Examination

Written examination

A timed written examination that takes place in a supervised room at campus. The questions varies depending on the subject that you are studying but it can be pure fact-based questions or more investigative assignments where you should use reasoning in order to answer a question or solve an issue.

Read more about written examinations here. 

Take-home examination

A written exam that takes place at home. The assignments in the take-home examination usually requires the student to use reasoning in order to answer a question. You should use the litterature that are included in the curse but you are allowed to use other sources too.

Oral examination

You meet a teacher to discuss the subject to be examined. The discussion can take from 15-20 minutes up to a few hours. The teacher kan require answers on fact-based questions or request you to reason about something. An oral examination can be done individually or in a group.

Written assignment

An assignment that should be solved individually or in a group in the form of a smaller written assignment, project work, quiz or through production of media.

Momerandum, PM

You could get an assignment to write a PM (momerandum) where you reason about a topic. This can also be called an essay or paper.

Laboratory session

The student should have preformed and achived one or more tasks. A laboratory session almost always require that you describe your work and result in the form of a report of some sort. A laboratory session can also be done as a group project.

Group project

The students are devided into groups and together they should sole one or more tasks. The grades, however, are set individually.

Academic paper

Another form of examination is the academic paper. In order to take out some form of academic degree you have to have written an academic paper. These papers are generally pretty extensive and it can take up to a whole semester to write one.

You always have a supervisor (one of the teachers) to support you while you work on the paper. The supervisor help you with advice and comments when it comes to the reasoning and research methods used. When a paper is done it goes through a public discussion, which means that you should be able to recive feedback and answer questions regarding the paper during a seminar. The questions are asked by one or more other students (external reviewers) that have been tasked with publicy discussion and examine your paper.

Time to complete the exam

The time set for the examinations are decided by the examinor and could be from an few hours, days or weeks. Limitation of time for carrying out the examination is always communicated through the course handbook and in connection to the repective task.

Your result after an examination is reported in Ladok. You should be notified of the result within 15 working days after the day of the examination - 20 working days when there is a large number of students in a group. Regardless of the number of students the results will be posted at least two weeks before the re-exam.

You will not see the result until the examinator has approved it in Ladok for students.  If the course is devided into multiple modules, all of these modules need to have a passing grade before you can recive a final grade on the entire course.

As a basic rule is that there should not be any limitation to the number of opportunities one has to take an exam. Each time a course module is offered the student has the right to be examined and to do a re-take on the material in that module. Thereafter the student can re-take the exam any time that course (with the same course code) is offered at University West. Examinations are always based on whatever syllabus is valid for that particular course when it is offered, and it is the student’s responsibility to inquire as to whether there have been any changes to the syllabus.

At University West a student is not allowed to raise an already passing grade by handing in a re-take examination (what is called ‘plussning’ in Swedish).

Discontinuing of a course

If a course is no longer offered or the course code changes, the student is entitled to three opportunities to take the exam within at least a year following the last time the exam was scheduled in conjunction with the course being offered. You can find more information regarding discontinuing of a course here.

Review grade

You do have the right to request that a grade is reviewed by your examiner. Objections to reported grades need to include a reason for the objection and be submitted in writing to the examiner. It's only the examiner who can change a grade. 

For The Nursing Programme (VGSSK), see the programme page in Canvas for information.

For programmes at the Department of Engineering Science, contact the respective course coordinator.

Replacement of examiner

A student who has failed an examination two times has - according to the Higher Education Ordinande, 6 Chap, 22§, the right to be examined by another examiner unless there are special reasons against it. A reason that this might not be allowed is, for example, a case where there is no other qualified examiner. Use the document "Begäran om byte av examinator" down below at this page to request a new examiner. 

For examination and re-examination of a degree project or internship (such as placement) the same rules apply as do for other courses. The scheduled examination and re-examination of the essay should be stated in the course handbook. 

If the number of occasions that the student will do practicum work or be involved in equivalent periods of training is limited, this has to be stated in the syllabus. If a passing grade on the practicum or equivalent training is a prerequisite for receiving a passing grade in a course or module, there must be at least two such periods.

The degree project that is handed in for grading and archiving is handed in digitally. All electronic archiving is done by the administration of the university after the examiner has sent in both an electronic version of the degree project and documentation stating that the essay has received a passing grade. 

Find templates for thesis ans essays here.

This information is addressed to students at University West to inform them about cheating, its definition, consequences, and how to avoid it. Read more about cheating and plagiarism here.