Optimizing Exam Schedules: A Literature Survey

Abstract

Exam scheduling is a challenging problem that involves finding an optimal schedule for a set of exams subject to various constraints, such as room capacities, time windows, and conflicting exams. This problem has been extensively studied in operations research and computer science and various methods have been proposed over the years. In this paper, we present a comprehensive literature review of the existing methods for exam scheduling optimization. We summarize the key contributions, strengths, and weaknesses of each approach and compare and contrast the various methods based on various performance measures such as solution quality, computational time, and scalability. Additionally, we discuss the real-world applications of the exam scheduling problem and the impact of different methods on practical solutions. Finally, we provide insights into the current state of the art in exam scheduling and suggest future directions for research. Our survey provides a useful resource for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers who are interested in exam scheduling optimization.