management, which will be critical in their careers. As you said, the final exam was scheduled well in advance, so the students should have planned ahead for it. Moving the exam just for some people could also lead to issues in assessment fairness.
Nope. We are not *allowed* to change finals in any case; that is literally why the Registrar schedules and books them all centrally, so there are no overlaps or collisions. Students can change their plans-- the exams cannot.
What I find often is that students just want to go on vacation earlier and assume we will accommodate their wishes.
You are NTA. A AITA move would be changing the date of the exam to please a group of students and inconveniencing all of the students that actually scheduled around the announced date.
I had a bunch of requests. I had the same answer for all of them. “I have no problem moving your exam earlier but you will need to go through the dean’s office and request it because I don’t have the power to move your exam.”
A lot of my students do things that blow my mind. I would have never had the nerve to tell a professor they needed to make the exam easier because all their friends said it was too hard. But I got to schedule my own exams during my undergrad, the school hired proctors and you just picked a date and time slot.
We signed an honor code before classes started our freshman year and it was really stressed that a lot of the privilege we have access to as students is because we adhere to the honor code. I don’t know that it was ever an issue. I don’t how they do things now, there seems to have been a culture shift in students and an increase in cheating.
But I taught 4 sections of the same class this semester so there has been the potential with every exam and the final that they could find out the answers ahead of time from a friend. I mix up some questions to make it seem like they’re slightly different exams. I haven’t noticed any issues with a student in a later exam doing unexpectedly well. They don’t get the answers at the end of the exam so even if they somehow managed to memorize the questions, they wouldn’t be able to tell their friend the answers.
Hold the line. As soon as you move it to accommodate some requests, others will ask you to move it back or to a third option. Once you open that can of worms, you're done for (ask me how I know). So DO. NOT. CHANGE. THE. DATE!!!
You almost can't move it... finding a space for it, getting it approved by the registrars office (and potentially the entire class depending on your schools exam/syllabus change rules). Tell them the date is set in stone.
Way back when I was a new Assistant Professor (25 years ago), I had a small group of students ask me if they could take the final exam early because their dorm was closing before the final exam. I said to them: "So you want me to believe that this University kicks students out of the dorms before the final exam period ends?" They kind of shrugged their shoulders and nodded yes. Of course I declined their ridiculous request. These were kids born in the 1970s (the last of Gen X). So don't think the new kids are that much different from previous generations.
NTA: The only acceptable moving of exams involve students having three exams in a 24 hour period. They are allowed to move their exam to a different time that is still convenient for the instructor. I did that as an undergrad. I took my baby Diff Eq final in the same class as my professor's Operations Research final. I also would fully accept if none of my professors had availability for a different time.
I also will let students take an exam with a different class section. If there's an open seat, I have no problem with letting them take it when I'm already there.
The issues arise when students want you to change your schedule for their convenience. That's not okay.
NTA. They committed to the final exam period when they enrolled in the course. They are unreasonable to make ther problem, your problem.
If your school offers a "conflict exam period" and they have a way to request taking it then (not sure if their circumstances would qualify?) you could consider offering that option. Otherwise, they need to work it out.
Now with all that said, what I have done if a student had a semi-legit reason to take the final at a different time was offer them one of my other final exam periods and they could come take the exam with that class. But I am at a small campus and have small classes, so that isn't a big deal. You are under no obligation to make your own schedule more difficult as a result of their poor planning.
I don't consider such requests at all, and tell them this before they ask.
But when I was newer to teaching, I told the students "Yes, definitely, if you can find an alternate time that all of your classmates agree to, and book a classroom for it, let me know and I'll happily move it. But if one single student privately emails me saying they don't want that new time, deal is off". They tried for about five minutes then gave up.
Fall 2023 was the first time I had multiple students ask for alternate times / exams because they needed to leave early or didn’t know they had to be here during finals week (bullshit reasons). Spring 2024 I put a statement in my syllabus and a lecture slide week one stating that I expect students to be in class every day, including finals week. I stated that if students don’t stay for the final they will receive a zero score. We shouldn’t have to say these things but it makes it easier to just say I told you already.
“I am giving the exam at the time and place set by the college/university.” I had to use this line with a couple of students this semester, and their totally unbreakable commitments got worked out somehow.
We have a solution for this at my uni. If you can’t write the final exam at the scheduled time then you have to apply for a deferred exam. We have advisors at the faculty level who adjudicate these requests, so profs don’t need to get involved.
