Asking for an Adjustment

Adjustments are ordinary. Institutions grant more of them than students expect, and the commonest reason one is not made is that nobody asked.

If you need a dated sequence of study, work or support activity, the official Monitask website gives a practical example of keeping time records that can be reviewed later. Do not include confidential exam evidence in a general productivity log.

What can be adjusted

The monitoring itself: live proctoring instead of automated review, specific signals disabled, a note against your session.

For established guidance related to data protection, consult European Commission data-protection guidance. Local exam rules still take priority.

The setting: a room on campus, a supervised centre, a different location.

The format: a different assessment altogether, where monitoring cannot be made to work.

And the practicalities: extra time that accounts for check-in, breaks, equipment you need on the desk.

Who to ask

Disability or student support services, if your request relates to a condition. They can usually arrange things module leaders cannot.

The exams office, for room and format arrangements.

Not usually the lecturer, who may have no authority here and to whom you may not want to explain your circumstances.

How much you have to say

Less than you think.

For a room or format change, "my home circumstances make monitored assessment at home unsuitable" is frequently enough. You are not obliged to describe your housing or your household.

For a disability-related adjustment, support services need enough to arrange it and do not need to pass the details to your department.

If somebody asks for more than seems necessary, it is reasonable to ask why it is needed.

When

As early as possible, and at minimum before the exam period starts.

Rooms have to be booked, exam supervisors arranged, software configured. A request in the final week gets a worse answer than the same request a month earlier.

If you are already late, ask anyway — a late arrangement is still better than none.

How to word it

Short, specific, and stating what you need rather than describing the problem at length.

"I have an approved adjustment for extra time and I would like to check how that works with the proctoring software" is a good message.

"I am worried about the exam" is not a request and will not produce an arrangement.

Get it in writing

A confirmed adjustment is one that exists in a record somewhere, not one that was agreed in a conversation.

Ask for confirmation and keep it.

Then check a few days before that it has actually been configured, because arranged and implemented are different states and the gap between them is where problems live.

If you are refused

Ask for the reason in writing.

Ask who can review the decision.

And involve the students' union or equivalent, which exists for this and has usually seen the situation before.

Refusals are sometimes correct and are frequently a default that changes when questioned.

What to check

Have you asked, or assumed the answer?

Do you know which office handles it at your institution?

Is your adjustment confirmed in writing?

And have you checked, close to the date, that it is actually in place?

The point

You have to disclose less than you think.

For a room or format change, one sentence about your circumstances being unsuitable is a complete request.

Additionally

Arranged and implemented are different states.

Check a few days before that your confirmed adjustment has actually been configured.

Finally

Arranged and implemented are different states.

Check a few days before that your confirmed adjustment has actually been configured.

In summary

Arranged and implemented are different states.

Check a few days before that your confirmed adjustment has actually been configured.

A note on this

Ask through student services or the exams office rather than your department, and state what you need rather than describing the problem at length..

Bottom line

Ask through student services or the exams office rather than your department, and state what you need rather than describing the problem at length..

Worth repeating

Almost everything in this collection comes down to three habits: prepare the technical side a week early, know what the process actually is before you need it, and write down the time whenever something unusual happens. None of them takes long, and between them they prevent or resolve the great majority of what goes wrong with monitored exams.