Posted: October 13, 2020, 10:08 a.m.
Updated: February 3, 2021, 1:45 p.m.
This section includes information regarding the changes to the April 2021 final exam period as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Exam Format
All final exams will be administered online and the format will be one of the following:
- Take-home exam with a pre-determined span of time in which to complete it (eg. 48 or 72 hours)
- Timed open-book exam within a designated time period (e.g. 24 or 48 hours)
- Oral exam
- Other (Lab, Project)
Exam Schedule
The April 2021 final exam schedule has been posted on our website.
A final exam schedule containing confirmation of the final exam format and when your take-home exam is due and when your timed, open-book or oral exam begins will be posted on our website in early February.
Exam Conflicts
The usual exam conflict rules apply but with modification to account for the time that you will have to write take-home exams or open-book exams (timed). Many take-home exams will have a longer timeline (e.g., 48-hour window) for completion, which will allow you the flexibility to arrange your time to write the exam within the allotted time window. If your take-home exam overlaps with an exam that has now changed to an open-book exam (timed), this is not considered a conflict as you will have the flexibility to use the allotted time to write your take-home exam, allowing you to resolve any conflicts in your schedule.
If you have more than three (3) exams scheduled to be completed in a 24-hour period, this may not constitute an exam conflict.
Example: NOT an exam conflict
- Exam 1: April 19th at 9am: 3-hour timed open-book exam
- Exam 2: April 19th at 9am: 48-hour take-home exam due
- Exam 3: April 19th at 9am: 72-hour take-home exam due
Example: Possible exam conflict
- Exam 1: April 20th at 9am: 48-hour take-home exam due
- Exam 2: April 20th at 9am: Timed open-book exam begins
- Exam 3: April 20th at 9am: Timed open-book exam begins
- Exam 4*: April 20th at 2pm: Timed open-book exam begins
*more than 3 exams in the same 48-hour period = a possible exam conflict
The Exam Office will analyze the exam schedule to determine if there are any exam conflicts. If you have an exam conflict, you will be contacted via e-mail by the Exam Office before the end of October. If you have not been contacted by this time and believe that you have an exam conflict, please contact the Exam Office via exam.es [at] mcgill.ca (email).
March Deferred and Supplemental Exam Period
The deferred and supplemental exam period will be held March 1st -4th, 2021 . Please refer to the Exams website for the application dates and when the exam schedule will be posted.
IMPORTANT: If you write your final exam you are not eligible to apply for a deferred exam. This includes receiving the final exam from your instructor but not completing it.
Requests for deferred exams will be processed as normal. Please see the deferred exams page for further details.
**Engineering students - deferred exams for courses administered by Engineering are written the next time the course is offered. They will not be offered during the March 2021 deferred exam period. For more information, contact the Faculty of Engineering.**
**Law students - please refer to the Faculty of Law exams page for further information on the March 2021 deferred exam periods and the application dates. The Faculty of Law will administer their own deferrals exams.**