Exams
There is no specific exam period at the end of each term. Exams are held throughout the academic year.
Students are given 2-4 hours (depending on the extent of course) time to answer the questions. Students are not allowed to bring any books or other material unless there is an agreement with the examiner. Dictionaries are not allowed in exams unless specifically noted. Questions are usually essay type of questions, but short answer-questions and multiple-choice-questions can also be used. Sometimes written exams can be held as take-home exams.
There are two types of written exams:
Course exams are held after the completion of a course. The lecturer will inform the students of the date, time and place of the exam. There are at least two possible dates, so that one can try again if one fails the first exam. The first is usually held within two weeks after the lectures end and the second within a month. Advance registration is usually not required for course exams.
General exams for each faculty are
held once a month. On these days, a student can take a book exam based on
individual study of a set of books or other materials from the course catalogue.
Please note that when registering student must select the books he/she is
planning to study according to the list provided in the course
catalogue/Weboodi. In general, students need to cover all the selected
books at once. The registration deadline is 10 days before the exam date and egistration must be done through WebOodi student information system.
In the
Faculty of Law written examinations are held on general examination days. Please
see the list of examination days and the examinations which can be
taken on each day on the faculty web pages. The exchange students should,
however, always contact the tutor in charge of the course before taking any
examination in order to negotiate about the required reading and the date and
time for the examination. Please, note that all students are required to
register for the written examinations. This can be done using the specific
registration form at least 10 days before the examination. You should bring the
form to study secretaries or international coordinator in the faculty. Paper
forms can be found in the faculty.
Written Assignments
A variety of written assignments are used in Finnish universities.
There are basically three different types of written assignments:
lecture journals, learning journals and essays. Please note that
requirements for assignments may vary from faculty to faculty.
A lecture journal should bring out the essential contents of
the lectures together with students own comments. Additional questions
and well-founded contemplations should be included in it. In other
words, a lecture journal should always be more than just a copy of
lecture notes in a narrative form.
Lectures should be commented and evaluated critically. Additional
literature, articles and other materials can also be used to help to
comment the lectures.
A learning journal is a process where the student writes down
the whole learning process during a course. A journal should include the
content of the course and student’s own comments – like in lecture
journal. However, students should also analyse the learning process:
what were the expectations, what was learned, what was difficult, what
are the issues that need to be studied, for example.
An essay is not just a summary of a course or a book. It
should answer the questions set by the student or argue for a statement
or a viewpoint that he/she has posed. For doing this, a student should
use the knowledge gained from the course, lectures, or some other
materials agreed upon beforehand with the teacher responsible for the
course. The problem presentation or originality of the statement, the
ways of arguing for the statement or answers to the posed questions,
credibility and other factors that show independent insight and
originality are the things that count the most in evaluation of an
essay.
Academic writing
Studying at a Finnish university can at times be very different from studying at other universities. Besides differing in teaching methods, (academic) manners and terminology used, various practical matters of the Finnish academic system can take a little while to get familiar with.
That´s why the booklet "General Guidelines for Academic Writing" was created. The
purpose of this booklet is to help new students familiarise themselves with the aspect of academic writing as practiced in the system of study here at the University of Lapland.
This booklet contains basic information about the different types of written assignments; how to format, arrange and technically structure written assignments; and how to correctly cite and use references in ones work. It also includes some general rules about writing in English.
This guidebook will be distributed during the Orientation week. An online version can be found here