I regard exams as part of the learning process. In my regular
physics classes, I hand students written solutions as they hand in their
exams, and I insist that they keep the exam itself and compare my
answers (which are almost always correct...) with the exam questions.
When their own answers are returned (usually at the next class meeting),
I insist that they compare their answers with mine. To further
encourage them to use their answers and mine as study aids, I keep
track of the things the class in general tends to get _wrong_ on each
exam, and those questions and problems become fodder for the
comprehensive final exam. Typically, about 80% of the final consists
of reworked midterm exam questions, with the remaining questions
coming from material studied during the last two weeks of the semester
which they haven't already been tested on.
As far as special help is concerned, like most schools that have
been mentioned in this thread, we have an office to provide special help
for students with learning disabilities. It's often difficult for
me to make any judgement about the true nature of these problems. The
students bring a form letter simply stating that they have a disability
and the instructors basically are supposed to do whatever the student
feels is necessary for exams, etc. One of the most common
"disabilities" I've encountered is "I'm not comfortable taking an exam
in a room with other people, so I have to take exams at Student
Support Services". One student who told me that was her problem ended
up taking some of her exams along with the other students because she
failed to inform me in advance to send a copy of the exam to Student
Support. She consistently did slightly better when she took exams with
everyone else than when she took them alone. She concluded that she
was going to have to have her 'problem' reassessed.
A friend in another department refuses to allow students to take
exams at Student Support because they can't get help interpreting
technical questions there. When SSS complains, he tells them he's
"mainstreaming" the students, and that's a piece of jargon they LOVE
and give him no further complaints. I have also told students that
I'll give them some extra time and allow them to work alone in a
nearby classroom if they feel they REALLY need it, but I won't let them
take physics or physical science exams at SSS because there's no one
there who can assist them if they don't understand a question. I've
had no complaints about that policy so far.