I have found myself in a number of situations where I feel like I should participate in the contest but I am unable to because I know that I would not be able to participate for the entire 2 hours as I have my exams tomorrow and that my rating might fall.

This "fear of losing" could be avoided if there was an option to participate out of the competition without having any effect on the rating. I know we can virtual contests later but then if I have one hour of time to participate in the contest, I should be allowed to participate without fearing my rating dropping for the number of problems I might have solved in the second one hour right?

MikeMirzayanov Please look into this.