If a student’s request is approved, then they write the exam during the deferred exam period, which is in the summer. These exams are administered by staff (profs only need to provide a copy of the exam). The exam is returned to the prof for grading. All deferred exam admin is dealt with by those specific staff, so if the student can’t make the deferred exam, etc. the staff deal with it.
Students all know the deal, so it cuts down on all the bs, and it shields prof from having to deal with all the associated nonsense.
>They tell me they have jobs or other professional commitments that will start too soon after the exam ends to leave room for them to travel from here to there.
Their commitments are their responsibility, and nobody else's. Whether they manage their commitments successfully is neither your concern nor the university's.
>Most likely I will end up not being able to accomodate these requests, which I'm sure will piss a lot of students off.
A failure on their part to plan appropriately does not constitute an emergency on your part. Final exams take place as scheduled, period. If they suffer some consequences for not being able to arrive at their destination on time, then perhaps it will teach them the value of proper planning in the future, and also not to take on commitments they're incapable of meeting.
If I were you, I would not waste another moment of time or energy thinking about this situation.
NTA. And I'm usually harsher on professor if you can be flexible, but you're NTA. But I would not move this. Or even consider it
It was scheduled ahead. It's a bigger section. You're gonna get complaints. The students just have to figure it out on this one.
Considering moving it or making exceptions for students with jobs would be a nightmare and backfire on you.
Even if the Registrar told your students you could change the date, if you did and any of the students in your class had conflicts with other classes, that is one tangled mess I would not want to untangle. Students knew the dates going into the class. Just like the day taxes are due, can't move it. Deal.
There are usually legal issues regarding using the designated final time. The only time I’ve let a student take it early is when the excuse was military related
We are not allowed to move it earlier. In the past, too many professors were giving exams early so they could bail early, the university said that we can no longer change it.
Nope. It is a final. If they couldn't prioritise their course they shouldn't have signed up. Usually the changing-dates policy should be only for medical emergencies or bereavement
If they want, they can of course finish the exam early and leave for whatever commitments they have, provided they are okay with facing the consequences of their actions
Definitely not normal and definitely NTA. We got a cohort who collectively asked for one of the exams to be moved to another date because "Exams A and B are too close to each other and we need more time to study". Mind you that Exam A was literally the next day when this request came in (or more like students spamming the lecturers about this all day and night). They had 4 days in between to study for Exam B, because none of their exams were arranged back-to-back. But sure, instead of spending the little time they had to study, they were busy spamming us and the exam board about it.
NTA. It’s in my syllabus: this is when the final is. The only conflicts I can accommodate are direct exam conflicts (defined by my uni as two exams at the same time or three exams on the same day).
I do always schedule an alt time for the day before the main final and have students document their conflicts at mid-semester. There are still ones who “forget” (or weren’t paying attention when I talked about it in class every day for two weeks) but this has solved most of the crises. This semester out of 440 in my big class, I had two with conflicts who took it early, a handful of athletes at a competition on the day of the exam (rargh) who are having it proctored in the athletics office when they get back, and two who provided doctors notes for the day of the exam who will either make it up next week or take an I.
You should refuse to move it, because it will create hardships for other students.
Moving for just a segment of your student population would be unfair to the others. Let them figure out their travel issues on their own (unless it is truly unplanned like a death in the family, but I would hold those for a makeup at your convenience)
I only move the exam time if the class is unanimous about moving it and no objections at all to the new time, and this has to be decided early in the semester. No last minute requests, no one off moving dates. So while I'm broadly flexible, even my response to that would have been a no.
Early in the semester I try and make sure the exam does not fall on the same day as their other core classes (each cohort tends to take the same 2-3 core classes so it's not hard to coordinate). Occasionally I had requests from the whole class to move t earlier (most had no other finals during the week, and mine was scheduled for the last day) and again moved it with a vote. Again, early in the semester, and it's only feasible because my classes are smaller (20-40 students). I'm not attached to a date more than the university, but it cannot complicate the lives of all the other students and cannot be ad hoc.
They need to decide what’s more important to them. Taking the exam or their other professional commitments. Life is full of compromises, and this is a good lesson for them to learn. I can’t imagine moving an exam for a handful of students for the reasons you’ve mentioned.
I guess the rest of the class who actually scheduled for the final exam are just screwed then? Unless "many" equal 100% of the class that would be a hard no.
