This can't be right!?!

[nilbyname]

friend of a friend has a son with AsD, he took his GCSE the other day there. His phone went off in the exam and he went to answer it. He has been told to always answer his phone.


So he then gets exited of the exam for answering his hone and the invigilator rips his paper in two in front of him. Parents go ape shit and said boy gets to do the GCSE again the next say.

This all sounds so far fetched! Is it bullshit?

[Littlefish]

I would believe all of it apart from the part about being able to do his paper the next day. There was a mumsnetter who posted on here last week about a very similar thing (although her child did not have ASD) and he was disqualified from that exam.

[ladygracie]

Well phones are absolutely forbidden from exams - what did the parents go apeshit about? He didn't hand his phone in & then disturbed everyone in the exam room with the noise & answering the phone. Not sure how he would've been able to retake it. Which part do you not believe?

[LaurieFairyCake]

Depends. If it was early on in the exam
and the invigilator behaved so inappropriately by ripping the paper - then maybe

[Springintosummer]

Bull shit, if it was a real exam. Inviliagors have no right to rip up exam paper, it would be end off to be marked with all the others but the exams but the board would be informed and they may (probably) choose not to mark it. This could have been explain to students as the exam board my rip it up. Without special prior arrangements an exam can only be sat on the actual date it is suppose to be sat and this would not include seeing the paper the day before.

[KoalaDownUnder]

Not sure which part you think is bullshit, or what you think should have happened.

The parents sound like idiots.

[Hassled]

Yes it's bullshit.

1. Students are told again and again not to bring their phones into the exam room. They're given the opportunity at the start of the exam to fess up if they still have a phone.
   
2. No invigilator would rip up the paper.
   
3. No school would be able to allow a resit the next day. He would have to resit a different paper, for starters, unless they kept him in total isolation from the outside world the next day.
   

I spent a number of years invigilating. It's possibly the world's dullest job.

[Hassled]

total isolation from the outside world overnight, sorry.

[HagOtheNorth]

DS has AS, it was made very clear to all of the students what the consequences of having phones would be. He sat his GCSEs in a separate room from the main bulk of the yeargroup and the rules were the same.

[Finola1step]

I smell bs.

My sister is an exams invigilator. No way would this happen as described.

Most likely, a senior member of staff would be quietly called for. The pupil in question would be allowed to finish exam so as not to disturb others. A note of the incident would be made and shared with the exam board.

Usually a pupil would only be escorted out of the exam if they had become aggressive and/or very disruptive. Is it possible that he was instructed to hand in the phone by the invigilator and he got very upset?

As to sitting a GCSE the next day. He could but that paper might not be sent off. Or of course something else happened and it has been judged as exceptional circumstances. Very, very unlikely.

[Littlefish]

I didn't read the bit about ripping up the paper. Having seen that bit now, I don't believe that bit happened either.

[nilbyname]

It sounds so far far fetch! I thought I was going mental when I heard it. Thanks for reassuring me, that it is indeed a ridiculous story!

It's the ripping paper up that makes me call bs.

[HagOtheNorth]

But this is the child of a friend of a friend. It depends on his perspective on what happened, and how he interpreted it. The parent should ask the school for a proper account, and not let the gossip spiral before all the facts are known.

[nilbyname]

The phone bit, yes that I understand and agree that that should be it, exam over.

But you can just go ahead and resist the exam, it's not that easy?

[HagOtheNorth]

This is getting too much like a DM thread.
The school will follow set procedure, based on whatever actually happened.

[nilbyname]

This story is being put about by the parents and I agree it sounds all very DM!

I feel sorry for the kid and the school. What a load of balls.

[FuzzyWizard]

In a GCSE exam it is just not possible for it to have happened like that. If it was a mock or controlled assessment it's possible I suppose.

[maskingtherealme]

You can sit an exam the day after it has been sat. When I was at school, some of our exams clashed. We had to sit in a room and have no contact with anyone until after we sat the exam after everyone else. Also in one instance, some students had to bunk at a teacher's house so they could sit the exam the following day. This was 1997 though!

[BrianButterfield]

I'm pretty sure that answering the phone is a red herring too - for it to have been in the room switched on is enough of an infringement of rules for the exam to be disqualified.

[BrianButterfield]

Masking - you would not be able to resit an exam you had started, though, under any circumstances.