Where coursework or 24-hour assessments have replaced exams, the assessments are designed to be fully completed within a specific number of hours as outlined in the assessment schedule, and not the entire period between release and submission. This gives you the flexibility to plan and balance the tasks required across the whole assessment period, allowing you to fit those time allocations within the weeks available.

Because many assessments will be available for longer than is needed to complete them, some students may spend longer on a given assignment than others. However, there will be no advantage to this. Students who meet criteria for their specific assessment(s), such as showing understanding of a topic and an ability to respond logically to the question or task, will gain the marks they need.

This is regardless of whether another student submits a more polished piece of work because of the extra time they have taken to revise their content. When an assignment is marked, it is clear how long has been spent on it, especially when something has been drafted and re-written, and this is not the basis on which your work will be assessed. It will be to no advantage to students to spend more time than has been allocated.

For assessments with a word limit, this is a maximum - it’s not the length of the assignment you should write. In typical written exams, students write different amounts and this will apply in assessments this year too. Faculty will be marking, with revised mark schemes, as if you were sitting an exam with some extra thinking time, not writing a long coursework assignment. Quality of ideas is always better than quantity.