Exam Policies

General information about Law School examinations is shown below. For more detail regarding exam rules, policies, or procedures, please refer to the Student Handbook. For questions that the Student Handbook fails to answer, contact the exam coordinator at 415-369-5201 or lawexam@ggu.edu.

A unique exam number is generated every term for every student enrolled in the Law School. Exam numbers are used for exam administration and grading to ensure anonymity. Only one exam number is provided per term, so students should treat their numbers as confidential throughout the term. They should reveal them neither to their professors nor to their fellow students. Before discussing graded midterms with professors, students should be sure to remove their exam numbers from their exams and score reports.

Exam numbers are available via GGU4YOU within 24 hours of a student's registration for a given term. Students are expected to bring their exam numbers to all of their proctored exams, but exam numbers will also be available prior to the exam from exam proctors. Students will also need their exam numbers in order to claim final exams and/or papers after the end of the term.

All students are eligible to take their exams by laptop. No additional registration or fee is necessary, but the software must be installed prior to the student's first exam date. For minimum system requirements, go to https://www.examsoft.com/ggulaw. Installation and login instructions will be posted in Law School News and on the Law School website. All other communications will be sent through the email address on file with the Law Registrar. Please confirm that this address is working and correct. For any questions or technical assistance, please contact the exam coordinator at 415-369-5201 or lawexam@ggu.edu.

ExamSoft usage authorizes GGU to release personally identifiable information such as name, exam number, GGU student ID number, and course schedule information to ExamSoft Worldwide Inc., which provides the laptop-based exam services. Students who do not want this information to be provided to ExamSoft will not be able to use the software to type their essay answers.

ExamSoft can be used on Windows PCs and on Macs. Minimum system requirements are available at www.examsoft.com/ggulaw.

Visiting Students: All visiting students should contact the exam coordinator if they wish to use their laptops on exams while at Golden Gate University School of Law.

For any questions or technical assistance, please contact the exam coordinator at 415-369-5201 or lawexam@ggu.edu.

• Students who wish to use ExamSoft must be able to establish a connection, wired or wireless, to GGU's network. If for whatever reason a computer cannot connect to GGU's network, that computer cannot be used for exams.
• Certain computers may not be compatible with ExamSoft. Please review the Minimum System Requirements at www.examsoft.com/ggulaw. In addition to these minimum requirements, as noted above, a student's laptop must be able to connect to Golden Gate University's network. ExamSoft compatibility questions should be directed to ExamSoft Technical Support at 1-866-429-8889 or support@examsoft.com.
• Student use of ExamSoft for law school exams is a privilege and not a right. The Law School cannot guarantee that students will be able to use ExamSoft on any given exam. If ExamSoft does not function correctly before or during an exam, students are expected to hand-write their answers in blue books. Students who experience technical difficulties will not be allowed extra time to complete an exam.
• Students use ExamSoft at their own risk. Students are responsible for ensuring that the ExamSoft installation process is completed and that the software is functioning properly before they enter the examination room. If ExamSoft experiences a catastrophic error that results in the loss of exam files, students, at the instructor's and/or the Dean of Student Services' discretion, must re-take an exam for the course.

On the day of the exam students must:

1. Bring whatever computer accessories are necessary (power cord, ethernet cable, etc.).
2. Arrive at least 20 minutes prior to the exam start time to set up their computers.
3. Be prepared to hand-write their answers in blue books if they experience problems with ExamSoft.
4. Achieve the ExamSoft "STOP" screen at least five minutes before the start of the exam.

An exam schedule is published with the course schedule for each term. At the beginning of each exam day, room assignments are posted on the whiteboards in the second- and third-floor elevator lobbies. Because exam dates and times are subject to change, students should consult the exam schedule online just before the final exam period. Students with physical or learning disabilities who need accommodations for exams should contact the Law Student Services ADA program coordinator at the start of the term at 415-442-7867 or lawds@ggu.edu. LLM and SJD students who want language accommodations must submit Request for Language Accommodations forms to the exam coordinator by the applicable deadline (usually the end of the second week of the term). Advance rescheduling of exams is available only under certain circumstances. To obtain permission to reschedule an exam, students must submit Exam Reschedule Petition forms to the exam coordinator by the applicable deadline. Students must not attempt to contact an instructor regarding a request to reschedule an exam. All questions regarding reschedules must be directed to the examination coordinator.

Should an emergency arise and an exam reschedule become unavoidable, students must contact the exam coordinator at 415-369-5201 or lawexam@ggu.edu before the exam is scheduled to begin. Students may request the return of their graded final exams, final papers, and take-home exams by submitting a Blue Book/Paper Claim form to the Law School Registrar's Office. Students will need their exam numbers and their course and section information in order to complete the form. All of this information is available via GGU4YOU.

Blue books and papers for a given term will not be available for distribution until all of the grades for that term have been recorded, usually at least a month after the end of the term. Once distribution begins, it will be announced on the whiteboards in the second- and third-floor elevator lobbies.

Because requests can take up to a week to process, and because of the volume of exams, the Registrar's Office greatly appreciates forms that are submitted well in advance. Forms may be submitted before the announced distribution date and will be held for processing until later. All unclaimed exams and papers will be destroyed one year after the end of instruction for the term.