Hej everyone!
This week, I just finished my exams for the first period. It was an exhausting time, but hopefully, with a good outcome! 😀
Due to that, I decided to write a little about exams and what they look like. Overall, examinations at LiU vary widely across different programs. Depending on your programme, you might encounter take-home exams or an in-person test in an examination hall that could be online or offline. Furthermore, the format of the exams can differ as well; some include problem-solving tasks, exercises, open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions and more. Of course, I have first-hand knowledge about my programme which is a part of the Medical Faculty, but I’m going to include some things about other programmes as well.
In my master’s programme, the length of courses varies. Some are two months long while others are one month long. In August-October, I took two courses (Stem Cells in Applied Regenerative Medicine and Molecular Virology) and both were two months long. So, I ended up with two exams last week. Of course, it got a little stressful in the last week, but, in general, I think it went just fine.
In-person exams
It is the most popular version of exams in my programme. It is pretty straightforward. The exam takes place in an exam hall where you receive a sheet with questions. You are provided with a special paper where you write your answers. The important thing is that you can write only one answer to one question per page and you can write only on one side of a paper.
Sometimes, the in-person exams are conducted online. You can use your own computer or LiU-provided computers (if you choose so, you need to book them in advance). During a computer exam, you log into a special environment that disables you from accessing other programmes such as online browsers or any files that are stored on your computer. I had one exam like that and it was fairly okay. I think, I just prefer to write on paper rather than a computer. From what I’ve heard from friends, computer-based exams are much more popular in certain engineering programmes such as Statistics and Machine Learning.
Home examination
I never had this type of examination however, from what I gathered, it is writing an essay on a certain topic. Usually, you have several days to complete it and then you submit it via Lisam.
Oral examination
I had it only once and it was during Corona pandemic so additionally, it was online. The exam lasted for maybe 15 minutes and I had a conversation with the examiner (a professor from a course) about a specific part of the course. Industrial Engineering and Management has at least one course where the final examination is the oral examination. Before the exam, you receive several chapters in a book that you have to learn. During the exam, you have 10 minutes to talk about the randomly chosen (by a teacher) subject.
Many courses at LiU have some sort of presentations which are also considered exams. This greatly differs between courses but mostly, it is a presentation of a project/literature study/lab work that you did during the course duration. You present it in front of a class and the course coordinators/examiner. You may get a person or a group that will have to oppose you i.e. provide feedback and write questions in addition, to the examiner’s questions. In Aeronautical Engineering, some companies are even present during a final presentation.
Practical things
- You always have to register for exams. Registration opens on Lisam around 30 days beforehand and closes around a week before the date of the exam. It is absolutely compulsory! There is no possibility of being allowed into the exam hall if you’re not registered.
- You receive two emails with information about the exam. It is a confirmation of a date and time. It also informs you where your exams are based. Sometimes, it contains information about allowed aids during an exam such as a calculator or a table with equations (if there is anything to be mentioned).
- Written exams are always anonymous.
General remarks
- Normally, you get example questions or an old exam from the course coordinator that you can use to practice and see the format.
- As mentioned earlier, the type of questions widely vary between programmes and even subjects within a programme. In my programme (bachelor’s and master’s), we get open-ended questions. There was only one exam where some of the questions were multiple-choice questions.
- The time for exams is usually 4 hours sometimes 5 hours. Interestingly, only on Friday, I learnt there are short exams as well! In my exam hall, there was an exam that was only 2 hours long.
- Now, once you know all this, you may be wondering when will you get the results back? In Sweden, the examiners are required to grade the exams within 15 working days… so pretty quickly!
- Grades differ between courses, programmes and faculties, but I wrote about it in more detail here.
Re-examination
For those who didn’t pass or didn’t take the exam in the first attempt, there is a possibility to do it on different occasions. You can check other dates on the Lisam page or in the LiU app. The same rules apply for the re-examination. You have an unlimited number of attempts at the exam. Also, you may request a change of examiner after several failed exams.
See you next time! 😀
/Alexandra, Experimental and Medical Biosciences
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