COMP3425/COMP8410: How the final exam will operate: DRAFT 22 March 2021
Content: All the course material up to and including week 4 is examinable. Week 5 is not
examinable.
Start time: The online exam commences at 6:30pm AEDT (UTC+11) on 31 March 2020
Reading time: None
End time: 90 minutes, from start; 8:00pm AEDT (UTC+11)
Directions:
https://www.anu.edu.au/students/program-administration/assessments-exams/examination-
conduct sets out ANU overarching exam conditions to which you must comply. It also provides
some alternative options where your own equipment or space arrangements are not suitable, and
advice to follow when exam issues occur. You must read this in advance of the exam. Please do not
post questions to the convenor that are answered here.
The exam paper will be distributed to you as a Wattle quiz on the Wattle course site, to be taken
online using your own desktop or laptop computer and internet connection at the advertised time.
The exam will be invigilated over Zoom by ANU staff.
The password to commence the Wattle quiz will be given to you by your exam invigilator at
commencement, both posted on the Zoom chat and by spoken announcement.
The exam is closed-book, except that online viewing of the course materials on the Wattle course
site (and only that) is freely permitted. If you use course material that is linked to the course but
hosted on a remote site, take great care to avoid following links or connections to further material
from those sites. Similarly, if you download to view materials provided on the course site, take
great care to use any such materials only in the form provided. For example, if you download a
course “.csv” file you may open it to view (in the browser if possible) but you must not use other
functions of your viewing software (e.g. Excel formulae or calculations).
You may use a calculator. This may be a locally-installed (not networked) software calculator of your
choice, or it may be desk calculator, programmable or otherwise. A scientific calculator layout is
recommended.
You may use a clock or other timer, either a device specifically for that purpose or locally-installed
(not networked) software. I highly recommend your native system clock. You may use 2 entirely
blank A4 pages of scratch paper for making your own notes and “working out” during the exam. You
must provide the paper yourself, as well as at most 2 pens or pencils to use on the paper. You must
permanently discard any paper you have used immediately after the exam. In case of doubt, entirely
blank means there are no pre-printed or handwritten markings of any kind.
Wattle
Your exam will be a Wattle quiz in the format to which you are accustomed from Weekly quizzes.
Some questions will be manually marked and others auto-marked. Your exam will be submitted
automatically at the earliest of the advertised exam end time and when the exam duration has been
reached since you individually commenced. You are advised to ensure you have only one window or
tab open on the quiz near the end to ensure that your intended version of any open page is
submitted.
Zoom
You must participate in the exam by Zoom for the entire duration using a camera and microphone.
The Zoom will be available for your entry approximately 10 minutes prior to exam commencement.
You will need to have the digital streaming camera showing your face at all times to the Zoom
meeting. A view from the side is acceptable. Normally, it is expected that you would be using a
camera built in to the desktop or laptop computer with which you take your exam, but alternatives,
e.g. a phone camera mounted on a stand, are acceptable. Any such alternative device may be used
only for the purpose of Zoom interaction as required here: no other use of the device is permitted.
You may not touch any such device during the exam unless expressly required for Zoom interaction,
and you should ensure it is connected to a wired power source. If your zoom connection fails during
the exam you should submit the exam and you will be asked to attend a further exam. Digital
backgrounds are not permitted: you must allow the camera to view your surroundings.
Your microphone must be available to Zoom and operational and unmuted for the duration of the
exam. Headphones are not permitted. Exam invigilators will be supervising your exam over the
Zoom meeting and may record the Zoom meeting for the sole purpose of ensuring academic
integrity. You will be in a small shared zoom meeting with a group of other students and a dedicated
invigilator. Your personal zoom link will be made available to you on Wattle prior to the exam.
Your invigilator will, from time to time, ask you to visit a zoom breakout room for a private
conversation. Exam invigilators will ask you, at multiple times during the exam, to show your
identity card to the camera. You must have your ANU ID card handy for that purpose, although
other ANU acceptable identity verification can be sed if necessary. You may also be requested to
show any food or drink to the camera, to explain and/or show your calculator and clock, to show
both sides of your scratch notepaper, and to use the camera to show the room space around you. If
the camera is difficult to move, then that will need to be discussed with the invigilator at the time
and an alternative action may be requested. There is time allowed for this in the exam.
If you require assistance for academic or operational difficulties during the exam you are asked to
post to the Zoom chat. Please use the chat to post privately to your invigilator and not to whole
class. Your invigilator may invite you to a breakout room to discuss if a private chat is not suitable.
During the exam, your invigilator may need to broadcast specific messages to the group as a whole
and will use voice and/or the chat to get your attention if necessary.

