KCL Exam Scheduling

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there are 2 examination periods (3 if you include resits/deferred summer exams)

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Period 1 which runs in the first week of January after the Christmas holidays. Not every course and module has January exams, and they're not always summative (as in, counting towards your module grade). For my course, first-years have formative January exams for all modules which are taken remotely. In second year, I had I think one summative January exam which was held at Excel, and in third year I had one formative/summative January exam which was held remotely (but that module was a mess, the exam was initially summative and on campus)

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Period 2 is the main examination period and runs after the Easter holidays, typically from the start of May until early June (around the 2nd or 3rd, depending on whichever date is the Friday). In my experience, all of the Period 2 exams are held in-person since they form the majority of your module grade, and I've only had 1 in three years that was held on Strand campus (we were split up, some groups were on Waterloo, some on Guy's) as it formed a fairly small part of that module. Every other exam has been held at Excel because they have very strict monitoring/supervision for plagiarism and cheating - this year they even timed when and for how long I went to the bathroom! Most students have at least some exams at Excel, but again it depends on your module. Depending on your modules, your exams might be spaced out across the whole period or really close together (I had three back-to-back this year which was not fun lol especially since I'd only submitted my dissertation the week before)

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You typically receive your exam timetable mid-late March, before the Easter holidays, so there's no definitive planning that can be done until then because even your module leads won't know exactly which day the exam will be held on, as that's all done by the timetabling team

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In terms of exams outside that period, you might have in-course assessments held at other times e.g. for one of my modules this year, we had a test on a particular topic held on KEATS that could be done from anywhere as it only made up 30% of the module. I've also had practical tests held at different times. But in terms of the main big exams, they're all held during Period 2 unless you have mitigating circumstances and need to defer them until Period 3 (typically the second week in August)