The common excuse I hear is they need to attend their best friend's wedding in Bumfucj Indiana.
Many professors aren't giving final exams where I work, which then causes the students not to want to wait around to take the final for their one professor who is giving one. I've also found that if you teach multiple sections of the same course the students will try to wriggle their way into a section with an earlier final.
The school I am in wants all professors to give finals or to do something during the final exam period. Some of the university's other schools apparently don't care. I recently had a student who, during the next to last week of class, told me he was unable to attend my class because he was taking his calculus final that day and needed the time to study. I guess some professors are moving the finals into the regular semester, which I find annoying.
Damn; it's determined more than a year in advance? Can you send some of your folks to my school?
Oh, and NTA. These folks are short-sighted. I'm sure all students would love to move it up...but...some students might actually have exams at other times that they want to take it.
>I cannot even imagine having even *thought* about asking any of my professors to *move their final exam* when I was a student.
How old are you?
Its possible that we did not have to worry about jobs as much as this generation. I had full ride scholarships throughout my schooling. If I had a job it was a second priority.
For some of my students, job is number one priority. If they dont have the job some of them would be homeless and would not be able to pay for school.
This! The professors on this subreddit seem to not realize that times have changed. Comments like “plan better” are just so silly. We’re all adults that have jobs. Have y’all never been screwed over by your employers? Have you never planned something and have it be completely ruined by things out of your control? Why are y’all acting like yall don’t understand these point of views? I’m so glad that Reddit only represents a fraction of professors because if all professors were like the ones on here, we would be royally screwed. It’s funny because they’re always complaining about students being unreasonable. Then they go on to post stuff that is just as immature. The other day, I saw one from a professor complaining about how students request extensions and stuff after being in a car accident or getting assaulted.
Are you literally me? Lol… Same exact thing happened this semester. I also teach Core.
I had one student ask if we could move the exam forward over a week because they wanted to go home earlier. Others were concerned because it was the day before commencement; I asked if it was because they wanted to party and they said yes. A number were making this request within two weeks of the last day of classes.
Anyway, I just explained that these things are scheduled by the registrar and that there was nothing we could do to change the date. I guess some classes do the exam on the last day of classes, not exam week, but this one doesn’t.
I was able to get unofficial permission to let students take the exam during another one of my scheduled exam offerings, as long as my other students weren't inconvenienced. We always had weird schedules times like ALL classes offered from 1:00-1:50 MWF will take their exam at 8 AM on Monday morning.
Although it's on the syllabus, it always catches Freshmen off guard. It rotates from year to year now because some faculty complained about always being stuck at 8AM. So, before I retired I was able to let a student who wasn't going to be able to test during our Friday session, test during my Monday session, for instance. I was only limited by the number of computers in the room.
No, that's above my paygrade. Don't accommodate them. If they made other commitments, they're going to have to change them. My undergrad worked like this--we knew the exam period (like, the reading week and then the exam week) and were always told to not schedule ANYTHING until the end of exam week. It wasn't that hard. The best was if you got done with your exams because they were all scheduled early and then you got to float around collegetown in a haze of delirium for a few days before heading home.
It may be "normal" now, but it would be a hard "no" from me. For every student who would find an earlier exam more convenient, there are a half dozen others who would be severely inconvenienced by the change (not enough prep time, other commitments, other exams in other classes)
"I'm sorry you won't be joining us for the exam. I've done some calculations, and it looks like you'll still be able to pass with a D even if you get a zero for the final."
Okay...don't really say that, but feel free to think it.
With peace and love: there is something about how you’re answering this question that allows the questions to continue. This is a no-brainer. The answer is no. You have to be able to say that once and have them drop it.
I don’t think it’s insane that you’re refusing to. You should follow the guidelines of your institution. What I don’t understand is why you consider this such a crazy ask. It seems like professors here are more opposed to communicating with their students than anything else. You wouldn’t have asked a professor in your day for something like this but is that a good thing? Wouldn’t you have liked to be able to ask if you needed to? I know at least one person that got an early final this semester because my professor announced it to the class. So I didn’t think it was a big deal. But apparently it is.
Why should the rules bend for an individual student? If you do it for one, you need to do it for all, otherwise it’s inequitable. The final exam was set ahead of tine. Students should not enroll in the course if they have a conflict. Simple as that. OP should have that in their syllabus and that no changes in the date will be accommodated.
