Resolving Possible Timetable Conflicts via Frequency Analysis

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Abstract

The administrative work correlated with exam scheduling faces many challenges such as students’ course time overlap. Studies in the timetabling field lack user-friendly approaches to resolving an exam timetable that suits all enrolled students. The aim of this study was to provide a practical and easy method for exam timetable preparation at the university level. This will ease administrators’ work in scheduling exams while mitigating the inevitable conflicts. The method we used was based on frequency analysis that focuses on simplicity as the main feature. Various exam administrators worldwide can apply the suggested method. The requirements for implementing this method are an initial proposal for the exam schedule, coded course numbers, lists of students’ numbers in each course, and statistical software. The paper applied the frequency analysis via Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software. The method was successful in revealing conflicts of simultaneous exams and consecutive exams scheduled in the same day.