Exams Are a Learning Experience
The University of Metaphysical Sciences views exams not only as a tool
to evaluate your knowledge of the materials presented in the courses,
but as a learning experience in itself. When you take an exam, you may
feel free to open other windows to review course materials and look up
answers. In this sense, exams are all "open book."
Exam Layout
The first part of each online exam consists of multiple-choice and
true-false questions. You may take an exam
three times in order to achieve a score of 80% or better. At
the end of each "take" you will be informed of your score, though
the system will not tell you which answers are correct and which are
incorrect. This is part of your studying and learning experience.
When you retake an exam, you may change your answers according to
further study of the course material. If you are unable to achieve
a score of 80% or better in three takes, your exam will be locked
and you will be required to initiate an exam dialog with the UMS
staff so that we may know how to assist you in your continued
learning process. The staff member will have the option of unlocking
your exam so that you can take it again.
Some exams have a second part consisting of short answer questions.
The answers you type in here are subjective and there are no strictly
right or wrong answers. The short answer sections will be looked over
by a UMS staff member who will either grant you a passing grade or
initiate a dialog with you concerning further work needed. The main
thing the staff member will be looking for is that your short answers
are sincere and well thought out.
Studying
There is a "Show the Exam" button at the top of every online exam page.
We recommend clicking that button and printing out the exam. Use this
as a study aid, circling the correct answers as you go along. This will
make it easier when you take the exam online.
Important Note:
The online exams differ slightly in content from the old exams
downloaded or emailed in Word format. If you are going to take the
exam online, you should study using the online format under the
"Show the Exam" button, and NOT from an old exam in Word document
format that you may have downloaded or received in email.
Submitting Your Exam
Once you have achieved a score of 80% or better on the multiple-choice
true-false section of the exam, and have answered any short answer
questions the exam might have, you will be able to submit your
exam to the system for final grading.
Final Grading and the Exam Dialog
After your exam has been submitted, a UMS staff member will look it
over and assign a grade of either pending or pass. Pending is a
temporary grade issued when a bit more is needed on your part. The
staff member will initiate an exam dialog with you asking further
questions or making comments requiring your response. You will be
notified in email when an exam dialog has been initiated or updated.
The email will contain a link that will take you back to the exam
page where you can respond to the dialog. Once the UMS staff is
satisfied with the dialog, your pending status will be changed to
pass and the course will show as complete on your transcript.
The exam dialog can be initiated at any time by you or a UMS staff
member. We welcome your comments as well as your questions
concerning the exam or your exam-taking experience. However,
please keep comments constructive and short so as not to provide
our staff with too much extra work.
The exam dialog system is governed by a "who responded last" method
of determining whether UMS staff attention is needed. When the last
response is yours, a UMS staff member will be alerted to read and
answer the dialog. For this reason, please do not add a note of
"Thank you," etc., after a UMS staff member has responded,
as this will alert us again that further response is needed. We
trust that all correspondence in the dialog will be performed in
a spirit of honesty and gratitude on both ends at all times.
Email Notification
When you have passed an exam, you will be notified by email with a
letter of congratulations that will give you a final copy of your
corrected exam and also confirm your course is complete.
Honor System
You are On Your Honor:
-
To study all the materials for a course thoroughly before
taking an exam for that course. This includes listening to any audio
materials and spending time experiencing and practicing any meditations
required.
-
Please do NOT share your exam answers with ANYONE. This includes
other students and anyone not enrolled at UMS.
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