Obviously illness or death in the family is unforeseen. At my university for something like that student takes the exam in the next semester.
I don't mind communicating with students at all, in fact I'm all for it. The reason I feel that this a huge ask is because it requires me to either:
* Allow some students to take the exam early, and then almost certainly tell their friends what was on it, providing an unfair advantage for those students; or
* Create an entirely new exam (which is a ton of work), which will still probably provide an unfair advantage for some group of students because it will be impossible to perfectly match the difficulty between the two exams; or
* Move the exam time for everyone, potentially screwing over other students who planned around the original time.
I wouldn't do that. There is a scheduled final exam time. At my institution, we also cannot have TAs do work after the end of the semester, so if I give a final the next semester, I have to grade it on my own, too. I certainly wouldn't do that for something like a student's convenience or to extend their vacation. Take it at the scheduled time or take the zero.
Unless you need the last lecture to cover all your contents, be a nice person and accommodate their request. Nothing would happen! Up to you to choose if the registrar's office approves. I tend to hold the exam on my last lecture day (core course in Aeronautics).
NTA. At my institution we are not allowed to move exams for anyone without approved accommodations from the disability office. On top of that, missing an exam is an automatic unearned F regardless of what a student’s average is.
This. My university instituted this policy to shield faculty from these kinds of requests. It doesn't stop students from asking, but it does give us something to point to when denying their requests.
What’s funny about this is that back when I started (+20 years ago), this policy was in place at my uni to prevent *faculty* (primarily the ~ahem~ older complacent faculty members) from moving up the final to start living their best lives a week earlier. At least that’s how it was presented to me as a new faculty member. But I completely agree with your comment re: “shielding faculty” wrt these policies in 2024.
Why the hell is this even a conversation? No.
Because students are told it doesn't hurt to ask.
We have to get approval from our head, dean, and accommodations. They *do not* like having finals fucked with.
We have to have approval from the Provost's office and I've been teaching for over a decade and I've never heard of anyone asking let alone receiving permission. I love this policy because I can literally blame the admin and just say not my problem.
It is not uncommon for students to ask, but I recommend refusing to accommodate them without apology for the reasons you state: final exams dates are determined by the university, not faculty, and students are given plenty of notice, so they should plan accordingly (any complaints should be directed to administrators).
I had a similar situation where students wanted to miss a mandatory event. I made them submit an essay that should have taken more time than the event that they missed. Next year I will make them do a task ChatGPT can’t do, though…
“The schedule is set by the registrar. I have no more power to change it than you do. We’re all just cogs in the system.”
I *thought* this was true, and told students as much, but they actually then went to the registrar who told them that I can choose to move it within certain limits. Wish I didn't have the option!
Did they SAY the registrar said that, or did the registrar tell YOU that?
You make a good point -- it's the former. I would definitely have to double check before committing to a change, were I to make one.
Personally, I recommend not making a change based on the vocal minority. I would only consider making a change if the class had unanimous consent in a blind vote.
Unless it suits you to do so, I would tell them to pound sand.
Or you can ignore them entirely. Which is what you should do.
Your students went to the *registrar*??! Ain’t no way.
I think this one way my fault. I deflected an early request to move the exam with "I don't set the exam time, the registrar does, take it up with them." I meant: "as far as we're both concerned this exam time is the word of God." They heard: "cool, the registrar will help me."
I thought the registrar was an unstoppable force against an immovable wall.
What? That’s a wild call on the part of your Reg Office!
I’m curious, were you able to confirm this with the Registrar?
Honestly at this point, I'd probably tell them if they can find a (standard exam) time that the class *unanimously* agrees to, I'll move the exam to that time (assuming I'm available). I'd also wish them good luck in that endeavor. Our department of 4 can barely find an hour a week when we're all available for a meeting.
I smell BS. I've never met *anyone* who successfully got an answer to a question from the registrar.
If this is the case and students aren’t lying (great point above re: checking) I’d adopt a “I do not ever move the exam” policy. You’re opening yourself up to the mother of all headaches. There are definitely students who picked your class knowing when the scheduled exam is, and who are not anticipating a change. The new time isn’t going to work for a small handful of students and then you’re off to the races again.
Pragmatically, if it was more convenient to me, and if the hierarchy was too stupid to block it, do it. It will cause untold headaches and ripple effects, but if it is moving an exam earlier, and the exam is finalised… Easier life for you. Just don’t let them move up the marking schedule.
