Print

• Spring 2013 Exam Schedule
• Spring 2013 Final Exams

Spring 2013 Exam Schedule

Please find below the Spring 2013 Law School exam schedule as well as the exam room assignments for proctored exams.  Please review carefully the Law School's examination policies beginning on page 7 of the Spring 2013 Exam Schedule.

• Spring 2013 Exam Schedule - April 2, 2013
• Exam Poster Spring 2013 rev. 2

Spring 2013 Final Exams

Upper-Year Exams: Monday, May 6 through Friday, May 17

First-Year Exams: Tuesday, May 7 through Friday, May 17

Room 107 Jerome Greene Hall: The Exam Administration room will be staffed weekdays during the exam period beginning at 9 am. Unless otherwise notified, you will pick up and return all your take-home exams in this room.

Rooms 304 Jerome Greene Hall and L104 William & June Warren Hall: These two rooms are reserved weekdays for the duration of the exam period for students who may need a place to work on 8-hour take-home exams.

PROCTORED EXAMINATIONS

Monday, May 6 - 10 a.m.

Tuesday, May 7 - 10 a.m.

Tuesday, May 7 - 3 p.m.

Wednesday, May 8 - 10 a.m.

Wednesday, May 8 - 3 p.m.

Thursday, May 9 - 10 a.m.

Thursday, May 9 - 3 p.m.

Friday, May 10 - 10 a.m.

Friday, May 10 - 3 p.m.

Monday, May 13 - 10 a.m.

Monday, May 13 - 3 p.m.

Tuesday, May 14 - 10 a.m.

Tuesday, May 14 - 3 p.m.

Wednesday, May 15 - 10 a.m.

Thursday, May 16 - 10 a.m.

Thursday, May 16 - 3 p.m.

Friday, May 17 - 10 a.m.

END OF SCHEDULE FOR IN-CLASS PROCTORED EXAMS

TAKE-HOME EXAMINATIONS

You are required to pick up and return the exam in person. Exams may NOT be picked up or returned by a friend, sent by e-mail or regular mail, Federal Express, fax, nor can they be picked up or submitted on Saturday or Sunday. If special arrangements have been made for a take-home exam, students will be notified directly.

Format of exam answer: You must type and print out your exam answer and submit it in paper form. You may use your own word-processing software for take-home exams. ExamSoft SofTest software is used ONLY for in-class proctored exams, not for take- home exams. DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME ON ANY PAGE OF YOUR EXAM ANSWER – use only the exam number that will be on your exam questions to identify your exam.

Take-home exams that instructors specify can be scheduled over a weekend: Pick up on Friday and return on Monday with a certification assuring that the work time has not exceeded what is allowed. It may not be picked up on Thursday or returned on Tuesday. 8-hour take-home exams cannot be taken over the week-end.

LAST DAY TO SUBMIT TAKE-HOME EXAMS

May 2013 Degree Candidates: Tuesday, May 14 (unless another date is indicated below)

Continuing Students: Friday, May 17 (unless an earlier date is indicated below)

TAKE-HOME EXAMS

NOTE: Several 8-hour take-home exams are limited to one day only 

END OF SPRING 2013 SCHEDULE OF FINAL EXAMS

COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL EXAMINATION REGULATIONS

Students taking a Law School examination are expected to appear at or turn in an examination at the stated time and place.  Failure to do so will result in a grade of Failure (F) (see Rules for the J.D. Degree).  Examination rules apply to all students taking a Law course, regardless of degree program. If you are unable to appear for an examination at the proper time, please contact Registration Services at 854-2668 or e-mail Exams@law.columbia.edu.  NOTE:  If you arrive late to an exam, you will not receive compensatory time.

Any excuse granted on grounds of illness or other physical disability is conditioned upon receiving a satisfactory medical note from the attending physician within a reasonable time (one or two days, and by no later than the end of the examination period – Friday, May 17, 2013).

If you self-identify with the Office of Disability Services (ODS) and are granted special examination conditions, ODS will send confirmation of your exam accommodations to Christy Cesta, Associate Director of Registration Services, and to Dean Alice Rigas.  Shortly before the exam period Ms. Cesta or Dean Rigas will e-mail you with information about your exam accommodations.  You can reach Ms. Cesta at ccesta@law.columbia.edu and Dean Rigas at arigas@law.columbia.edu.

