Examinations

This section displays all the information you will need to know about examinations at Makerere University.

Identification during examination

Identification during examination Students must produce their student identification card and or examination permit. Where the identification provided is not clear, additional forms of identity verification may be requested. A student wearing clothing that obscures their face may be asked to remove that clothing for identification purposes in private and before an examination supervisor of the same gender. A student, who fails to comply with a request above, may be refused admission to the examination room.

Do you have a holy day in the middle of the examination period?

Makerere University is a secular institution. It is the official policy of the University that all days in a week are considered working days. Staff and students are expected to conduct or attend lectures and examinations at scheduled times and days. Requests to accommodate a student’s religious creed by scheduling tests or examinations at alternative times shall not be entertained. Students who miss examinations or tests based on religious creed, should inform their respective Deans/ Directors as soon as the timetable is published preferably two weeks before examinations so as to avoid being categorized as being absent without justifiable cause and a course grade of ABS shall be assigned to that Course(s). You are, therefore, urged to respond to the academic work in the faculty/school/institute even if it takes place on the respective days of worship.

Display and Publishing of Results

Normally six weeks after the end of semester final examination session, examination results are published. The results for each semester are published on the Notice Board and also can be obtained in the university webpage using your passwords. If you still do not know your results a week after they are published, you can contact the College/ School Office to get them. Retaking a Course or Courses A student shall retake a Course or Course units when next offered again in order to obtain at least the Pass Mark (50%) if he/she had failed during the first Assessment in the Course or Courses. A student who has failed to obtain at least the (50%) during the second Assessment in the same course he/she has retaken shall receive a warning. A student who misses to sit examinations for justified reasons and he/she is permitted to do the missed examination, the grades obtained from a deferred examination shall not be categorized as a retake because the assessment is for the first time.

Retaking a Course or Courses

A student shall retake a Course or Course units when next offered again in order to obtain at least the Pass Mark (50%) if he/she had failed during the first Assessment in the Course or Courses. A student who has failed to obtain at least the (50%) during the second Assessment in the same course he/she has retaken shall receive a warning. A student who misses to sit examinations for justified reasons and he/she is permitted to do the missed examination, the grades obtained from a deferred examination shall not be categorized as a retake because the assessment is for the first time.

While retaking a course or Courses, student shall: -

Attend all the prescribed lectures/ tutorials/ clinicals/ practical/ field work in the Course or Courses.
Satisfy all the requirements for the Coursework Component in the Course or Courses; and sit for the University Examinations in the Course or Courses.
A student shall not be allowed to accumulate more than five retake Courses at a time. Students are required to register for retakes courses first before registering for new courses offered in that semester and retake courses should fit into the approved normal load to avoid time table clashes.
A final year student whose final Examination Results already been classified by the relevant College/ School Board and has qualified for the Award of Degree/ Diploma/ Certificate, shall not be permitted to retake any course or courses.
When a student has retaken a course the better of the two grades, he/ she has obtained in that course shall be used in the computation of his/her Cumulative Grade Average (CGPA).
Whenever a course or courses has/ have been retaken, the Academic transcript shall indicate so accordingly.
Students who have a course to retake and the course falls beyond the set normal semester load for their Academic Programmes shall pay tuition fees for any Course/ Courses to be retaken. Besides, such students also pay the re-examination fees per course retaken as well as the Registration Fees.

Normal Progress

Normal Progress shall occur when a student has passed the Assessments in ALL the Courses, he/she had registered for in a particular semester and not when he/she has passed the Assessments in the Core Courses only.

Probationary Progress?

A student who has obtained the cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of less than 2.0 shall be allowed to progress to the next semester/ academic year but shall still retake the Course(s) he/she had failed the Assessments in later on and obtain at least the Pass Mark (50%) in the Course(s).

Who is permitted to sit semester examinations?

Only registered students are permitted to sit University examinations. A student who doesn’t pay all required University fees will not be permitted to sit the University examinations. The examination results of any student who has sat the examinations without being registered shall be nullified. Students are nullified. Students are strongly warned against this.

Certificate of Due Performance

Any student whose attendance at prescribed lectures, classes, practical classes, seminars, tutorials or clinical instructions has been unsatisfactory or has failed to submit essays or exercises of to take tests class examinations set by his/her lecturers, may be denied the certificate of Due Performance and may be barred by Senate from sitting any University Examinations.

A student who fails to honor the dead-line set for handing in an assignment without justifiable causes shall receive a score of a zero or fail grade in that assignment. It is, therefore, important that you attend all prescribed lectures, classes, and seminars and submit coursework assignments.

What if I am ill during the exam or revision period?

If you are all or anything similarly catastrophic happens this can obviously make a big difference to your performance, whether or not you manage to attend all your exams. It is essential that you let us know as soon as possible. Students who fall ill during the academic year and have cause to believe that their illness is of such gravity that it might affect their performance in the subsequent examinations, must at the material time of their illness furnish the relevant Principal/ Dean’s and the Academic Registrar’s Offices with written reports of their sickness from the University Hospital. You should get a Doctor’s Note, and contact us while you are still ill if possible, as we need to get some idea of how badly you are affected.