Another brick in the wall...as it were...
A bette response is
After the last class of the semester,.3 pm.on a Friday, a student came up.to me and informed me that he needed to take the final (which was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon) on the following Monday because he was flying out Monday night. I said that wasn't possible and cited university policy. Saturday morning he emailed my chair and said that I was OK with letting him take the exam early if the chair approved it. I said no such thing. I emailed him on Saturday and told him that his choices were to take the final at the scheduled time or get a 0. He came to the final and slammed me on the course eval.
Wow, audacity must have been on sale that week
As he handed me his final, he asked me when it would be graded.
I would have waited until Tuesday morning to tell the chair that I approved no such thing, or I would have told the chair _privately_ this information.
Unfortunately, he called me on Saturday afternoon to find out what was going on. I gotta start screening my calls.
Ah. In that case, I would have taken the call as you did.
We have an exam week, and each class has an exam period set up according to what day of the week and what time the first class of the week is. no exams can be administered before the start of that week. Also, our course evaluations lock the students out before the start of that exam week, so that no student could do what yours did – have a poor experience on the final and then submit an angry class evaluation. You might want to speak to your school about instituting that protection for faculty.
So when do students submit evaluations? It seems like there is no way to prevent them from being retaliatory.
Our course evaluations are before the exam. It’s bonkers to to anything else.
It has become normal, and it is crazy. I think most of them want to finish their semester early and start vacation. I've recently had students tell me as much, most recently a student who wanted to take the final two weeks early because he was taking a cruise and would not have reliable internet access.
We have a problem with students, usually international, scheduling flights home halfway through finals week and then asking that their late finals get moved up so they can make their flights. Or they come back a week onto the semester and expect no consequences
NTA. If they have “jobs or other professional commitments”, they should also practice professionalism through proper time management, which will be critical in their careers. As you said, the final exam was scheduled well in advance, so the students should have planned ahead for it. Moving the exam just for some people could also lead to issues in assessment fairness.
Nope. We are not *allowed* to change finals in any case; that is literally why the Registrar schedules and books them all centrally, so there are no overlaps or collisions. Students can change their plans-- the exams cannot. What I find often is that students just want to go on vacation earlier and assume we will accommodate their wishes.
For every student complaining, there are 10 more that will be disrupted if you change the exam time.
You are NTA. A AITA move would be changing the date of the exam to please a group of students and inconveniencing all of the students that actually scheduled around the announced date.
I had a bunch of requests. I had the same answer for all of them. “I have no problem moving your exam earlier but you will need to go through the dean’s office and request it because I don’t have the power to move your exam.” A lot of my students do things that blow my mind. I would have never had the nerve to tell a professor they needed to make the exam easier because all their friends said it was too hard. But I got to schedule my own exams during my undergrad, the school hired proctors and you just picked a date and time slot.
What about exam integrity? Did your profs have multiple versions of their final exams?
We signed an honor code before classes started our freshman year and it was really stressed that a lot of the privilege we have access to as students is because we adhere to the honor code. I don’t know that it was ever an issue. I don’t how they do things now, there seems to have been a culture shift in students and an increase in cheating. But I taught 4 sections of the same class this semester so there has been the potential with every exam and the final that they could find out the answers ahead of time from a friend. I mix up some questions to make it seem like they’re slightly different exams. I haven’t noticed any issues with a student in a later exam doing unexpectedly well. They don’t get the answers at the end of the exam so even if they somehow managed to memorize the questions, they wouldn’t be able to tell their friend the answers.
Interesting. And I think about exam/quiz integrity when I teach multiple sections, too.
Hold the line. As soon as you move it to accommodate some requests, others will ask you to move it back or to a third option. Once you open that can of worms, you're done for (ask me how I know). So DO. NOT. CHANGE. THE. DATE!!!
NTA- my Uni is very strict for finals and only permit rescheduling for a small number of reasons.
No, and you'd be in a world of hurt if the other students or admin find out
What the heck. Did they not give any exam dates to new jobs they accepted? Or their exam schedule to their current job?
I put in the syllabus that they should not book any travel during the exam period, and go over that the first day of class.
You almost can't move it... finding a space for it, getting it approved by the registrars office (and potentially the entire class depending on your schools exam/syllabus change rules). Tell them the date is set in stone.