ANONYMOUS GRADING OF EXAMS:  Final exams administered by Registration Services are graded anonymously. Therefore, students are not permitted to write their name on any page of a proctored or take-home exam, and must not contact the instructor directly about an exam before final grades for the course are posted.   If you experience any difficulty before or during an exam, you should notify the exam proctor immediately and/or contact Registration Services directly.  Do not contact the instructor at any time before the final course grades are posted.

Once the instructor submits the final exam grade to Registration Services, s/he can adjust the final course grade to factor in class performance or other work.  The final course grade then is submitted to Registration Services and subsequently released to the student via LAWNET.  If you would like to discuss your exam with  the instructor, you may do so only after your final course grade has been posted in LAWNET.

CERTIFICATION OF EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE:  Before you take an exam, as scheduled or rescheduled, you will be asked to sign a “Certification of Examination Performance” that you have not discussed the exam (verbally, electronically, or in writing) with any other student taking the exam, and that you have not and will not share or communicate, directly or indirectly, any information relating to the nature or content of, or answers to, the exam.  If you believe that you cannot sign the certification, for whatever reason, you must notify Dean Rigas immediately.  Since students may need to reschedule an exam because of illness, you are advised not to discuss the content of your exams until course grades have been posted in LAWNET.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENT ID:  In order to receive your exam, either proctored or take-home, you are required to present your Columbia University student ID card (CUID).  Please make sure to have it with you at all times.

RESCHEDULING A LAW SCHOOL EXAMINATION

Columbia Law School’s examination policies require all students to take exams at the scheduled times. As stated in the Law School Rules, “All students should be prepared to sit for examinations at any point throughout the examination period.” However, exams can be rescheduled in certain situations as defined below. Please make careful note of the circumstances that would warrant an adjustment to your exam schedule. If you have any of the conflicts listed below, please send an e-mail to Registration Services by Monday, April 22, to arrange an adjustment to your exam schedule. Address your e-mail to Exams@law.columbia.edu and include “Exam Rescheduling Request” in the Subject Line.

Registration Services will determine which exam will be rescheduled, and will notify you of the date and location of your rescheduled exam by Wednesday, May 1.

1. Two (2) Law School exams scheduled on the same day. One of the exams will be rescheduled to the first exam day on which the student does not have a scheduled exam and that will not create an exam conflict requiring further rescheduling.

2. Proctored or fixed-date take-home exams can be rescheduled to allow a 36-hour period between the start of two exams. For example, a student having proctored or fixed-date Law School exams scheduled for both Monday and Tuesday can reschedule the Tuesday exam to Wednesday.

3. Illness on the day of the exam: Any excuse granted on grounds of illness or other physical disability is conditioned upon receiving a satisfactory medical note from the attending physician within a reasonable time (one or two days, and by no later than the end of the examination period).

4. Birth of a child: An exam will be rescheduled if the student is attending the birth of his/her child.

5. Religious Observance: An exam will be rescheduled if it conflicts with a religious observance on the day of the exam.

6. Bereavement: An exam will be rescheduled in the event of a death in the student’s family and the student is attending the funeral or grieving.

7. In other exceptional and documented circumstances.

Examinations will only be rescheduled AFTER the originally scheduled date, never before. All RESCHEDULED EXAMS must be taken before the end of the final exam period (Friday, May 17), unless Registration Services needs to reschedule the exam for another time (usually only in cases where a later exam date is warranted by documented special circumstances such as illness). Please check the exam schedule for the designated times that Spring 2013 exams can be rescheduled.

Only rescheduling arrangements made through Registration Services will be honored. Exams are graded anonymously, and you are not to take any action that will compromise your anonymity. Therefore, instructors cannot reschedule exams or make any kind of special exam arrangement directly with a student. Please do not approach your instructor about rescheduling your exam or making any kind of special exam arrangement as it will not be honored.

Exams in courses taken at another Columbia division or at NYU Law School (as part of the Columbia/NYU Law Exchange): Law School students who have an exam conflict in courses taken outside Columbia Law School must reschedule the non-CLS exam.

No adjustment will be made for employment schedules, travel or personal arrangements which conflict with the exam schedule. Exams cannot be rescheduled because a student has an early flight home for the winter or summer break, or for other personal reasons not outlined above.

