This post has been written for students in my classes who write their exams under Accessibility Resources' supervision. Specifically, it’s to explain some gaps in their procedures, and how we can work together to ensure that exams run as smoothly as possible for you, for me, and for the rest of the students in the class. It also relates to the reason why Van Halen insisted that there be no brown M&Ms in their dressing room.
The Letter
First, give me your letter. You know the one. The Letter of Accommodation. This introduces you to me, and lets me know that you would like to write your exams with Accessibility Resources. Log in to Clockwork, complete all the required information, and then it will send me an email notification. Or you can give me a paper copy of the letter. Or send me a PDF of the letter. Or send me a link to the PDF of the letter. But you must let me know--as soon as possible, if not sooner. Do not give me your letter a day before an exam. Do not give me your letter a week before an exam. (Accessibility Resources actually requires me to submit exams to them one week in advance.) I've had students write exams at Accessibility Resources without giving me the letter. This is not good. The letter does not tell me what to do. Rather, the letter is your way of asking me if I will permit you to write your exams at Accessibility Resources. (From Accessibility Resources: "Without the letter, the professor can refuse to accommodate the student.")
Once, after I scolded a student about not giving me the letter sooner, they told me "I'm writing the exam at Accessibility Resources because of my ADHD, and my not giving you the letter is a manifestation of that disorder." Wha--? Do not be that person. Do not make excuses. Take responsibility for yourself.
(If you have already registered with Accessibility Resources and it has sent me your letter, thanks!)
The Exams
I send my exams to Accessibility Resources via their secure website, called Clockwork. (I believe I was the first instructor ever to email them exams in PDF format over 17 years ago to help accommodate a vision-impaired student.) After exams are written, I ask that they are returned by the student in a sealed envelope to the Department of Psychology General Office, BS P-217, which is in the Psychology wing of the Biological Sciences Centre. Here’s a map. The person receiving the exam at the General Office will sign a receipt slip. Do not lose this; it’s proof that you returned your exam. It is extremely important in cases of lost (er, misplaced) exams.
When returning your exam, please note that the hours of the Psychology General Office. During Fall/Winter terms, they are open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. every business day. If you finish your exam at Accessibility Resources at 11:59 a.m., well, don’t bother running to drop it off--you’ll have to wait until the office reopens after lunch.
What if you finish your exam, but there’s not enough time to return it that day? Say you finish at 3:55. There’s no way to make it to the office by 4:00. In that case, my instructions are for you to return the exam as soon as possible the next business day. (I don’t know if Accessibility Resources allows you to keep the sealed exam in your possession overnight; check with them on that.)
It’s very important for me to get your exam back as soon as possible for a couple of important reasons:
1) I calculate a lot of exam statistics. Really, a lot. If your exam gets to me too late to include with the rest of the class, I have to mark it by hand. That means it’s not included in any of the exam statistics for the class. I don’t like having incomplete data; I want to get the most complete picture of a class’s performance possible--not leaving anyone’s data out. Plus, I hate hand-marking multiple choice exams and am prone to errors, despite my best efforts.
2) I process and post exam results quickly. Very quickly. My goal is to be faster than anyone else on campus. I have, on more than one occasion, posted exam results the same day. To do that, I bring all of the exams to TSQS personally as soon as possible after the exam. However, if students are writing their exams at Accessibility Resources, they are often given extra time. That means I have to wait until you’re done, and have delivered your exam to the General Office so I can include it with the rest of the class. In other words, not only am I waiting on you, but the rest of the class is also waiting for you to deliver your exam.
On more than one occasion, a student has had the exam with them after completing it, but didn’t deliver it to the Psychology Office because it was closed for lunch or closed for the day. Then they forgot about it. Only after several days passed did they remember and drop off the exam. In the meantime, I’m frantically calling Accessibility Resources to find out where the hell your exam is. They don’t have time to search their records for who did or didn’t write an exam, and they get pissy about it if you ask them to do so. Maybe they’re pissy because I’ve asked them “Where the hell is the exam?”
What if you’re sick or something comes up and you don’t write your exam at Accessibility Resources after all? One thing’s for sure: I don’t know about it. Accessibility Resources doesn’t call or email me to say that you didn’t show up. All I know is that I don’t have your exam. This is bad when it comes to midterms, but it’s even worse for final exams. Say you miss a final exam for a legitimate reason. You do what you’re supposed to do: go to your Faculty office and apply for a deferral of the final exam within two working days of the originally scheduled final exam date (NOT the date you write the exam with Accessibility Resources). Great. But in the meantime, I don’t know where the hell your exam is. Do you have it? Does Accessibility Resources still have it? Did you even write it? I don’t know. And I can’t ask Accessibility Resources. (See “pissy” above.) So the pile of final exams from rest the class sits and waits. I would love to process the final grades--students are starting to pester me about why the results haven’t been posted yet--but I can’t, because I’m still waiting for your exam.
(You might be wondering why I don't just go and pick up the exams from the Accessibility Resources exam office myself. I've tried that, several time. One year, I had an impending flight out of the country, so I did not want to rely on students to get the exams back to me. The incident involved multiple exams written at different locations, misplaced exams, and a whole lot of me running back and forth. It did not go well.)
If you do NOT write your exam with Accessibility Resources for any reason (incapacitating illness, severe domestic affliction, religious belief, or you just decided to write it with the rest of the class in the classroom), TELL ME as soon as possible. Email is preferable; this gives me a record that I can refer to, if need be.
If I have sent you an email asking you to read this post, now’s the time for you to send me a reply email acknowledging that you have read and understood this post, and agree to the conditions that I have specified. This is the part that relates to Van Halen. The band wanted a way to ensure that their contract was read all the way through. If there were brown M&Ms, their contract was not read completely. Snopes explains it all. So, if I don't get an email from you, it's like there are brown M&Ms. Thanks.
If I haven’t asked you to read this post, well...
Why aren’t you studying?
(Updated 8/17/2018: updated Accessibility Resources' name.)
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