Examinations & Submission Written Work

Examinations

Unless otherwise specified, a take-home examination allows a student to write the examination at a time convenient to the student during the examination period. The examination may be taken up to any 24 hour period between the first day of the examination period and due no later than the set deadline for written work in the applicable term.
In writing a take-home examination, students must not share the exam with any other person or discuss the exam in any other way. This includes whether or not they have written the examination, discussions about the question itself, or any of the instructions. Any inquiries about the exam must go directly to the Records Office. Records Office staff will consult with the instructor as needed.
By submitting an answer, students represent that it is exclusively their own written work, and that they have not consulted with anyone on any aspect of the exam.

Exam Sign-in Process

Upon arriving to your exam room:

Students must submit their TCard to the invigilator at the beginning of the exam so that Invigilators may track attendance.
Once sealed exams have been received, students must follow the invigilator's instructions for choosing a seat according to the seating plan, and then may prepare their workspace and wait quietly for the exam to begin.
At the end of the exam, please wait for the invigilator to dismiss you. When instructed to leave the exam, students will bring all exam materials to the invigilator, at which point students will have their TCards returned to them. Students may leave the exam room once they have received their TCard.

Prohibited Electronic Equipment

Cell phones, smart watches, iPads, external monitors and any communication devises are prohibited in exams. Cell phones and other communication devices are not an acceptable "time-keeping" device during examinations and must be switched off. Communication devices left on the desk during an exam may be confiscated by the invigilator.

Typing of Examinations

The Faculty of Law allows students to type their examinations on their laptops. A more detailed memo setting out the available options and the procedure is sent out from the Records Office at the beginning of each term. Each examination period students are automatically signed up to use ExamSoft and exercise the option of typing exams by the deadline set by the Records Office. Students who wish to write their examinations by hand must register with the Records Office.

Laptop Users: Students who wish to type their exams, must use computers in excellent working condition. The battery should be fully charged, and be able to work for a minimum of three hours. During exams, communication between laptops is disallowed. In the interest of fairness and perceived equality, Students who type their exams on a personal laptop or in a computer lab must use ExamSoft, (security software) and sign an Acknowledgement and Undertaking Form. If computer problems occur during an exam the student will be expected to continue handwriting the examination in examination booklets provided during the exam.

Subject to availability, the Faculty will make an effort to secure a limited number of computers to accommodate only those students who wish to type exams but who do not own their own laptops or whose laptops are incompatible with Examsoft, as determined by the Registrar. If this option is not available, students must handwrite their exams or arrange to borrow a compatible laptop.

Feedback re: Examinations

The Faculty of Law's policy is that students are entitled to review their examinations with the instructor. This review can take the form of an in-class review session (in the case of first-term December tests), written, or oral comments. Students are permitted to see their examination paper or, if they wish, to obtain a photocopy of the examination within a reasonable time after the marks are available through the Records Office. In all cases, instructors will be available to discuss the examination or paper with students within a reasonable time after the marks are released through the Records Office. Students are encouraged to use this resource.

Disability-Related Accommodations

Students with learning and/or physical disabilities may be eligible for accommodations regarding exams. This may include being given extra time, access to special exam-taking software (to address sight impairment), etc. Students requiring accommodations due to disabilities must work with Accessibility Services. This requires making an appointment well before the exam period to ensure that the necessary assessments and recommendations are made.

Please note that the Faculty of Law does not make assessments regarding disability-related accommodations. The Faculty receives recommendations made by Accessibility Services.

Illness During an Examination

Students who become ill during an examination and feel unable to continue writing should inform the invigilator and ask to be excused. Books and examination papers should be left in the examination room and the student should immediately go to the Records Office in the Jackman Law Building, Student Services Hub, 3rd Floor. The Records Office will notify the administration. The Assistant Dean, Graduate Programs will meet with the student to assess the situation and determine how to proceed. If the student is able to complete the examination, any lost time will be added. If you are ill at the time of writing an examination, but are able to complete the examination, you should nevertheless inform the administration in writing at the conclusion of the examination period.

Timing of Exams

Students who have two law school exams scheduled on the same day may ask to have one of them deferred. Exam deferrals are not given for exams scheduled on consecutive days.

Rescheduled Examinations Shortly After the Examination Period

There may be cases (e.g. short-term illness or conflicting obligations over which the student has no control) where a student is unable to write an examination at the scheduled time, but it is possible to reschedule the examination shortly after the examination. For December exams, "shortly after" means January; for April exams it means May. All requests for rescheduled examinations must be made in accordance with the Academic Accommodations and Considerations policy.

Papers & Written Work

Citations

The Faculty of Law has adopted the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, largely devised by the McGill Law Journal, as our citation system. It is usually referred to as the McGill Guide.

Word Count for Written Work

Whenever possible, limitations on the quantity of written work should be expressed in words, not pages. If a limitation is expressed in pages, the word count per page should be approximately 250 words. In counting words, a "word is a word" rule should be applied except for citations. Under the "word is a word" rule, every word counts regardless of length or spacing. However, there is one exception to this principle. Since part of the purpose of writing is to ensure good legal form in terms of citations and footnotes, it is further recommended that each full and formal citation, including all references within the citation, should only count as one word.

Students will be informed, in advance, of any recommended or maximum word limitation and, if a penalty is to be imposed on exceeding the maximum, what that penalty will be.

Cover Page

Students must insert the written work cover page as the first page of their submitted work. Graduate students should use their name and student ID as their identifier.

Submission of Written Work

General Guidelines

1. Students must insert the written work cover page as the first page of their submitted work.

2. Students must save their work as a pdf document (.pdf) with the following file name: COURSE CODE-COURSE TITLE-INSTRUCTOR NAME-IDENTIFIER (ex: LAW212H1-BusinessOrganizations-Yoon-Butterfly).

3. Subject of email must be COURSE CODE-COURSE TITLE-INSTRUCTOR NAME (ex: LAW212H1- BusinessOrganizations-Yoon).

Deadlines of Submission of Written Work

All papers and assignments are to be submitted to the Records Office by email by 4:00 pm on the date(s) set by the professor (unless otherwise instructed by the professor).

Student should not submit assignments directly to the instructor. Each year, the Faculty establishes a final deadline date by which all papers must be submitted. This final deadline date is published in the Sessional Dates.

All written work must be submitted with a cover page.

Students should submit their assignments electronically to the Records Office (assignments.law@utoronto.ca) and the Graduate Programs (gradassignments.law@utoronto.ca), unless instructed otherwise by their course instructors. Students should cc themselves to ensure the file was sent.
Please note that the LLM Seminar or Alternative Approaches use Quercus for the submission of assignments. If you submit your assignments through Quercus you do not need to send them to the Records Office.
Students will submit all typed take-home exams through ExamSoft to the Records Office. Handwritten take-home exams must be submitted to the Records Office by the student writing the exam.
All exams submitted are final. Students will not be permitted to submit any additional work or alternative version. Only the initial submission will be forwarded for grading.
Handwritten take-home exams can be picked up from the Records Office from Monday to Friday between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm (unless otherwise instructed by professor). Exams must be returned to the Records Office by email up to 24 hours after the time it was picked up from the Records Office (depending on the exam instructions).
Students will submit all final papers electronically to the Records Office (assignments.law@utoronto.ca) and the Graduate Programs (gradassignments.law@utoronto.ca). Students should cc themselves to ensure the file was sent. The Records Office cannot answer queries as to the receipt of written work and will contact the student directly if an exam was not received.
All exams/papers submitted are final. Students will not be permitted to submit any additional work or alternative version. Only the initial submission will be forwarded for grading.