Do you work at a university?

[foodiefil]

My fiancé and I are planning our wedding and have found a great venue, for an incredible price and the date they have available is the last date in the assessment period for his daughters university final exams.

She doesn't have her exam timetable yet.

If we are really unlucky and one of her exams falls on that day - could she take it a day earlier?

Is it worth contacting the university now?

I'm a lecturer - the answer is no.

No. Not possible. All students have to take the exam at the same time, otherwise there is the obvious risk that those taking it early tell those taking it after what is in the paper.

No she won't be able to. I wouldn't risk it at all. Every year I get requests from students to change dates due to holidays/family occasions, the answer is always no.

No, definitely not.

Agree 100% no.

When are they likely to know when the summer exams will be? When does that timetable get drafted?

Exam timetables are managed by Registry and summer exams won't be confirmed until May. Might be different at other institutions. This is why the exam period is given to students right at the start of the year, so that they know to keep every single day of that period free in anticipation of the exam.

So no hope of someone in registry being able to tell her when they're pencilled in for? 😔

Nope. Summer exams aren't even on their radar right now, nor would anyone be given that information in advance of any other student because that would be grossly unfair.

Sorry op. If she chooses to miss the exam she could (I would assume this is true for all unis) take it in the resit period but that mark would be capped at 40 which would likely have a significant impact on her degree classification.

No. We are given a provisional timetable in April and the students are informed in May.

There are seven sets of exams in the university year. They won't be thinking about the summer ones yet.

Thanks for your replies.

I take it there's also no hope of knowing the previous years timetables and seeing when they've had their last exam on the final Friday for that course? Ie. If it's never chances are it won't be the final Friday this year as well?

#evertheoptimist

I doubt if past timetables are available and they are no guide to future timetables anyway.

Your step daughter's personal tutor may be able to help with last year's timetable.

However, based on my experience (lots), there is no guarantee the dates will be same.

I certainly wouldn't want to plan a wedding around it.

No chance. Previous year’s timetable has no bearing on the subject as it’s down to room availability, etc. You can’t even guarantee things once the provisional timetable is out as that will be subject to change. I know people who have been burnt when the provisional timetable changed and they’d booked flights, etc.

Past timetables certainly bear no resemblance to future ones where I work.

In my uni your DD could submit a request to sit it at the next sitting for full marks, I think we would probably allow her to do so in the circumstances. But it would be very unfair on her to expect her to drag the exams out over months (or even a year) longer than necessary.

And if you're going to bank on that, she should speak to her tutor or whoever is her contact now to see if she would be allowed - we tell our students that they need to be available for the whole exam period and there's every chance they wouldn't accept it as an excuse.

Yes I understand. No it wouldn't be fair to drag hers out and it's her final year.

I've emailed her department. But as you've described it it doesn't seem worth it or that they'll be able to tell me anything.

We've been offered the accommodation for free for 30 people at our perfect venue but it wouldn't be perfect if she wasn't there.

But when her timetable does come - if she doesn't have an exam on that day 😭

She really should do the emailing herself. She's in final year, I certainly wouldn't be responding to any requests from parents (not related to welfare concerns). I think you've overstepped there tbh.

I didn't include her name @MindyStClaire

I'm an Assessment Manager at a Northern university. We don't allow resit opportunities for final year students unless mitigating circumstances are accepted. I would say that mit circs would not be accepted in this case as it's not unavoidable or unforeseen. This means that she'd carry a mark of 0 for that exam (possibly for the unit if it's 100% exam) and that's what would be calculated into her degree average.

I feel for you but it's really not worth the risk that one of her exams might fall on the last day and there is no way to predict it in advance. Fingers crossed you can find something else/negotiate the same deal for another date!

We also would not accept this as mitigation and would give a mark of zero for a missed exam.

We would not accept a wedding as mitigating circumstances either.

The department is very unlikely to be able to give you a definitive answer and they may be unwilling to tell you anything in case you blame them if you book the wedding and she then can't attend.

It is still worth asking for some guidance, though. I can see from our previous exam timetables that the number of exams tails off quite a lot in the last week of the exam period. So in the first week, there are around 30 exams timetabled each day, but in the last week there is no day with more than 10. However, there doesn't appear to be a clear pattern in the subjects that have exams in the last week, so you could still be unlucky.

Thanks @Phphion I understand all of that.

She's going to ask her course director but if they don't know they can't tell her anything for sure. We won't be going ahead with this one but it's a real shame and I'm disappointed but having her there is more important. Plus her last exam would be awful if she was sitting it thinking I should be at my dad's wedding! Wouldn't do that to her in a hundred million years.