Your timetable will show whether your exam is an online exam or in-person. For online exams, your timetable will show similar information, but the location will show as ‘online exam’ and the duration will show as 8 hours. An in-person exams will show a specific venue where you will sit the exam.  

If your exam is due to be released for a shorter fixed window or has a restricted time, your School will be in touch to let you know the exact details and format of your online exam.  the window of time the exam is accessible.  Your School may also have special instructions (e.g., set start times, assessment types or choices), relating to your online exam so please keep an eye out for these emails and Blackboard announcements.

If you have had issues accessing Blackboard (with the system being slow), please try the following:

• refresh your Blackboard browser page (using the reload button on the top of your browser); 
• press Ctrl +F5 on your computer (for MAC users Cmd + Shift + R)
• clear your computer cache - visit the DTS website to see how to do this.

If you are still getting error messages, please send a screenshot of this by logging a ticket with the DTS team. They will come back to you as soon as possible to resolve this issue.

Or alternatively call 0118 378 7049 and selection Option 3 and a member of the team will help you with this.

A number of students may qualify for special examination arrangements, and these will be set up for those who are registered with the Disability Advisory service (DAS). These can include extra time or other reasonable adjustments. If you are not registered with DAS and think you may be eligible for special arrangements for medical or other reasons, please contact the DAS straight away - Telephone 0118 378 4202 or email disability@reading.ac.uk.  You will not be given extra time if you are not registered with DAS. 

There is no need to contact us to ask if extra time has been added to your exam, and please note the following:  

For any standard 8-hour online exams, as you have been given 8 hours to complete your exam, this will include any extra time or rest breaks you might need. Extra time will not be added to your 8-hour window and your submission deadline will still be at 17:00 hrs. 

For timed exams (Blackboard tests, Gradescope) or fixed start/finish exams, any rest breaks and special timing arrangements have been included in the time allowed for you to complete the exam, if you are registered with the Disability Advisory Service (DAS). Please take care to submit your work before your given submission deadline.

In most cases, the online exam will be available for 8 hours and your answer(s) must be submitted before 17:00 UK time on the day your online exam opens, unless you have been given a different deadline from your School. Upload time is included within the 8 hours. Any exam submitted after this deadline will be considered late and will not be marked. 

For exams which are time-restricted, and where you are required to upload your answers in a file, an extra 30 minutes will have been added to the total time allowed. This additional time is to allow you to scan any handwritten work and upload your file. As this upload time has been included in the time you have been allocated for this online-exam, work submitted beyond your deadline will be considered late and will not be marked. 

You are responsible for organising your time and should aim to submit your answer(s) as early as possible to ensure your work is submitted prior to the deadline specified for your online exam paper.

If you are having problems with submitting your work before the submission deadline, please:  

email your work to online-exam@reading.ac.uk before the deadline; 

please attach your work as a Word file or PDF. Do NOT provide a link to a file as we are unable to process via this method.  

please use the following text in your subject line and ensure you include your module code so that we can prioritise your submission: “Submission of online exam {module code}”. 

We will upload your work for marking if this has been sent to us before the deadline and in the correct format. Please do not send us multiple emails.  

Read more on Blackboard.

As online exams do not have late penalties, if you have not been able to submit your work by your given deadline (either by submitting on your submission point or by sending this to us), then your work cannot be marked and therefore you will receive a mark of zero for this exam.  

If you believe that your performance in examinations has been affected by an exceptional circumstance in the Summer Term (or resit period), or if you have missed one or more examinations due to an exceptional circumstance, you may be able to submit a Post Results Exceptional Circumstances (PREC) form following publication of results. Further detailed information can be found on Essentials.

You do not need to take any further action and you will not be penalised for omitting this on your submission for an online exam. Please do not email us to let us know you have forgotten this. However, for in-person exams you will absolutely need to provide your candidate number on your answer sheets.  

For future online exams please make sure you do add this to your work. The exam timetable shows your candidate number which is a 5-digit number that you write on each exam answer that you use. The number is unique to you for the current academic session and means that your exams can be marked anonymously. Each year you will have a different candidate number.

You do not need to take any further action and you will not be penalised for this on your submission for an online exam. Please do not email us to let us know you have made this mistake. However, for in-person exams you will absolutely need to provide your candidate number on your answer sheets.  

For future online exams please make sure you do add your candidate number to your work. The exam timetable shows your candidate number which is a 5-digit number that you write on each exam answer that you use. The number is unique to you for the current academic session and means that your exams can be marked anonymously. Each year you will have a different candidate number.

You are responsible for ensuring that you have uploaded the right document to the correct exam submission point, and for ensuring that your work has been uploaded successfully by the stated deadline for that exam. 

How you check what you have submitted will depend on the assessment tool used. For details, please see Checking that your submission was successful.

If you are concerned that a submission may not have uploaded correctly, and submission deadline has not passed: 

email your work to online-exam@reading.ac.uk before the deadline;

please attach your work as a Word file or PDF. Do NOT provide a link to a file as we are unable to process via this method.  

please use the following text in your subject line and ensure you include your module code so that we can prioritise your submission: “Submission of online exam {module code}”. 

We will upload your work for marking if this has been sent to us before the deadline and in the correct format.

If you have missed or forgotten to sit an online exam, as your work cannot be marked, you will receive a mark of zero for this exam. 

Please note that online-exams cannot be rescheduled or be granted an extension and late penalties do not apply to exams. 

If you believe that your performance in examinations has been affected by an exceptional circumstance in the Summer Term (or resit period), or if you have missed one or more examinations due to an exceptional circumstance, you may be able to submit a Post Results Exceptional Circumstances (PREC) form following publication of results. Further detailed information can be found on Essentials.