Can I get mitigating circumstances for an exam or presentation?

If you have personal circumstances or illness affecting you in the lead up to your exam and you feel your performance will be affected, you should apply for Additional Consideration. You will need to provide evidence and will need to be able to explain what impact your circumstances are having on your ability to perform to your normal standard.

In the lead up to a presentation you would need to contact your School (usually your Module Leader) to see if it’s possible to do it on a different day. If that’s not an option or if it wouldn’t help your specific circumstances, you should apply for Additional Consideration as above.

If you are late to your exam, you must follow the steps found here. Depending on your reasons for being late and how late you are, you may need to apply for mitigating circumstances.

If you miss an exam or presentation, you will be recorded as absent. If the reasons for missing it are outside of your control, you should apply for mitigating circumstances as soon as possible, ideally beforehand. If you apply afterwards and your School’s deadline for Additional Consideration requests has passed, you may need to appeal once your results are finalised. LUU Advice can help with appeals.

If you get ill during an in-person exam you must tell the Invigilator who will fill out a report. You can use this report as evidence when you apply for mitigating circumstances, which you should do as soon as possible after the exam. You will still need to provide medical evidence, so you should try to see your doctor as soon as possible.

If something goes wrong in an online exam you should contact your School and apply for mitigating circumstances as soon as you can. Issues with technology are seen as your own responsibility unless there are widespread issues with the system, and therefore they are not usually accepted as mitigating circumstances.

You can get mitigating circumstances if you think your exam or presentation performance was affected by personal problems. You will need to apply for Additional Consideration as soon as possible after the exam with evidence of your circumstances.

If your exam or presentation is a resit, you may be able to seek a further, exceptional resit attempt through mitigating circumstances.

See our related articles on how to apply for mitigating circumstances, resits, and the appeals process.