Summary
- You can submit your remote Inspera exam attempt up to 29 minutes and 59 seconds late in Inspera during late submission time.
- If you submit during late submission time, your work will be accepted and marked. A late submission penalty will be applied to your mark and it will be recorded as late on your assessment record.
- You can ask for your late submission penalty to be removed, but only if your exam was submitted late because you had an extraordinary technical failure either:
- during your file preparation and upload time if you had files to upload, or
- when you pressed ‘Submit now’ if your exam did not need you to upload any files.
- Your request will be considered by an academic panel, and you will need to provide appropriate evidence that the failure happened before the exam deadline.
- Late exam submission applies to remote Inspera exams only.
Submitting an exam after the deadline
To finish and submit your exam attempt in Inspera you must press ‘Submit now’.
If you miss your remote Inspera exam’s deadline, you can still submit your exam attempt in Inspera up to 29 minutes and 59 seconds after the final deadline. This is called late submission time. If you submit during this time, your work will be accepted and marked, and a late submission penalty will be applied to your mark. You should not email your attempt documents separately.
From 30 minutes after the final deadline you will not be able to submit any part of your exam. Your attempt will be recorded as a non-submission (shown as 0NS on your assessment record. Attempts will not be accepted by any other route, with no exceptions – your department or the Exams Helpline will not be able to accept your attempt.
There is information available on what to do if you do not submit your exam by the end of late submission time, and what to do if you successfully submitted your exam, but your actual attempt was affected by unexpected issues.
All exams are set with sufficient time to attempt and submit your exam, providing no significant technical failures are encountered. Late submission time is not extra time to work on your exam – this is set in your exam work time (the time you should spend working on answering your exam questions). If you have to finalise and upload files to Inspera, you may also be allocated file preparation and upload time. These times are shown on your exam instruction sheet and on the Exam Schedule. Because of this:
- Once you press ‘Submit now’, your exam attempt ends. You cannot change any of your files or answers.
- You will not be able to replace your files if you forget to submit some (or all) of your files, submit an incorrect file, or your file cannot be opened by the marker because you submitted them in the wrong (or corrupted) format. Your attempt will be marked as submitted.
Late submission penalty
The penalty applied to your mark will depend on how late you submit your exam attempt. A late submission will be recorded on your assessment record:
| Time submitted after final deadline | Penalty | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 second to 4 mins, 59 seconds | 5% reduction of original mark. Marked late against assessment. | A % penalty will not take a passing mark below the pass mark. A % penalty will not be applied to a failing mark but will still be graded as late. |
| 5 minutes to 9 minutes, 59 seconds | 10% reduction of original mark. Marked late against assessment. | A % penalty will not take a passing mark below the pass mark. A % penalty will not be applied to a failing mark but will still be graded as late. |
| 10 minutes to 29 minutes, 59 seconds | Mark capped at no higher than a pass. Marked late against assessment. | The penalty will not take a passing mark below the pass mark. A penalty will not be applied to a failing mark but will still be graded as late. |
From 30 minutes, your attempt will not be accepted and instead will be considered a non-submission. It will be recorded as 0NS. Please note that 0NS is not a penalty and therefore cannot be reviewed.
You can calculate what penalty will be applied to your mark by checking the time you submitted your work in Inspera under 'Archive'. A table confirming how the penalty will be applied to your mark is provided in Appendix 1 of QA16 Assessment, Marking and Feedback.
Please be aware that other factors may also affect your final assessment or unit outcomes, and that marks are provisional until they are confirmed by the Board of Studies.
How will I know if I've missed the deadline?
Inspera will tell you on the screen how many minutes you have left, and when the deadline has passed.
After you submit your exam in Inspera, you can check if your attempt was submitted by clicking on 'Archive' from the main screen. If your exam was late, it will show you how many minutes it was submitted after the deadline. If you have been given extra time due to a DAP, your exam will not show as late if you submitted before the end of your extra time.
Requesting a penalty review
A penalty can only be reviewed if you experienced an extraordinary technical failure that could not have been reasonably prepared for or prevented either:
- during your file preparation and upload time if you had files to upload, or
- when you pressed ‘Submit now’ if your exam did not need you to upload files.
You must provide appropriate evidence of the failure .
If your request is agreed by an academic panel, the penalty will be lifted in full before your mark is considered by the Board of Examiners for Units.
There are no other circumstances that mean you can ask for a penalty to be reviewed. If you missed the deadline because something unexpected and out of your control happened, you can check if an Individual Mitigating Circumstances Claim (IMC) is valid for your circumstances.
If your overall exam attempt was affected in any way you can apply for both the penalty to be reviewed and separately make an IMC claim to your Faculty/School. If your penalty review request is accepted and the penalty lifted, this will not cancel out your IMC request; these are two separate and distinct processes.
The process
- To request a review, you must submit your penalty review request using the online form within two working days of the end of your exam attempt.
- You must provide details of the exam that was affected, the extraordinary technical failure you experienced, and date and time-stamped evidence of the failure.
- Your reason and evidence will be reviewed, and an academic panel will consider your request.
If you have a problem collecting evidence (for example if you need a formal response from your internet provider to prove there was a local service outage), you should still submit your request by the deadline but state when you expect to be able to provide evidence, along with a reason why it is not currently available. You will normally have up to two further working days to submit your evidence.
The panel will accept your request if you have provided sufficient evidence of a valid and extraordinary technical failure that prevented you submitting during file preparation and upload time, or after you pressed 'Submit now'.
