<p>Does a 90 minute limit mean that the test must be taken in one sitting of 90 minutes, or can it be broken up into 2 or 3 sessions over a couple of days? Is there a uniform policy on this that will be explained at orientation?</p>
<p>Having taken various timed take-home exams before, I’ve been assuming that the unstated “uniform policy” is that a test cannot be broken up into multiple sessions over any period of time–it feels to me like that would be breaking the honor code. Maybe some people can stop thinking about a question they’ve seen while they, say, sleep, but I doubt that many Caltech students are in this group. </p>
<p>It just becomes hard to define “working on the test” once you’ve seen the problems. Does mulling it over in the back of your mind count? What about actually working it out mentally, but not writing anything down? What about happening to be independently curious about the topic, and reading a section of a textbook for the heck of it on a closed-book exam? The logical extension of “multiple sessions” would be to only time those exact moments when you’re reading the questions or making progress, which would more clearly “take unfair advantage of” students timing the entire exam. Splitting into a few sessions is probably fine if an emergency comes up, or perhaps if there is some sort of disability that would interfere with a 90-minute exam.</p>
<p>Anyway, someone correct me if I’m wrong! This is only my own reasoning, which doesn’t always mesh well with the real world.</p>
<p>yep, flierdeke is right. the policy is contiguous time unless otherwise stated.</p>
<p>you will hear plenty about specific honor code details during orientation :)</p>