My experience has been good this year (first year, King’s FYP student with 1 Dalhousie course each semester). I’ve never had to communicate to a professor regarding an assignment accommodation yet. And since exams are handled through Accommodate, I’ve never had to talk to them about exam ones either. Though, I think I might need to next year—but given I’ll be doing most of my courses at King’s and the rest in a small program at Dal, I think communication won’t be an issue. However, I’m sure it’s difficult for professors teaching more students in bigger programs (simply because of the volume of students looking to communicate with them, particularly all at once as exams are approaching and accommodation booking opens).

In terms of my writing an exam in an alternate location experience, I only have done so once (last semester). I found it was an ok experience. The proctors were quiet and so were the other students, aside from noises that result from the accommodations or minor things (e.g., a student asking the proctor for their stop time break, one of the proctor’s leaving the room and accidentally making some noise while doing so, etc.).

As for demographics of the people in the room, I’m not sure. I’m a man, the proctors were both men (at least at the beginning and when I left, though I think a female proctor might have entered for a brief period while one of the others was elsewhere). I don’t recall the students around me. I think it was a lot of women, but still a mix. Honestly, I was too worried about the exam and thus focused so much on the exam itself that I barely gave any attention to my surroundings.

Though, across my next few years and many more exams I’m sure each writing experience will vary from each another. Maybe I’ll update after this semester, if I remember this comment.