How to Write a TU Lab Report: Cover Page and Index Format
Every field on the cover page, every column in the index of practicals, and the small formatting decisions that decide whether your report looks complete.
A lab report is marked twice: once on the work inside it and once on whether it looks like a report that was prepared properly. The cover page and the index of practicals are what the examiner sees first, and they are the two parts students most often get wrong.
This guide walks through both pages field by field and column by column, then shows how the free builder at tu-lab /app fills them for you so that you are not retyping the same details for every submission.
The three parts of a lab report
Almost every practical submission in a BCA course is assembled in the same order.
- The cover page, which identifies you, the course and the campus.
- The index of practicals, which lists every practical in the report with its number, title, date and signature.
- The practicals themselves, one after another, in the same order as the index.
If those three parts agree with each other, the report reads as complete. Most formatting complaints come from a mismatch: a practical listed in the index but missing from the body, or a numbering sequence that jumps.
The cover page, field by field
The cover page is a fixed set of labelled fields. Fill each one exactly as it appears on your registration record rather than from memory.
| Field | What belongs there |
|---|---|
| Full name | Your name as it appears on your university registration record |
| Registration number | Your TU registration number, copied carefully from an official document |
| Batch | The admission batch you belong to |
| University / faculty | The university and faculty your programme falls under |
| Course code and title | The code and the exact title of the course this report belongs to |
| Department | Your department as named by your campus |
| Campus | The campus or college where you are enrolled |
| Submission statement | The standard line stating that the report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the programme requirements |
| Internal examiner | The name of the internal examiner, if your department asks for it |
| External examiner | The name of the external examiner, if your department asks for it |
Two fields cause the most trouble. The course code and title must match the official course exactly, so copy it from the curriculum or your registration slip rather than from a friend’s file. The examiner fields are sometimes left to be filled by staff, so ask your teacher whether you should type them or leave them blank.
The index of practicals
The index is a table with four columns. It carries no explanation of the practicals themselves, only the reference information an examiner needs to find and sign off each one.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| S.No | The running number of the practical, starting at 1 |
| Practical | The title of the practical, matching the title used in the body of the report |
| Date | The date for that practical, written in one consistent format |
| Signature | Left blank so it can be signed by hand after printing |
A completed index looks like this, with the signature column filled in by hand as each practical is checked off.
| S.No | Practical | Date | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First practical title | dd/mm/yyyy | Signed by hand |
| 2 | Second practical title | dd/mm/yyyy | Signed by hand |
| 3 | Third practical title | dd/mm/yyyy | Signed by hand |
Numbering, dates and signatures
Numbering
Number practicals in one continuous sequence from 1 to the last one, and keep the index order identical to the order in the body. If you later insert a practical in the middle, renumber the whole list rather than adding an entry such as 4a, because a split sequence is one of the first things an examiner notices.
Dates
Pick one date format and use it everywhere in the document. Decide with your teacher whether the date means the day the practical was performed or the day it was submitted, and apply that meaning consistently. Do not write dates you are not sure about, and never fill in a date for a practical you did not attend.
Signatures
The signature column is printed blank and signed by hand after printing. Collect signatures as the semester goes rather than in the final week, because teachers who are away during the submission period cannot sign retrospectively. Keep the column physically empty in the printed report: a typed name is not a signature.
Let the free builder do the layout
The slowest way to produce a report is to rebuild the cover page and index in a word processor before every submission. The free lab report cover and index builder keeps those two pages in one place: you enter your details once, add rows for your practicals, and it lays out the cover page and the index cleanly, then exports a PDF you can print.
Because the details are stored rather than retyped, the second report you build takes a fraction of the time of the first, and the course code, campus and examiner names stay identical across submissions. Everything runs in your browser, the signature column prints blank for hand-signing, and you can filter the row list while you work without changing what prints.
Checking the report before printing
Once the index matches the body of the report, check the document as a printed object rather than as a screen. Print one copy first. Page breaks, table widths and margins all behave differently on paper, and an index that fits neatly on screen can spill onto a second page when printed.
Bind or staple every report the same way. Consistency across submissions is noticed, and it makes your report easier for a teacher to handle when an entire class submits on the same day. Staple the top left corner unless your department specifies a binding style.
Keep the finished PDF as well as the printed copy. Departments sometimes ask for a soft copy, and a report submitted two semesters ago is far quicker to reproduce from a saved file than to rebuild from a printed original.
If a course requires more than one report in a semester, build the cover page once and reuse it. Your personal details do not change; only the course code, the course title and the list of practicals do.
A short routine with classmates helps too. If two or three of you check each other’s index for numbering gaps and missing rows before printing, almost every avoidable error is caught before a teacher ever sees it.
Mistakes to avoid
- A mismatch between the index order and the body order.
- Course titles copied loosely instead of in full.
- Mixing date formats between the index and individual practical pages.
- Numbering rows by hand in a table that reorders itself when you edit it.
- Typing names into the signature column instead of leaving it blank.
- Printing the report before checking that every index row has a matching practical.
What are the four columns in the TU lab report index?
S.No, Practical, Date and Signature. The Practical column holds the title of each practical, and the Signature column is printed blank so it can be signed by hand.
Should I type my name in the signature column?
No. The column is for a handwritten signature from the teacher or staff member who checks the practical. A typed name in that column does not count.
How should I number the practicals?
Use one continuous sequence from 1 to the last practical, and keep the index order identical to the order of the practicals in the body of the report.
Can I use the same cover page for every course?
You can reuse your personal details, but the course code and title must change for each course. The builder at /app lets you keep the details and change only the course.
Can the builder put a signature into the index?
Optionally. Each index row has a Signature image control: attach an image and it prints inside that row’s Signature cell, scaled to fit. Leave it empty and the cell prints blank with its ruled line so the report can still be signed by hand. Only attach your own signature, and only where your department accepts a printed one.