You will normally be told if your request has been accepted by the panel within seven working days of the end of the assessment period.
- If the request is accepted, any penalty will be removed from the mark, including recording your attempt as late.
- If the request is not accepted, the original penalty will stand.
The decision of the panel regarding whether to maintain or remove a penalty is final and the process is then complete. You will not be able to ask for the decision to be reviewed or submit additional evidence at a later point.
Valid reasons to request a penalty review
A valid extraordinary technical failure is one of the following reasons. Your request must be backed up with acceptable evidence:
- Loss of internet/Wi-Fi connection, with an explanation of why no alternative was available
- Unexpected power outage
- Equipment failure
- File upload failed (where it was not due to poor time management)
The table below sets out reasons why you might miss the exam deadline, and whether or not this would be an acceptable reason to request removal of a penalty:
| Reason | Can the penalty be reviewed? | If no, the reason: |
|---|---|---|
| Loss of internet, or very slow internet with no evidence | No | No evidence |
| Loss of internet, or very slow internet with evidence | Yes | |
| File upload to cloud took too long, no evidence of internet issues | No | No evidence |
| Laptop/computer, scanner or phone camera stopped working, no evidence | No | No evidence |
| Laptop/computer, scanner or phone camera stopped working, evidence | Yes | |
| Device began an update that could have been undertaken in advance or rescheduled | No | Students are expected to prepare devices in advance of exam. |
| Loss of access to Inspera, evidence that this was caused by the University | Yes | |
| Inspera would not upload submission, no evidence | No | No evidence |
| Inspera would not upload submission, with evidence (e.g., a video of Inspera not accepting the submission before the final exam deadline) | Yes | |
| General power failure, with no evidence | No | No evidence |
| General power failure, with evidence (e.g., screenshot of issue on power provider’s website) | Yes | |
| Did not press ‘Submit now’ in time to submit exam attempt | No | Not an extraordinary technical reason |
| Could not access online or library/resources | No | Not an extraordinary technical reason |
| Submission of incorrect document or assessment attempt | No | Sufficient time is provided to all students to check files prior to submission. DAPs may add on even more time. (see note below) |
| Submission of file in format not specified on Exam Instruction Sheet | No | Sufficient time is provided to all students to check files prior to submission. DAPs may add on even more time. (see note below) |
| Submission of corrupt file (e.g., 0 bytes, or not able to be opened) | No | Sufficient time is provided to all students to check files prior to submission. DAPs may add on even more time. (see note below) |
| No specific reason | No | Not a technical reason |
| Time-management/lack of digital skills | No | Not a technical reason |
| Ongoing or new health issues (mental and/or physical – e.g., anxiety or flare up of existing physical condition) | No | Not a technical reason (see note below) |
| Non-technical disruption at location the exam was attempted (e.g., family interruption) | No | Not a technical reason (see note below) |
| No evidence provided | No | No evidence |
Notes
- Incorrectly submitted/corrupt file, or a file(s) uploaded in the wrong format cannot be resubmitted after you press ‘Submit now’ and end your exam attempt. It will be marked as is. If a file cannot readily be opened by the marker you will receive no mark for your attempt.
- If you have a known health issue, you must request alternative arrangements in a DAP. If your health unexpectedly affected your exam you may be able to make an Individual Mitigating Circumstances claim if it affected your ability to submit the attempt before the end of late submission time, or in attempting exam itself. An IMC will not remove a late submission penalty.
Questions
If you have any questions about this process, you can contact the Exam Helpline throughout the assessment period. However, it will not be able to advise on the possible outcome of a penalty review, or accept or replace an exam attempt.
For independent advice on IMCs, please contact the SU Advice and Support Centre by emailing suadvice@bath.ac.uk.
Evidence for a penalty review
For your claim, you will need to provide:
- a description of the extraordinary technical failure that prevented you submitting your attempt by the deadline.
- acceptable date- and time-stamped evidence of the technical failure.
Your evidence must prove that you experienced the failure during the file upload and preparation time, or for exams not requiring upload, after pressing 'Submit now' and before late submission time starts. If you start to experience technical issues in the last 5-10 minutes of your exam that may stop you submitting your exam before the deadline you should start to collect evidence.
What format should I use to provide my evidence?
Guidance is provided on how to collect your Evidence for a late submission penalty review
What to do if you did not submit all (or part) of your exam attempt
You won't be able to submit and have marked any part of an exam attempt after the end of late submission time, or outside of Inspera. This includes files that were uploaded incorrectly, were missing or are corrupted.
If you weren't able to successfully submit your exam because of conditions which temporarily prevent you from undertaking an assessment or significantly impair your performance in that assessment, you may be eligible to make an Individual Mitigating Circumstances (IMC) claim.
Please note, it is not possible for an IMC to lead to:
- any work you've not submitted being accepted and marked
- uploaded files being replaced, or additional files being accepted
- a penalty being removed from your mark.
What to do if you submitted your exam but your overall attempt was affected
If you successfully submitted your exam but feel the attempt itself (including preparation) was affected by a significant and unexpected issue, you may be eligible to submit an Individual Mitigating Circumstances (IMC) claim.
You can apply for an IMC alongside requesting a penalty be reviewed.
Please note, it is not possible for an IMC to lead to:
- any work you've not submitted being accepted and marked
- uploaded files being replaced, or additional files being accepted
- a penalty being removed from your mark.