Exams: Accommodations, Makeups and Proctoring

Exam season brings jobs most TAs have not done before: arranging accommodations, proctoring a room, writing a makeup, and noticing something that looks like cheating. This page collects how each one works at UMass and what you should do. The short version: your instructor decides; you carry it out carefully and write things down. Your instructor's rules for the course come first; where this page and your course differ, follow your course and ask.

Defaults that work. If you only take four things from this page:

Accommodations are decided by Disability Services, not by you or the student. You carry out what the letter says, and you ask your instructor when it is unclear.
Get the logistics in writing a week ahead: where each accommodated student takes the exam, who proctors, and when the exam goes to the Exam Proctoring Center.
Never accuse anyone in the room. Write down what you saw and tell the instructor the same day.
A makeup is a different exam of the same difficulty, graded with the same rubric.

Accommodations

Who decides?

Disability Services (DS) decides each student's accommodations with the student, through an Access Coordinator and a review committee. Instructors and TAs do not decide them, do not ask why a student has them, and do not see a diagnosis. An accommodation is active once the student sends their Faculty Accommodation Letter through Clockwork, DS's online system, each semester. The instructor gets an email and reads the letter in Clockwork.

If a student asks you directly for extra time or a separate room, the answer is kind and short: "Please send your accommodation letter through Clockwork, and I'll make sure we follow it. If anything is unclear, the instructor will sort it out with you."

Where does the student take the exam?

For each exam, the student and instructor agree on one of two places:

In the department. The course gives the exam with the accommodations, for example extended time in a quiet room with a course proctor. DS relies on courses to give most quizzes this way.
At the Exam Proctoring Center (EPC), 420 Goodell. The student books it in Clockwork at least 5 business days ahead, at a time that matches or overlaps the class. The booking is tentative until EPC staff confirm it.

The EPC is open Monday and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Tuesday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and an exam, with its extended time, has to end before closing. An evening exam, a conflict caused by extended time, or a makeup at the EPC needs the instructor's written permission and a note from the instructor to the EPC coordinator.

Getting the exam to the EPC

Midterms and other exams: by noon the day before. Finals: three days before the finals period.
Upload it in Clockwork or deliver it to 420 Goodell. Anyone picking up completed exams needs a photo ID.
Include the instructions: allowed materials, calculator rules, and how EPC staff can reach the course with a question during the exam.
Faculty contact for exams: dsexams-faculty@umass.edu. DS main office: Goodell 435, (413) 545-0892.

Each term, Disability Services sets a last day for students to book a final at the EPC, a few weeks before finals. Check the date on its Exam Accommodations page and remind your students in section.

Keeping it private

Do not ask the room who has accommodations, and do not discuss arrangements where others can hear. Get the list for your section from your instructor ahead of time. If you want to say something to the room, keep it general: "If you have arrangements for this exam, come talk to me privately."

Proctoring on the day

Know the rules before you walk in: allowed materials, the bathroom policy, how to answer questions (to everyone, or only clarifications), and what to do when time is up.
Count the exams out and back in. The numbers should match.
Spread students out or assign seats, and have phones off and out of sight.
Walk the room, including the back rows, and keep your own laptop closed. Proctoring is a job, not time to grade.
Post the time remaining on the board and update it.
Answer questions the same way for everyone. If one student finds a real error, announce the correction to the whole room and write it on the board, and tell any proctors elsewhere (including the EPC).

If you suspect cheating

At UMass, a graduate TA who suspects academic dishonesty must report it to the instructor of record, and no grade may be given on suspicion alone. The instructor, not the TA, contacts the student and decides what happens. In the room:

Do not accuse anyone on the spot. First make a general reminder to the whole room: "Eyes on your own paper, phones away."
If it continues, quietly move the student to another seat and note on their exam where they were when you moved them.
Write down what you saw right away: the time, the seat, what happened, and who else saw it.
Tell the instructor the same day and hand over your notes. Then leave it with them.

Cheating under the UMass policy includes unauthorized materials, unauthorized generative AI, unauthorized help or collaboration, and taking an exam for someone else.

Makeups

When a makeup is required

Religious observance. Under Massachusetts law, students are excused from exams for religious observance. The instructor accepts the student's statement and offers a makeup with no fee and no penalty. Students should give written notice as early as possible, and at least a week before.
Final exam conflicts. No student should have more than two finals in one day. With three or more in a day, the instructor of the middle exam gives the makeup, if the student gave two weeks' notice. With two exams at the same time, the course with the higher final digits of its class number gives the makeup. Students report conflicts with the Final Exam Conflict form in SPIRE.
Evening exams run 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, and students with a conflict are entitled to a reasonable makeup.
Illness and other absences. The university asks instructors to give reasonable help making up missed work and lets them ask for documentation. Beyond that, the course policy decides. Know it before a student asks.

Also: no exam in the last week of classes or reading period, except a non-cumulative exam in a course that also has a final.

Writing and running a makeup

Write an equivalent version: the same topics, format, length and difficulty, with different questions. Change the numbers, the example or the code, not the skill. A small bank of parallel questions, written along with the main exam, makes this quick.
Offer a few fixed makeup times rather than scheduling each student separately.
For quizzes given across several sessions, use versions or a question pool, collect every copy, and ask students not to discuss the quiz until every session is done.
Grade makeups with the same rubric, ideally by the same grader as the main exam, and record any adjustment the same way for everyone.
Keep makeup copies secure, and check with your instructor before any score is changed.