Faculty Guide:  Exam

Test Environment

Ideally, students should be allowed to take an adapted test in the same classroom, at the same time with the other students. If adaptation requires the exam to be administered in a place other than the regular exam site, efforts should be made to provide a setting that is equally conducive to concentration. Taking a test under standard conditions requires certain skills and abilities that are not a part of what is measured by the test instrument. For some students with disabilities, the format of the test itself or the physical location in which the test is to be administered will constitute a discriminatory barrier to performance. The suggestions listed within the specific disability categories provide guidelines for adapting examinations to eliminate discrimination against students with disabilities. Some appropriate accommodations include:

• a separate room free from interruptions and distractions
• adequate privacy for working with a reader, writer, or such devices as a typewriter, computer, talking dictionary, or Braille
• sensible and sensitive proctoring 

A student should not be expected to cope with taking the exam in a hallway, library, main reading room, in a department office with ringing telephones, frequent visitors or other distractions.