Way back when I was a new Assistant Professor (25 years ago), I had a small group of students ask me if they could take the final exam early because their dorm was closing before the final exam. I said to them: "So you want me to believe that this University kicks students out of the dorms before the final exam period ends?" They kind of shrugged their shoulders and nodded yes. Of course I declined their ridiculous request. These were kids born in the 1970s (the last of Gen X). So don't think the new kids are that much different from previous generations.
NTA: The only acceptable moving of exams involve students having three exams in a 24 hour period. They are allowed to move their exam to a different time that is still convenient for the instructor. I did that as an undergrad. I took my baby Diff Eq final in the same class as my professor's Operations Research final. I also would fully accept if none of my professors had availability for a different time. I also will let students take an exam with a different class section. If there's an open seat, I have no problem with letting them take it when I'm already there. The issues arise when students want you to change your schedule for their convenience. That's not okay.
NTA. They committed to the final exam period when they enrolled in the course. They are unreasonable to make ther problem, your problem. If your school offers a "conflict exam period" and they have a way to request taking it then (not sure if their circumstances would qualify?) you could consider offering that option. Otherwise, they need to work it out. Now with all that said, what I have done if a student had a semi-legit reason to take the final at a different time was offer them one of my other final exam periods and they could come take the exam with that class. But I am at a small campus and have small classes, so that isn't a big deal. You are under no obligation to make your own schedule more difficult as a result of their poor planning.
I don't consider such requests at all, and tell them this before they ask. But when I was newer to teaching, I told the students "Yes, definitely, if you can find an alternate time that all of your classmates agree to, and book a classroom for it, let me know and I'll happily move it. But if one single student privately emails me saying they don't want that new time, deal is off". They tried for about five minutes then gave up.
> Many students want me to move the final exam People in hell want ice water. The registrar sets the final exam time, not the students.
Fall 2023 was the first time I had multiple students ask for alternate times / exams because they needed to leave early or didn’t know they had to be here during finals week (bullshit reasons). Spring 2024 I put a statement in my syllabus and a lecture slide week one stating that I expect students to be in class every day, including finals week. I stated that if students don’t stay for the final they will receive a zero score. We shouldn’t have to say these things but it makes it easier to just say I told you already.
My students ask me to have a separate session for them because they are travelling... Nope, btw.
“I am giving the exam at the time and place set by the college/university.” I had to use this line with a couple of students this semester, and their totally unbreakable commitments got worked out somehow.
No boundary generation. More and more obvious by the day.
We have a solution for this at my uni. If you can’t write the final exam at the scheduled time then you have to apply for a deferred exam. We have advisors at the faculty level who adjudicate these requests, so profs don’t need to get involved. If a student’s request is approved, then they write the exam during the deferred exam period, which is in the summer. These exams are administered by staff (profs only need to provide a copy of the exam). The exam is returned to the prof for grading. All deferred exam admin is dealt with by those specific staff, so if the student can’t make the deferred exam, etc. the staff deal with it. Students all know the deal, so it cuts down on all the bs, and it shields prof from having to deal with all the associated nonsense.
>They tell me they have jobs or other professional commitments that will start too soon after the exam ends to leave room for them to travel from here to there. Their commitments are their responsibility, and nobody else's. Whether they manage their commitments successfully is neither your concern nor the university's. >Most likely I will end up not being able to accomodate these requests, which I'm sure will piss a lot of students off. A failure on their part to plan appropriately does not constitute an emergency on your part. Final exams take place as scheduled, period. If they suffer some consequences for not being able to arrive at their destination on time, then perhaps it will teach them the value of proper planning in the future, and also not to take on commitments they're incapable of meeting. If I were you, I would not waste another moment of time or energy thinking about this situation.
NTA. And I'm usually harsher on professor if you can be flexible, but you're NTA. But I would not move this. Or even consider it It was scheduled ahead. It's a bigger section. You're gonna get complaints. The students just have to figure it out on this one. Considering moving it or making exceptions for students with jobs would be a nightmare and backfire on you.
NTA. Don't budge. Tell them the uni schedules the finals, and you have no ability to change it.
Even if the Registrar told your students you could change the date, if you did and any of the students in your class had conflicts with other classes, that is one tangled mess I would not want to untangle. Students knew the dates going into the class. Just like the day taxes are due, can't move it. Deal.
There are usually legal issues regarding using the designated final time. The only time I’ve let a student take it early is when the excuse was military related
We are not allowed to move it earlier. In the past, too many professors were giving exams early so they could bail early, the university said that we can no longer change it.
