Tips for Taking Exams at Home

We’ve put together some tips and best practices you can follow that can help create a better environment for you.

Environment

To create a similar setting to coming into our office, you need to prepare your space before starting an exam online.

• Set up your space before taking your exam to minimize distractions. Make the environment feel like a testing environment (in other words, don’t decide to eat your lunch while you are taking your exam or have your television on in the background).
• Turn off phones. If you have a landline, set the ringer to silent or low.
• Place a “do not disturb” or “testing in progress” sign on your door.
• Inform family members (who might also be home) that you will be taking an exam for a specific span of time to minimize interruptions.
• You might want to use a lockdown browser if you’re prone to surfing the internet.
• Have all allowed materials available and organized before starting the exam.
• At least 15 minutes before the exam, set up your environment to make sure you do not have any computer or internet access issues.
• If fidgets or music/sound help you, make sure you have these items available.

In General

• Know the rules and expectations of taking the exam online. Is it open book/note or are students held to the honor system? Are you being proctored remotely by your professor or a computer program?
• Can you start the exam at any time or is the exam only available during a certain time frame?
• If your accommodations allow for breaks during exam, is there a way to pause the exam?
• Before starting the exam, make sure you know how many questions are on the exam and how much time you have so you can plan accordingly. Since we won’t be there to give a warning, you might want to set a timer to go off 10 minutes before your time is up.
• Have a clock or timer nearby so you can track how much time you have.
• Have scrap paper so that you can note questions you want to revisit.
• Questions may be presented one at a time. It may be more difficult to navigate an exam and go back to review questions. Jot down question numbers and note any questions you may have.
• If you have clarification questions for your professor, will you be able to reach the professor? How will you do this? Find out before you take your exam.
• You may have finally gotten used to the format of your teacher’s in-class exams and suddenly that format might be different as it shifts to an online platform.
  • Reach out to your teachers and ask if the exams will be different. The more prepared you are with what to expect, the better.
  • If you are suddenly allowed to use notes or access your books during an exam, be careful not to use up all of your time and rely too heavily on these materials. It is better to put an answer down that you think is correct and then return to that question later if you have time at the end to double check than to spend time searching for each of the answers.