Information and rules about exams

GENERAL ASPECTS

In order to take an exam you will first need to register on AlmaEsami. Most exams at EPOS are written tests, but always check with the instructor, who has the discretion to choose a different assessment methods. Successfully passing the exam earns you a specified number of credits. Notice that 1 Italian credit (CFU) = 1 credit from the European credit system (ECTS).

Exams are graded on a scale of 30 points and the passing grade is 18/30. A failing grade (< 18/30) means you will not earn the credits. Though such negative evaluation will appear on AlmaEsami, there it will not appear on your final transcript and it does not affect your average EPOS grade at the time of graduation. Even if you pass the exam, you can reject the grade one time and redo the exam at a later time. Students who earn a score of 30/30, are eligible to be awarded honours (cum laude) at the discretion of the instructor.

CALENDAR

For all courses, students will have 3 possibilities per year to sit an exam. Each exam session is called “appello.” We strongly recommend that you take the exam immediately after the course lectures in order to obtain the required credits in a timely fashion and in the most appropriate order.

In lieu of a comprehensive exam covering material from the entire course (called “full exam”), some professors opt to break it up into two exams (one mid-course and one at the end of the course), each covering half the course material. They are called respectively “midterm” and “final”.

For courses comprising 40 or less hours, the midterm is not usually available, although it may be, depending on the assessment method chosen by the instructor.

In order to better organize their workload, for the mandatory courses comprising 60 or more hours, the students will have the opportunity to take the exam in two steps through a midterm and a final. Here is an overview of a student's options for those courses:

Instructors will always offer the possibility to take the full exam in each of the three exam sessions (appelli). In addition, students who have successfully passed the midterm will also have the possibility to take only the final (covering the second half of the course material) in at least one exam session, usually in the first appello (1).

To better clarify the options available to the student, consider some specific situations. If the student takes a midterm and fails, then she will have to take the full exam. If the student successfully passes the midterm but fails the final in the exam session 1, she will always have to retake the full exam in exam a later session.