Examinations

All pre-honours modules offered by the School involve an exam at the end of the semester the module is taught in. All end-of-semester examinations within the School will be assessed by an in-person examination. Before sitting examinations, all students must ensure that they have read and fully understand the University's Examinations policy.

Exam papers are checked by School staff, and by our external examiners to ensure they are appropriate. Questions are constructed to allow you demonstrate you have developed your knowledge and understanding of material covered in the module. Questions will likely require familiarity and competence with material from previous study, whilst some individual questions may cover material from multiple parts of the module. There is no suggestion that in one module exam the questions should be uniformly distributed from across the module. Additional information for students on exams can be found on the School's webpage.

Past papers (typically the last three years of exams) can be accessed via the University's MySaint portal. The School's Current students webpage contains an examination paper archive with one past examination paper and one sample solution for most current modules.

Exams may be scheduled close together, and so work to be on top of the entire semester's material well before the exam weeks start.

 
Deferred examinations

Deferral of an assessment refers to taking it after the end of the corresponding semester. This is not a right and permission will be granted only when the School judges that genuine and compelling grounds for deferral exist.

Requests for deferred exams in Physics and Astronomy should be directed to the School's Director of Teaching physdot@st-andrews.ac.uk, copying in the School's Examinations Officer panda-exams@st-andrews.ac.uk. Requests will be considered in line with the principles set out in the University’s Student handbook.

For all sub-honours exams, deferrals will usually take place shortly after the semester 2 exam diet in the Extended Examination Diet. These exams are organised by the University's Exams Office and dates for the Extended Examination Diet can be found in Key Dates for Students.

If you are permitted to defer an exam, you are expected to make yourself available for the Extended Examination Diet and make any necessary travel arrangements to ensure you are available at the time of the deferred exam. You are advised to check your email regularly to ensure that you do not miss the deferred exam.

Deferrals beyond the academic year will only be granted in truly exceptional circumstances and requires approval from the Deans. The School will refer the student to Student Services, the Registry Officer (Student Support), or the appropriate Associate Dean Students (UG students) or Associate Provost Students (PGT students). A deferred examination beyond the academic year will be set in the December diet (Semester 1 modules) or main May diet (Semester 2 modules) where appropriate. Please note that deferral beyond the academic year can have significant implications for progression and may require a leave of absence.

 
Reassessment

If you receive a Grade between 4.0 and 6.9 (inclusive) on a module, then you have failed but are eligible for reassessment. You will need to register with the University Exams Office to take the resit paper. Please see the page on Exams.

Reassessment for semester 1 modules will take place in the extended exam diet (after the semester 2 exam diet) and will be in-person invigilated exams.

Reassessment exams for semester 2 modules will be online exams, held in the University's online August exam diet.

All reassessment grades will be capped at grade 7.0.