You must not, other than as explicitly mentioned above:
 Make any copy or transcription of any of the exam questions or answers either by digital or
traditional means (apart from the required screen recording and your scratch notepaper to
be destroyed).
 Use any Web or Internet resources, locally-installed software, or physical materials.
 Use any digital device including a phone, tablet or additional computer..
 Use headphones.
 Use any physical books or notes, whether prepared by yourself or others.
 Communicate with any person by any method, digital or traditional.
 Use copy/paste functions on your computer except to copy or paste from your own exam
paper (question or your answer) to your own exam paper. No copying from the Wattle
course site or its external linked resources is permitted, nor from or to any other digital
resource.
 Use a zoom virtual background screen or any other method to block the camera view of your
exam surroundings.
 Use more than one physical computer screen for all your work for the duration of the exam.
A second device is permitted only for camera and zoom interaction if necessary, but a
second screen on your exam-taking device is not permitted under any circumstances.
 Make or share any recording of your exam.
Advice and resources to assist you:
 There will be an index to PDF forms of each e-book available on the course site. You are
permitted to retrieve those (in digital form) from the site during the exam for convenient
reference.
 IT Help is available during the exam through ANU as follows: Technical Examination Help: If
you are having issues with Wattle or your device, a dedicated IT Service Desk hotline will be
available during examination periods reflected on the University Calendar: +61 2 6125 2222.
It may not be available after hours: please refer to ANU-wide documentation. But only use
this when you cannot reach the exam (as otherwise phones are not permitted).
 This document will be available to you on the Wattle course site for reference during the
exam.
 Your invigilator can help with questions about the any ambiguity or misunderstanding of the
paper. Contact your invigilator privately in the Zoom chat.
 Subsequent to the exam, if exam conditions create problems that cannot be adequately
solved, you should collect evidence including screen-copies and apply for special
consideration through the process given in the ANU exam conditions link at the top of this
document.
 No reading time will be given during the exam. However, an exam cover-sheet including the
number of questions and their marks value will be provided to you in the days before the
exam for preparation, and will also be presented to you as the first page within the Wattle
exam itself.
FAQ
Q: Where do I find the exam?
The exam will be a Wattle quiz available on the Wattle course site. Using a browser, navigate to the
last topic section on the course website headed “Exam”. You will see the usual Wattle Quiz icon
there. Reload if you cannot see the topic heading or the quiz icon (it may not be visible before the
exam commences).
Q: How do I find the Wattle quiz password?
The password to commence the Wattle quiz will be given to you by your exam invigilator at
commencement, both posted on the Zoom chat and by spoken announcement. If you arrive late to
the exam you might need to request it by Zoom from your invigilator.
Q: How long will the exam take?
See the top of this document for start and end times. You may submit early if you wish: see “What
happens if I want to leave the exam early?”
Q: What identity documents do I need?
Primarily your ANU student card but other formal photo-id documents such as drivers licence and
passport are permitted. See “Commencement”. It is important that your photo looks like you and
you may be asked to find something else during the exam if it does not. Do whatever you can to
help you invigilator verify your authenticity, or else post-exam measures such an oral exam may be
necessary.
Q: Why do I need a room scan?
The purpose of the room scan is for you to prove that your exam conditions demonstrate academic
integrity. Scratch paper is permitted: we do expect to see the permitted number of entirely blank
sheets of paper and a writing instrument for your use during the exam. Please show both sides of
every sheet of the paper to the camera during the scan. Please show your room, most especially
your desktop surface and including any clock or calculator. I want to see that you do not have a
phone, other camera, communication device, other person, or hand-written or printed notes. Be
reasonable, I do not expect you to remove a bookshelf of books out of the room. But I do expect that
bookshelf to be out of reach while you sit the exam. If even this is too hard to achieve, then be sure
to show it really well to the room scan.
Q: How can I use only one monitor if I need to use my small laptop screen for the camera, but I
need a large external screen to see the paper?
That is fine. Keep your laptop open so the camera can be used, and use a single external monitor so
you can see, but use your laptop configuration setup to ensure that only one screen is active. (This is
"display properties" on Windows). If you are accustomed to multiple screens on a laptop then you
would be accustomed to configuring and re-configuring them.
Q: What software am I permitted to run on my computer during the exam?
Only one Web browser, Zoom, a calculator, a clock or other countdown timer, ANU’s Global Protect,
and anything that is necessary for viewing Wattle course materials. Reboot your computer prior to
the exam. Close all applications (E.g. Skype, Word, Teams, Open Office, Acrobat, Excel, email client,
Hangouts other Web browsers, Minecraft, Fortnite, Tetris, Instagram, Twitter, RStudio, Jupyter , …
etc). It is understood that you may fail to close some applications of which you may be unaware or
unsure. Do the best you can, and never actually use anything you left running during the exam. If
there are doubts about academic misconduct then you may be invited to a follow up with a further
exam.
Q: What happens if I am suspected of academic integrity violations during the exam?
If there is any doubt about the exam integrity even when there is no evidence that you behaved
improperly (e.g. when your identity check is unclear; when you exited the exam for a period of time;
or when a substantial amount of voice noise was evident during your exam) you will be invited to a
fresh exam, most likely a 1-hour private oral examination by Zoom. The value of the oral exam
towards your final course assessment will be at most the value of the final exam. In many cases it
may carry no specific marks but will be used to determine either award of the earned exam mark or,
alternatively, initiation of a case for academic misconduct.
Q: What if I need to leave the room during the exam?
If you need to leave the room this should be for a very strong reason. Contact your invigilator via the
private Zoom chat and announce your intention to leave and purpose for leaving, and wait for
permission. Leave your Zoom running. You may rejoin the exam when you can. Please again chat
privately to the invigilator to announce your return. For some exam problems you may need to leave
the room in order to phone the ITS support. If so, before returning to the exam, please send email to
[email protected] to say what happened and why. This can be used to support any subsequent
request for special consideration.
Q: What special arrangements are there for EAP students?
If you have an EAP that permits rest breaks during the exam, then request a break according to the
procedure for “What if I need to leave the room during the exam?” It is your responsibility to
announce your return to your invigilator so that your break can be properly timed. Your exam
submission time will be extended to allow for the maximum permitted rest time but you will be
instructed to submit earlier if the maximum break time is not taken. If your EAP permits extra writing
time, then your exam timeout will be extended accordingly.
Q: Can I choose to take an oral exam instead of attempting the Wattle exam at the scheduled
time?
No.
Q: I am taking the exam somewhere with an unreliable internet service. What should I do?
Some people find ANU’s ‘Global Protect’ improves the experience. Global Protect is available here:
https://services.anu.edu.au/information-technology/login-access/remote-access/download-
globalprotect-for-windows-or-mac .
For those students who make a solid attempt at the practice exam and the scheduled exam but for
whom technical problems become overwhelming, you should keep trying as long as you are able and
apply for special consideration afterwards. The zoom invigilation will provide sufficient evidence to
support your request if it is merited. Do take screen copies if you are able.
Q: How do I sign into Zoom?
It is simplest if you log in to Wattle by SSO fist. For Zoom, if challenged to log in, you must use the
SSO option which will direct you to the ANU Single Sign On, just as you log in to Wattle. Do not enter
your email in the box below, instead choose “sign on with SSO” and you will be directed to the
second box from there.


