My professor doesn’t give back our exams? (What to do?)

As a student, you are probably wondering if your professor is going to let you see your exam after you complete it so you can see what questions you missed.

Or you already found out that your professor doesn’t give back exams and you think that this is really unfair to you. You might be wondering how you are going to improve on the next exam if you can’t even see what you got wrong.

I totally get it.

When I was a professor, over the course of 15 years, I tried various ways to provide students with feedback after exams. And I finally found a solution that worked. I will share that method in a bit.

In the very beginning of my academic career, I always handed students back their exams. And they got to keep their exams too. This was before the internet became widely popular and all these websites began providing test questions and answers.

So, there wasn’t any real risk to giving exams back to the entire class.

But after awhile, I started to realize that my exam questions could end up on the internet and I would have to create entirely new questions every semester to make sure that students didn’t find the questions before the exam.

I will go into more detail later about why I stopped giving back exams to my students. And I will also give you some ways that students tried to cheat the system.

This article is going to help you figure out what to do if your professor doesn’t give back exams, and I will tell you if most professors give students back their exams in college so you know what to expect.

Do professors hand back exams in class?

In college, most professors will hand back exams to the class but sometimes I would give the exams back for students to review and have them return the exams before they left. I finally stopped giving students back their exams altogether when I found out students were sharing the questions with other students.

But, I would always allow students to review their exams in my office.

This might seem really inconvenient and unfair, however, it allowed me to go over the wrong answers with students in more detail.

Honestly, this way was more helpful to students because I could help them understand why they missed the questions that they got wrong.

In my professional experience, most professors give back exams in class despite me only allowing students to see their exams in my office.

And in reality, professors need to be able to provide an explanation for students’ grades so they need to make their feedback available to students.

Why do professors not give back exams?

Professors may not give back exams because they don’t want students to share the questions and answers with other students or upload them online. They are trying to protect their exam questions so that they can use them in other classes.

There are way too many websites now that incentivize students to upload exam questions and material so professors may have stopped handing back exams for this reason.

Also, sometimes professors teach several sections of the same class. This usually results in some classes taking the exam before others.

Professors don’t give back the exams because a student might give a friend the answers in another section of the same class. Sadly, this does really happen.

Not only that, but it takes a lot of class time to pass back exams and answer any questions. To avoid taking up too much lecture time, professors may opt to provide students their exams outside of class.

Finally, some professors might not want to share the completed exams with students because they might try and argue that their incorrect answers were right.

Once, I had a student who would challenge many of my exam questions. While I appreciate inquiries into my grading, I do not have unlimited time to allow students to argue why they should have received more points.

This is why I asked students to come and visit me in person so that we don’t disrupt class.

Can I ask my professor to see my exam questions?

Yes, you should be able to see your exam however, you might only be allowed to see it once or you might have to visit your professor in their office to review it.

If you are taking an online class, you might not be able to see your exam questions at all. This is because it is really easy for students to copy and paste the questions and share them.

Therefore online classes might have different rules.

But, one thing is for sure, you should be able to get some feedback from your professor and an explanation of your grade.

Keep in mind that rules will be different for every university too. There isn’t some overarching rule that requires professors to show students their exams, but it is encouraged to let students see how a professor graded the student.

If a professor doesn’t hand back exams to the class, just send them a quick email or visit them during office hours and ask them if you can see your exam or get some feedback.

I liked it when students came to talk to me about their exams because I saw it as an opportunity to help them improve.

But don’t be surprised if your professor denies your request. Regardless of their policies, they should be keeping the exams in case students appeal their grades. Professors should be able to show, upon request, evidence of students’ grades.

If you think there is some unfair grading going on, you can read that article next to get more help.

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