Medical reports which are secured after failure in exams and without previous record of the illness referred to the relevant college/ school office and Academic Registrar’s Office shall not be accepted as valid ground for review of the examinations of the students concerned.

Absence from Examination

If the Board of a College/School is satisfied that a student has no justifiable reason for having been absent from a particular examination, such a student shall receive a Fail (F) Grade for the Courses he/she had not sat the examination in. The Courses in which the Fail (F) Grade was/ were awarded shall also count in the calculation of the CGPA.

If the board of a college/ school is satisfied that a student was absent from coursework assessment and or a final examination due to justifiable reasons such as sickness or loss of a parent/ guardian, then a Course Grade of ABS shall be assigned to that Course(s).

Deferred Examinations

It is essential that you let us know what happened if you miss an examination.

A student who provides credible reason for failure to complete coursework assessment or to attend an examination based on above may be permitted to sit the deferred examination or coursework assignment when the course is being offered again.

A student who needs to defer an examination must submit application to his/her respective Principal/ Dean’s Offices. The application and supporting documentation pertaining to the absence must be presented as soon as the student is able, having regard to the circumstances underlying the absence but not later than the beginning of the semester in which the examination is scheduled. Where the cause is incapacitating illness, a student must present a University Hospital Medical Statement Form. In other cases, including severe domestic affliction, adequate documentation must be provided to substantiate the reason for an absence.

In the case of an approved application for the deferred final examination, the Dean or Principal of the student’s College/ School will inform the Head of Department responsible for the course of the approved deferred examination. The Department will then notify the lecturer concerned.

A deferred examination will not be approved if a student hasn’t been in regular attendance in a course, where attendance means having completed less than half of the assigned work.

Deferred examination will be inclined in a student’s maximum Semester load. A student with two or more deferred examinations outstanding from a previous semester maybe required to reduce the number of courses in which they are registered in order to accommodate deferred courses from previous semesters.

The grades obtained from a deferred examination shall not be categorized as retake because the assessment(s) is for the first time.

A student shall be required to pay appropriate fee for deferred examination and payment shall normally be made at the beginning of the semester.

Discontinuation / Dismissal

When a student accumulates three consecutive probations based on CGPA of less than 2.00 for three (3) consecutive semesters, he/she shall be discontinued. A student who has failed to obtain at least the Pass Mark (50%) during the third Assessment in the same course or courses he/she had retaken shall be discontinued from his/her studies at the university. A student who has overstayed himself or herself in indiscriminate hooliganism.

Pass Mark and earning of Credits in a Course.

Each student shall earn credits for all the courses specified in the Programme Load for graduation. A Credit shall be earned when a student has obtained at least the undergraduate programmes Pass mark (50%) in each course he/she had been assessed in. In otherwards, no credit shall be earned in a course in which a student has failed the assessment. If you have achieved 50% in a course you will not be asked to retake that course

Academic misconduct

Students are strongly warned against any form of Examination Malpractices/ irregularities. It shall be an offence for a student/ candidate to get involved in examination malpractices. Misconduct includes but not limited to the following actions:

Cheating is defined as any illegitimate behaviour designed to deceive those setting, administering and marking the assessment.
Cheating in a university assessment is a very serious academic offence, which may lead ultimately to expulsion from the university. Cheating can take one of a number of forms including;
Taking into exam venue, or possessing whilst in the room, any books, notes or other material which has/have not been authorized.
Writing notes on yourself or having notes on your person.
Having notes written in your identity documents or authorized examination materials e.g. logarithm table.  Accessing information written or stored on electronic equipment.
Copying from another student in the examination.
Aiding or attempting to aid another candidate, or obtaining or attempting to obtaining or attempting to obtain aid from another candidate.

Passing yourself off as another.

Such repeated behaviour as may in the view of the invigilator prejudice the performance of other candidates.

The use of unauthorized books, notes, electronic aids or other materials in an examination. Obtaining an examination paper ahead of its authorized release.

Collusion, i.e., the representation of another’s work or ideas as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgement or referencing, where the owner of the work knows of the situation and both work towards the deceit of a third party (while in plagiarism the owner of the work does not knowingly allow the use of his or her work).

Acting dishonestly in anyway including fabrication of data, whether before, during or after an examination or other assessment so as either obtain or offer to others an unfair advantage in that examination or assessment.

Plagiarism this is the act of representing another’s work or ideas as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgement or referencing.

There are three main types of plagiarism which could occur within all modes of assessment (including examinations).

Direct copying of text from a book, articles, fellow student’s essay, handout, thesis, webpages or other source without proper acknowledgement.
Claiming individual ideas derived from a book, article etc. as one’s own, and incorporating them into one’s work without acknowledging the source of these ideas.
Overly depending on the work of one or more others without proper acknowledgement of the source, by constructing an essay, project etc. by extracting large sections of the text from another source, and merely linking these together with a few of one’s own sentences. (Colleges/ schools may extend these definitions for specific subject areas and provide students with examples as appropriate).

The correct referencing system for making quotations explicit and acknowledging sources shall be available through personal tutors or supervisors, specific tutorial sessions.

Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success. – Denis Waitley