LAPTOP AND HAND-WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS

EXAMS USING LAPTOP COMPUTERS: The Law School offers students the option of taking in-class, proctored final exams (essay-type only) on their own laptop computers through the use of SofTest software from ExamSoft, provided free of charge to all. As an alternative, students may choose to handwrite their exams. SofTest is not used for take-home exams.

SofTest is basically a word processor that blocks access to all other applications while it is running. You will type into it as you would type into any standard word processor. It is the computing equivalent of a bluebook. Visit the Law School Information Technology Web site for information on notebook support for Law students: http://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/info_tech/Notebook

Detailed general instructions on taking exams on laptop will be e-mailed to students well before the start of the exam period. It is important that you read the information carefully and follow the directions. Also, review the general information below and contact Exams@law.columbia.edu if you have any questions.

PREPARING YOUR LAPTOP BEFORE TAKING A PROCTORED ESSAY EXAM: To use your laptop to take a proctored essay exam, you must complete the following steps:

1. REGISTER YOUR ETHERNET CARD: You will be downloading the exam file(s) and submitting your exam(s) via the Internet and so must register your Ethernet card. Although you will not be connected to the Internet while you are writing your exam, you will need Internet connection to download the exam file prior to arriving in the exam room, and to upload your answer file at the end of the exam in the exam room. In order to connect to the Internet in the exam room you are required to register your Ethernet card.

2. INSTALL THE EXAMSOFT SOFTWARE (SOFTEST) ON YOUR LAPTOP: If you used your laptop to take a December 2012 Law School exam and will be using the same laptop to take your Spring 2013 exams, you should have the latest version of SofTest (version 11) already installed and thus do not need to re-install the software. You will be notified if a new version of SofTest is needed for Spring 2013 exams. Understandably, there will be more variations of notebook computers running the exam software than ExamSoft can test. Therefore, it is impossible for ExamSoft to predict with certainty if the exam software will work as expected for your specific hardware/software configuration. ExamSoft offers full technical support, and its staff can be contacted by telephone (866-429-8889) or by e-mail (support@examsoft.com). Answers to frequently asked questions can be found at its FAQ page at www.examsoft.com/main/index.php

3. PRACTICE USING THE SOFTWARE: After installing the software (SofTest), you are urged to take as many practice tests as you can in order to become familiar with the software before you take an actual exam. Also, practice different features such as word or character counts. We have found that many of the problems students experience while taking an exam could have been avoided by practicing on the software and addressing any technological issues well in advance of the exam period.

4. DOWNLOAD THE EXAM FILE FOR EACH OF YOUR PROCTORED ESSAY EXAMS: To take a proctored essay exam on your laptop, you must download an exam file for each of your proctored essay exams in addition to installing the SofTest software on your laptop. Students will be notified in April when the exam files are ready for downloading. The exam file is a virtual exam book that laptop examinees will use to record their answers. The document in the exam file is blank and does not contain the exam questions. The exam questions are distributed only in the exam room. You must download your exam file(s) BEFORE arriving in the exam room and well before the day of the exam since NO COMPENSATORY TIME will be given to those who download their exam files in the exam room. Exam files are not available for take-home exams or for multiple-choice exams that require the use of a Scantron form to record answers (e.g., Shechtman’s Criminal Adjudication; etc.)

EXAMS WILL START ON TIME, so make sure that you have downloaded the SofTest software, taken several practice exams, and also downloaded your exam file(s) before your exam day. If you attempt to install the software and/or download your exam file in the exam room and have difficulty connecting to the Internet, the proctors will be unable to provide you with technical assistance and you will have to handwrite your exam. Also, if you arrive late to any exam, you will not receive compensatory time.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: The Law School’s IT Helpdesk supports connectivity to the Columbia Law School network only and its staff can help you with some technical problems. However, ExamSoft is responsible for all technical support for SofTest and you are advised to contact ExamSoft directly for technical issues with installing and testing ExamSoft’s SofTest on your laptop. ExamSoft offers full technical support and its staff can be contacted by telephone (866-429-8889) or by e-mail (support@examsoft.com). Answers to frequently asked questions can be found at its FAQ page at www.examsoft.com/main/index.php. You are advised to address any technical issues well in advance of your first exam.

HAND-WRITTEN EXAMS (other than multiple-choice Scantron): For May 2013 exams, you must sign up with Registration Services by Monday, April 22, to handwrite a proctored essay exam. You may remove your name from the list if you change your mind later.

