Placement Exam and Exemption Information

Will these exemption and placement exams be offered more than once?
- No, the listed exam dates are your ONLY opportunity to exempt these core course requirements. Students can only attempt these exams prior to the start of their first semester, and this is the only method available to exempt the listed core course requirements on this page.

Will study guides be provided?
- No, we do not provide study guides or materials for exemption and placement exams. If you are looking for information about what might be covered on a particular exam, please review the linked course descriptions and syllabi to learn what topics are covered in the associated course(s).

What materials and resources are permitted for these exams?
- No outside books or resources are permitted for placement and exemption exams. For any exam where a calculator could be helpful, a calculator will be available within the Respondus lockdown browser itself. No outside calculators are permitted. Exams that require you to work out a math problem or show work generally allow scratch paper. You will simply be asked to show it to your webcam before submitting your exam, or upload a photo/scan of it in a separate "assignment" on the Canvas page. If the exam has specific instructions regarding scratch paper, they will be noted in the exam instructions on Canvas.

What happens if I pass an exam?
- Congrats! Passing an exam can place you into a higher, intermediate level of a required course when available, or it can exempt you from the requirement all together. Exempted courses do not factor into your GPA and do not show on your CMU transcript. Grades/results from exemption exams are not listed on your transcript. Students do not earn units for exempted courses, but can replace those exempted units with additional elective coursework.

What happens if I attempt an exam and don't pass?
- No worries! Results from exemption exams are not listed on your CMU transcript and are not factored into your GPA. This simply means that you will still need to complete the requirement for your degree program.

How do I exempt required core courses that do not have an exam scheduled?
- For required courses that do not have an exam scheduled, you may petition to request an exemption from a designated staff or faculty member. More information about course exemptions can be found here: https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/current-students/exemption. Exemption petitions are available the month prior to the fall semester.

Who can I contact if I need support related to an exemption exam?
- If you do not have access to a particular exam that is available to your degree program after the exam window opens (reference schedules above for specific days and times), please contact Heinz-Academic-Services@andrew.cmu.edu.
- If you are having difficulty with Respondus lockdown browser or Monitor, please contact Respondus support https://web.respondus.com/student-help-livechat/
- If you have questions or problems once you have started an exam, please use the Canvas inbox to message the teacher of the course. They may not respond to you immediately, depending on the time zone in which you are completing the exam, but they will be monitoring questions and will respond as soon as possible.