Q: What happens if I want to leave the exam early?
If you wish to leave the exam prior to the last 10 minutes, then you must (1) submit your exam via
Wattle, (2) alert your invigilator via a chat message and (3) exit Zoom. You may not contact any
other student of the course before the exam is over for all students. In the last 10 minutes, please
submit your exam and wait for the invigilator to close the Zoom for all.
What course materials will be available?
All the Wattle course materials on the course Wattle site for this course instance may be used. All
quizzes that you have attempted, all forum posts, all e-books, all video recordings. Do not play
video recordings so to avoid disturbing your fellow students. No other materials permitted (other
than as explicitly allowed above). No course materials for any other Wattle course, nor from any
previous instance of this course.

Handy checklist immediately before starting the exam.
 This checklist completed by 15 minutes prior to exam start time.
 Completed Wattle course quizzes for practice.
 Familiar with this advice here.
 Familiar with ANU rules of Examination Conduct and University Academic Misconduct Rules.
 Familiar with exam coversheet.
 Multiple screens disconnected from exam computer and inoperable.
 Computer rebooted and applications closed.
 Phone available to call for help nearby but outside exam room. ITS help number ready with
the phone. +61 2 6125 2222.
 Desk and room clear of papers and books except where clearly and tidily filed.
 Turn on bright lights and placed comfortably for eyes.
 Room quiet and door closed.
 Household partners and family asked to keep clear.
 Drinking water on desk in clear bottle. Food removed of packaging.
 Exactly one operational computer screen.
 2 sheets of blank scratch paper and 2 pens or pencils within reach.
 Student card or other legitimate photo id to hand.
 Bladder emptied.
 Webcam operational and facing you, showing your face, or alternative camera device
positioned and mains-powered.
 Microphone operational and ready.
 Web browser opened and Wattle course page loaded, focussing at the end of the course.
Reload if you cannot see the exam (it may not be visible until exam is due to begin).
 Check Wattle for the zoom link assigned to you. Keep it ready.
 Zoom initiated and meeting joined, using camera and microphone both turned on.
 Take a deep breath and you are ready to go 5 minutes before the start.
Checklist after the exam

 Submit your Wattle quiz before timeout. If you are timed out it will be submitted for you.
 Exit Zoom.
 Breathe deeply, and celebrate your achievement!


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