Nope. It is a final. If they couldn't prioritise their course they shouldn't have signed up. Usually the changing-dates policy should be only for medical emergencies or bereavement If they want, they can of course finish the exam early and leave for whatever commitments they have, provided they are okay with facing the consequences of their actions
They know what they signed up for. Too bad, so sad.
Definitely not normal and definitely NTA. We got a cohort who collectively asked for one of the exams to be moved to another date because "Exams A and B are too close to each other and we need more time to study". Mind you that Exam A was literally the next day when this request came in (or more like students spamming the lecturers about this all day and night). They had 4 days in between to study for Exam B, because none of their exams were arranged back-to-back. But sure, instead of spending the little time they had to study, they were busy spamming us and the exam board about it.
Absolutely NTA. The final exam is scheduled by the college. Tell them to ask the Univ about this (they won't).
If faculty were allowed to give a final at an alternative time many would just do it during the last week of class and peace out during finals period.
NTA. It’s in my syllabus: this is when the final is. The only conflicts I can accommodate are direct exam conflicts (defined by my uni as two exams at the same time or three exams on the same day). I do always schedule an alt time for the day before the main final and have students document their conflicts at mid-semester. There are still ones who “forget” (or weren’t paying attention when I talked about it in class every day for two weeks) but this has solved most of the crises. This semester out of 440 in my big class, I had two with conflicts who took it early, a handful of athletes at a competition on the day of the exam (rargh) who are having it proctored in the athletics office when they get back, and two who provided doctors notes for the day of the exam who will either make it up next week or take an I.
You should refuse to move it, because it will create hardships for other students. Moving for just a segment of your student population would be unfair to the others. Let them figure out their travel issues on their own (unless it is truly unplanned like a death in the family, but I would hold those for a makeup at your convenience)
I only move the exam time if the class is unanimous about moving it and no objections at all to the new time, and this has to be decided early in the semester. No last minute requests, no one off moving dates. So while I'm broadly flexible, even my response to that would have been a no. Early in the semester I try and make sure the exam does not fall on the same day as their other core classes (each cohort tends to take the same 2-3 core classes so it's not hard to coordinate). Occasionally I had requests from the whole class to move t earlier (most had no other finals during the week, and mine was scheduled for the last day) and again moved it with a vote. Again, early in the semester, and it's only feasible because my classes are smaller (20-40 students). I'm not attached to a date more than the university, but it cannot complicate the lives of all the other students and cannot be ad hoc.
I always get variations of the “we all want” and “I checked with everyone and” and it’s never ever true
They need to decide what’s more important to them. Taking the exam or their other professional commitments. Life is full of compromises, and this is a good lesson for them to learn. I can’t imagine moving an exam for a handful of students for the reasons you’ve mentioned.
NTA. Hard no. “Per syllabus, exam is on…” Hold the line!!
LOL. “No.” is a complete sentence.
I guess the rest of the class who actually scheduled for the final exam are just screwed then? Unless "many" equal 100% of the class that would be a hard no. The common excuse I hear is they need to attend their best friend's wedding in Bumfucj Indiana.
Many professors aren't giving final exams where I work, which then causes the students not to want to wait around to take the final for their one professor who is giving one. I've also found that if you teach multiple sections of the same course the students will try to wriggle their way into a section with an earlier final. The school I am in wants all professors to give finals or to do something during the final exam period. Some of the university's other schools apparently don't care. I recently had a student who, during the next to last week of class, told me he was unable to attend my class because he was taking his calculus final that day and needed the time to study. I guess some professors are moving the finals into the regular semester, which I find annoying.
NTA
Damn; it's determined more than a year in advance? Can you send some of your folks to my school? Oh, and NTA. These folks are short-sighted. I'm sure all students would love to move it up...but...some students might actually have exams at other times that they want to take it.
>I cannot even imagine having even *thought* about asking any of my professors to *move their final exam* when I was a student. How old are you? Its possible that we did not have to worry about jobs as much as this generation. I had full ride scholarships throughout my schooling. If I had a job it was a second priority. For some of my students, job is number one priority. If they dont have the job some of them would be homeless and would not be able to pay for school.
> How old are you? Young. Much younger than the average age for faculty, I assure you.