SCANTRON EXAMS: No notification is necessary for multiple-choice exams recorded on Scantron forms (e.g., Shechtman’s Criminal Adjudication; etc.). You will not be using ExamSoft for these exams. Only a #2 pencil can be used to record answers on a Scantron form, so make sure to be prepared with #2 pencils and an eraser if your exam is a multiple-choice exam or has a multiple-choice section that requires the use of a Scantron form.

OPEN BOOK EXAMS: If you have material on your computer that you intend to use during an open-book exam, you must print it out before arriving at the exam room. You are not permitted to access any programs or files on your computer or on other electronic devices during a proctored exam. In addition, you cannot use electronic versions of textbooks in open-book exams.

TAKE-HOME EXAMS: ExamSoft is not used for take-home exams. Instructors expect you to type your answers for take-home exams, and you may use the word-processing software of your choice. Turn in a paper version of your exam answer (unless otherwise instructed). Make sure to include a header/footer listing the course number, title, instructor, and your exam number. DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME ON ANY PAGE OF YOUR EXAM ANSWER. If your course is taught by more than one instructor, you must submit one copy of your exam answer for each instructor.

MAY 2013 GRADUATING STUDENTS & CONTINUING STUDENTS

• January 29, 2013 (last day of Spring Add/Drop):

Minor Writing Credit registration must be completed (All 3L’s)

• February 1, 2013:

3L’s must submit first draft of Major Writing Credit paper to instructor by this date.
LL.M.’s who did not register their LL.M. Writing Project in the Fall 2012 term must register it by February 1, 2013.

• April 1, 2013:

Deadline for submission of Major Writing Credit paper final draft (May 2013 and October 2013 JD degree candidates)
Deadline for submission of Minor Writing Credit paper (May 2013 and October 2013 JD degree candidates)
Deadline for submission of all outstanding work from Fall 2012 that was granted an extension (all students).

• Wednesday, May 1, 2013 (last day of Spring term Law classes):

Due date for all Spring 2013 written work in non-exam offerings (unless earlier deadline specified by instructor). (All May 2013 degree candidates)
Deadline for submission of LL.M. Writing Project paper final draft (LL.M. degree candidates)

• Monday, May 13, 2013:

Grades due for May 2013 degree candidates in classes without final exams.

• Friday, May 17, 2013 (last day of Spring 2013 final exams):

Grades due for May 2013 degree candidates in classes with final exams.

• Wednesday, May 22, 2013:

University Commencement & Degree Conferral

• Thursday, May 23, 2013:

Law School Graduation Ceremony

ACADEMIC HONORS FOR 2012-13: For students graduating in May, honors determinations are made a week or two after Commencement. For continuing students, honors calculations are made in late June-July, once all grades have been submitted. Final 2012-13 honors determinations will be made the last week of July. Students cannot receive academic honors for a year that includes a grade of incomplete. Therefore, if you wish to be considered for Kent or Stone honors, you are advised to consult with your instructor about a submission date for your work that will allow him/her enough time to read your written work and to record your grade by not later than the last week of July. Please be reminded that students must be in full-time on-site residence at the Law School for the entire academic year (fall and spring terms) in order be eligible for Kent and Stone honors.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR CONTINUING STUDENTS NEEDING AN EXTENSION ON WRITTEN WORK (e.g., for seminars, courses, research, etc.)

For continuing students, unless the instructor established an earlier due date or an extension was granted, April 1 is the due date for submission of outstanding written work from the Fall 2012 term, and May 17 is the due date for submission of all written work for from the Spring 2013 term. Should you have a problem in meeting the deadline for submission of your written work, contact your instructor to request an extension and complete an extension form, available online at www.law.columbia.edu/academics/registrar/Reg_Form and in the Office of Registration Services. Extensions can be granted only for papers and other written work, not for examinations.

NOTE: You are advised to elect an extension only if absolutely necessary since an incomplete transcript may disadvantage you in employment and clerkship applications. See “Academic Honors for 2012-13,” above, for information on the implications of late submissions on 2012-13 academic year honor eligibility.

October 15, 2013
For students not graduating in 2013 (February, May, or October): October 15, 2013 is the final deadline for submitting written work from the 2012-13 academic year for which an extension was approved. NOTE: Only one incomplete can be carried into the Fall 2013 term. All other written work from 2012-13 must be submitted and graded by the week before the start of the Fall 2013 Change of Program period.