Take home exams

An online take-home exam is where you are provided an exam file (like a PDF or Microsoft Word document) containing the questions and/or assessment items you need to answer to complete your exam.

Technology time allowances will be given to most time-limited exams. If you receive technology time allowances, this will be added to your exam timetable in the coming weeks.

How to complete take-home exams

For most of these exams, you need to type and save your answers in another document and then upload this file the same way you submit an assignment. If you are provided with a Word Document, you can use the supplied file for your responses to the exam questions.

Nearly all students will submit their take-home exams through Brightspace. Study Centre students will need to submit their take-home exams via Turnitin (only) as with other assignments.

Time limits for take-home exams

There are two types of time limits that could be used for a take-home exam:

  1. Submission window: you have between 1 and 5 days to submit your completed exam after access.
  2. Time-limited: similar to a normal exam, you will be given a strict start and end time and date to complete your exam. For example, your exam could be available from 9am on Monday 19 October 2020 and you will have 120 minutes to complete it. You will also receive a 10-minute reading time.

Your exam timetable will indicate the time limit set for your exam.

How online take-home exams work

You will access your exam through your Brightspace subject site. There will be an online exams tab added to the left-side navigation which will contain the instructions for how to sit your take-home exam.

Study Centre students will need to submit their take-home exams via Turnitin (only) as with other assignments.

Your exam will include instructions for how to submit or check your exam through Turnitin.

Your Turnitin results will be used to ensure the work you have completed in your exams is your own. If you are found to have plagiarised or copied others’ work, you may face academic misconduct penalties.

You may have previously used this tool to check your assignments for plagiarism or referencing errors.

If you haven’t used this tool before, follow these instructions[PDF] to create an account.

You will be provided a PDF or Microsoft Word document which contains your exam questions. You will then need to type and save your answers in another document and then upload this file to Turnitin.

Upload your file by selecting your school class name, then submit as a single file upload. Check your exam duration so that you know what time you have to submit your exam. If you submit your exam after this time, you will incur a late submission penalty.

More about plagiarism

Preparing for your online take-home exam

Follow these steps to make sure your you're technically set up on the day.

Step 1

See when your exam is scheduled

The time of your online take-home exam will be in your personal exam timetable.

Step 2

Understand how much time you'll have

Check if it will be strict time-limited or if you’ll have a submission window (a period of time) to submit your exam online.

Step 3

Confirm and update your contact details

Check your mobile phone and contact details are up-to-date. This will allow our support team to contact you should there be any technical disruptions on the day of your exam.

Step 4

Check your preparation instructions

Check your Brightspace subject sites with the instructions your subject coordinator will give to help you prepare for your exam.

Step 5

Get ready on the day

Time-limited exam

Be ready at your computer and desk on the day to complete and submit your exam on time. You will also receive a 10-minute reading time.

Submission window exam

You'll have a set number of days to complete your exam. Make sure you complete and submit your exam by the last day of the submission window period.

To avoid any potential issues with losing your work, we recommend having auto-saved enabled if you're using Microsoft Word. Find out how to turn on auto-save for:

Exam support and help