Taking official exams

In each academic year students have three ordinary examination sessions (winter, summer and autumn) in which they can take their exams. The annual number of exam dates and their distribution within exam sessions is decided by each Degree program. As a rule the dates do not coincide with periods in which lectures are held.

Official exams can only be taken after the corresponding courses have ended. The earliest that students can take official exams is the winter session, for courses taught in the first semester of the academic year, and the summer session for courses taught in the second semester of the academic year.

For each Degree program, the evaluation on exams takes into account the results achieved in the semester and verified according to the criteria set by the Professor during the lectures of the relative course (i.e. oral and written tests, midterm exams, individual assignments, group projects, presentation and discussion of papers and case studies, active class participation, etc.).

The recording of the grades will be carried out online, therefore booking examinations is compulsory and unavoidable to take an examination; an examination can be booked through the Web Self Service in the section ‘Examinations - Book examination dates’.

To this end, please remember that:

• in each session the student, whose administrative situation is in order and with the exam appropriately booked, can take all the examinations respecting his approved study-plan, preparatory exams (see prerequisites) and attendance checks;

• students can book their exams - or cancel their exam reservations - within five days of the exam date;
• it is not possible to book at the same time more exam dates for the same course;
• once the deadline passes for booking the examination date - given that reservations cannot be cancelled in the five days before the exam - it is necessary to wait until after the exam date in order to book the next exam for the same course; 
• in case of written and oral exam, both must be reserved (even if they occur on the same day).

The student must come to the exam with:

• an ID;
• a printout of  the examination booking receipt to exhibit to the lecturer on exam date; this receipt is available on the Web Self Service; see the Examinations - Book examination dates section).

Official exam dates are posted in the exam dates section of the personal area of Web Self Service (Examinations -Examination Dates section).

It is reminded that dates are subject to change and it is advised to check always the dates shortly before the exam, what is published through the Web Self Service and to keep that as a reference in scheduling your personal tasks.

If the exam date of interest does not appear on the list, students should contact the appropriate Didactics Office.

Any issue regarding the booking of examinations must be reported to the student office within the examination booking period.

There are currently three types of exams at Luiss:

1.       Written exam followed by an oral exam entailing the recording of the grade

 In case of a written exam to be followed by an oral part which entails the conclusive recording, students will receive an e-mail to their Luiss account asking to view the result of the written part on their web self-service; afterwards the students will have to sit the oral exam on the scheduled exam date and the exam result will be recorded on the career in presence.

2.       Oral exam entailing the recording of the grade

In case of an exclusive oral exam the registration procedure will be completed during the exam with the lecturer.

3.       Written exam only entailing the recording of the grade.

In the case of an exclusive written exam, students will receive an e-mail to their Luiss account and will have three days since the results are published by the professor to check it on their web self-service and, potentially, to refuse the grade. During the three days the written exams can be viewed by agreement directly with the Professor. If students do not refuse the grade within three days since the results are published, the result of the exam result will be permanently recorded in the students’ career.

The students must verify that the result of the exams has been recorded on their Web Self Service.

It is reminded that:

When sitting a written exam, ID must be in full view throughout the exam duration and mobile phones must be turned off. For written exams, a student can leave for the entire duration of the examination, instead for oral exams a student it is possible to leave any time before the final exam grade is recorded. A student who has left or failed an exam may be barred from taking the exam again on the next exam date.

The minimum grade to pass an exam is 18/30 (eighteen out of thirty) and the maximum grade is 30/30 (thirty out of thirty), with a possible cum laude. A failing grade is not expressed numerically.

Breaches of the rules governing the regular holding of official exams are governed by article 39 “Duties of Students” of the University Academic Regulations: barring of the student from one or more exam sessions or temporary suspension of enrolment at the University.

Students are invited to take note of the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Luiss University Students

An exam can be considered as passed only after the registration and its official recording in the career of the student.

A successfully completed, recorded and registered exam with a positive grade cannot be repeated under any circumstances.

The student can at any time examine his/her career in the web self service area.

Prerequisites

An exam is said as a prerequisite in the sense that its notions and its competences are necessary in order to take a subsequent exam.

If a student achieves a positive grade, registers and records in career two exams in the same session, one of which is a prerequisite for the other, both will be considered valid, regardless of the order in which they were taken with the only exception for the Single-Cycle Master's Degree Program in Law for which the respect of the prerequisites rule will be valid also for the same exam session.

Conversely, in case of a failure of the exam, of the registration and of the recording in the student career of a prerequisite exam, with a Provost Decree the first exam taken will be void (for the lack of respect of the prerequisite rule).

For the Political Science and Politics: Philosophy and Economics course the prerequisite rule is abolished.