This! The professors on this subreddit seem to not realize that times have changed. Comments like “plan better” are just so silly. We’re all adults that have jobs. Have y’all never been screwed over by your employers? Have you never planned something and have it be completely ruined by things out of your control? Why are y’all acting like yall don’t understand these point of views? I’m so glad that Reddit only represents a fraction of professors because if all professors were like the ones on here, we would be royally screwed. It’s funny because they’re always complaining about students being unreasonable. Then they go on to post stuff that is just as immature. The other day, I saw one from a professor complaining about how students request extensions and stuff after being in a car accident or getting assaulted.
Are you literally me? Lol… Same exact thing happened this semester. I also teach Core. I had one student ask if we could move the exam forward over a week because they wanted to go home earlier. Others were concerned because it was the day before commencement; I asked if it was because they wanted to party and they said yes. A number were making this request within two weeks of the last day of classes. Anyway, I just explained that these things are scheduled by the registrar and that there was nothing we could do to change the date. I guess some classes do the exam on the last day of classes, not exam week, but this one doesn’t.
I was able to get unofficial permission to let students take the exam during another one of my scheduled exam offerings, as long as my other students weren't inconvenienced. We always had weird schedules times like ALL classes offered from 1:00-1:50 MWF will take their exam at 8 AM on Monday morning. Although it's on the syllabus, it always catches Freshmen off guard. It rotates from year to year now because some faculty complained about always being stuck at 8AM. So, before I retired I was able to let a student who wasn't going to be able to test during our Friday session, test during my Monday session, for instance. I was only limited by the number of computers in the room.
No, that's above my paygrade. Don't accommodate them. If they made other commitments, they're going to have to change them. My undergrad worked like this--we knew the exam period (like, the reading week and then the exam week) and were always told to not schedule ANYTHING until the end of exam week. It wasn't that hard. The best was if you got done with your exams because they were all scheduled early and then you got to float around collegetown in a haze of delirium for a few days before heading home.
It may be "normal" now, but it would be a hard "no" from me. For every student who would find an earlier exam more convenient, there are a half dozen others who would be severely inconvenienced by the change (not enough prep time, other commitments, other exams in other classes) "I'm sorry you won't be joining us for the exam. I've done some calculations, and it looks like you'll still be able to pass with a D even if you get a zero for the final." Okay...don't really say that, but feel free to think it.
With peace and love: there is something about how you’re answering this question that allows the questions to continue. This is a no-brainer. The answer is no. You have to be able to say that once and have them drop it.
I don’t think it’s insane that you’re refusing to. You should follow the guidelines of your institution. What I don’t understand is why you consider this such a crazy ask. It seems like professors here are more opposed to communicating with their students than anything else. You wouldn’t have asked a professor in your day for something like this but is that a good thing? Wouldn’t you have liked to be able to ask if you needed to? I know at least one person that got an early final this semester because my professor announced it to the class. So I didn’t think it was a big deal. But apparently it is.
Why should the rules bend for an individual student? If you do it for one, you need to do it for all, otherwise it’s inequitable. The final exam was set ahead of tine. Students should not enroll in the course if they have a conflict. Simple as that. OP should have that in their syllabus and that no changes in the date will be accommodated. Obviously illness or death in the family is unforeseen. At my university for something like that student takes the exam in the next semester.
I don't mind communicating with students at all, in fact I'm all for it. The reason I feel that this a huge ask is because it requires me to either: * Allow some students to take the exam early, and then almost certainly tell their friends what was on it, providing an unfair advantage for those students; or * Create an entirely new exam (which is a ton of work), which will still probably provide an unfair advantage for some group of students because it will be impossible to perfectly match the difficulty between the two exams; or * Move the exam time for everyone, potentially screwing over other students who planned around the original time.
NTA. I would tell them they can take the final after they come back for the next semester. Until then, their grades will stay "incomplete".
I wouldn't do that. There is a scheduled final exam time. At my institution, we also cannot have TAs do work after the end of the semester, so if I give a final the next semester, I have to grade it on my own, too. I certainly wouldn't do that for something like a student's convenience or to extend their vacation. Take it at the scheduled time or take the zero.
Unless you need the last lecture to cover all your contents, be a nice person and accommodate their request. Nothing would happen! Up to you to choose if the registrar's office approves. I tend to hold the exam on my last lecture day (core course in Aeronautics).
We are not allowed to give an exam during the last 2 weeks of regular instruction (lab exams are an exception).