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 make-up 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.

Approved examination periods are as follows:

7:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m.
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
12:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m.
3:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
8:00 p.m. –10:00 p.m.

While examination periods are scheduled for a two-hour duration, instructors are not required to use the full two-hour period. Please see Examination Length below.

Department administrators will collect final exam information from primary course instructors and submit during the final exam needs submission period which begins in July for fall courses, in November for spring courses, and in April for summer courses. Department administrators will be notified via email when the submission period begins.

Departments must submit exam needs for all undergraduate-level courses, including those that do not need a final exam. 

Instruction for how to submit final exam needs are found on the Exams Administration page on the MAUI Help Site.

Instructors can choose from the following classroom needs:

No Registrar-Scheduled Classroom Needed

This indicates that the exam will either have no classroom assigned (i.e., an online exam) or the department will be assigning a department-controlled space for the exam. If the department-controlled space is known at the time of submission, it can be entered in the Special Needs field and added to the exam assignment. 

Registrar-Scheduled Classroom with Single Seating Preferred

This indicates that a university classroom needs to be assigned at single seating, or one seat per student. For example, if a course has 35 students enrolled, a 35 seat or larger university classroom will be assigned.

Registrar-Scheduled Classroom with Double Seating Preferred

This indicates that a university classroom needs to be assigned at double seating, or two seats per student. For example, if a course has 35 students enrolled, a 70 seat or larger university classroom will be assigned. This allows students to be spaced out in the classroom.

Instructors can choose from one of three exam duration options: 60, 80, or 120 minutes. Previously, all final exams were scheduled for 120 minutes by default. See Final Exam Duration Options for more information.

Classrooms will still be reserved in two-hour blocks to maintain consistency and minimize scheduling conflicts. All exams will begin at the beginning of the assigned time block. 

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

Special needs should include any additional information we will need to know to schedule the final exam. It is the instructor's responsibility to communicate any special needs to their department administrator during the final exam needs submission period.​

Special needs may include: seating type needs (tables and chairs), special technology and/or equipment needs, classroom type needs (TILE, computer lab, room with chalkboards), combined exams with different course numbers, department room (if known), sections that need to test on the same day or during the same period, or anything else related to the physical classroom space.​

Please note:​

• Special needs communicated after the schedule is built will be taken under consideration but are not guaranteed, especially where student conflicts will be created

• Specific room/building requests will be taken under consideration but are not guaranteed

• Specific time/date requests will not be taken under consideration unless there are special extenuating circumstances (DEO and dean’s office approval will be required). This information should be included in the exam needs with approval being emailed to reg-exams@uiowa.edu

• Extended time exams (exams longer than 2 hours) will not be assigned without DEO and dean’s office approval​

Please be aware that by submitting incomplete or no information, you may be tying up exam resources which are needed by others. If no information is submitted for an undergraduate-level course, a final exam date and time with single seating will be automatically assigned. Please indicate that no exam assignment is needed if the course will not hold a final exam. 

Requests made after the schedule has been published will require written approval from the chair/DEO and the dean of the department responsible for the course. All requests must include the curricular justification for the late addition or release. Course sections granted final exam assignments after the schedule has been published are responsible for administering makeup final exams regardless of exam precedence rules.

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.

Faculty will have the opportunity to review their final exam assignments prior to campus-wide publication during the fall and spring semesters. Change requests should be submitted during the designated review period for consideration. Requests made after the schedule is published will require departmental approval and may not be accommodated.

No review period will be offered for summer sessions due to the compressed scheduling timeline.

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. Students must speak with their instructor directly for make-up examination requests.

The final exam schedules for fall and spring semesters are published in the fifth week of the semester (mid-September for the fall semester and mid-February for the spring semester). The final exam schedule for the summer session is published on the first day of summer classes.

Until the final examination schedule has been published and all make-up 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. 

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 on the Exam Conflicts page.

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

The Carver College of Medicine and the College of Dentistry, Law, and Pharmacy maintain their own final exam schedules and generally do not follow the final exam schedule set by the Office of the Registrar. However, some departments offer courses that allow undergraduate student enrollment. You can request a final exam assignment from the Office of the Registrar for these course sections in order to reduce the likelihood of exam conflicts for undergraduate students. This can potentially help limit the need for make-up final exam arrangements by your instructors.

Visit the Exam Conflicts page for information on final exam conflicts, precedence rules, make-up and missed exams policies.

The standard practice of the University of Iowa Facilities Management Department is to immediately stop construction when that work disturbs an examination in progress. The faculty member in charge of the examination should promptly report such problems to FM@YourService (319-335-5071) or to the construction workers, asking them to contact the project's construction manager for further instructions.

View the Policy for Final Exam Week Reservations on the University Classrooms website.