Instructors administering final exam week/day activities are required to use the date, time, and location, if applicable, as assigned by the Office of the Registrar. This applies to both undergraduate and graduate level courses. 

Only final examinations and makeup final examinations are to be given during final examination week or on final examination days. Review sessions will be allowed prior to a course section’s assigned final examination date and time, provided classroom resources are available.

Examination periods are two hours in length and are as follows:

7:30 am - 9:30 am
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

While examination periods are scheduled for a two hour duration, instructors are not required to use the full two hour period.

The final exam schedules for fall and spring semesters are published the fifth week of the semester. The final exam schedule for summer session is published on the first day of summer classes.

Until the final examination schedule has been published and all makeup final examination arrangements have been completed by faculty, faculty and students should be prepared to be on campus until the last exam period of final exam week/day. 

When a final examination date and time are assigned to a course section, the goal is to minimize the number of qualified exam conflicts (direct or more than two exams scheduled on the same exam day) for the students. Dates and times are not assigned based on personal instructor/student preferences, what has been assigned in past semesters, or a course section's regular course meeting time throughout the semester.

When a university classroom is assigned to a course section for a final examination, the goal is to best utilize limited classroom resources. Classroom Scheduling reserves the right to reassess final examination room assignments to address any unforeseen classroom or course examination needs. These situations may include, but are not limited to, enrollment issues, building mechanical issues, malfunctioning technology equipment, and other similar events.

Under University examination policies, students are permitted to make up exams missed as a result of illness, mandatory religious obligations (in accordance with the university's policy on religious holidays), or other unavoidable circumstances like a death in the immediate family, jury duty, or mandatory military obligations.

Please see the Makeup Examinations page for information on qualified student exam conflicts and exam precedence rules.

Once the final exam schedule has been published, all final exam assignment requests and changes require written approval from both the department chair (DEO) and collegiate associate dean (dean's office). All requests must include the curricular reason/rationale for the requested change. Approval should be emailed to reg-exams@uiowa.edu. Please note that even when approval has been secured, it may not be possible to accommodate exam change requests due to excessive student conflicts and/or a scarcity of classroom resources.

Change requests must be submitted using the Final Exam Assignment Change Request form. Only faculty and staff are permitted to use this form.

If you are requesting a final exam longer than two hours for your course, approval from the departmental DEO/chair and dean's office is required. Approval will need to be emailed to reg-exams@uiowa.edu before any scheduling will occur.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has additional policies on the administration of final exams. For more information, please visit the CLAS Examination Policies and Best Practices page.

No formal final examination schedule is created by the Office of the Registrar for the winter session. Final examinations during this session are to be administered before the official end of the session. Examinations may occur either during the regularly scheduled course meeting time or at a time determined by the instructor in consultation with the students enrolled in the course. Examination conflicts should be handled using the precedence rules outlined in the Midterm or During Term Course Exam Schedule Conflict policy.