exams of different length

Exactly! When I was at school, the shorter exam candidates were sat in columns to one side of the hall.

Wow I didn't realise that that kinda heightism went on in schools but I guess things were different in those days!!

as everyone has said, this has been standard practice for a long time.

Any school will seat the kids doing the longer exams further from the exit so that they aren't disturbed by others leaving the hall.

It's simply not practical to expect a school (which still has lessons going on for the non exam years) to have 3 or even 4 exam rooms in operation for each session.

Or is Living suggesting that Universities do not want SEN candidates.

No, not at all. I'm sorry: I must have missed the post where the OP said that her DS had SEN? In most schools, those SEN candidates who are likely to suffer from distraction, those whose learning profile indicate that they need a prompter, for example, are invigilated in separate rooms anyway. I assumed that the OP was talking about the candidates in the main exam hall being distracted by others leaving.

Cory, I think that is unfair. In DDs case about 95% of the room will leave, often forgetting one or two remain. And if not moved on, they will chat loudly outside as they work off their nervous energy. This is not "somebody quietly walking out of the room".

DD regularly performs relatively poorly in exams. But the key word is "relatively". She is a good scientist and mathematician.

I am a bit about the stereotype of mathematicians. In our experience, there are at least as many good mathematicians who are dyslexic or on the spectrum and in humanities subjects. Indeed we have come across some quite Aspergers kids who have landed places to read maths at either Oxford or Cambridge. One feature that can go with other SN is being easily distracted. It takes all types to make a world. Your comment "what kind of a job will he ever find where he can concentrate?" is a bit rude. Hopefully we live in a world that does its best to accommodate disability. And that sucess in the real world is not solely predicted by ability to perform well under exam conditions. FWIW DD announced quite early on that she did not think she would be suited to working in an office. She is probably right.

If a student can't concentrate because of somebody quietly walking out of the room- what kind of a job will he ever find where he can concentrate? It will have to be one where he won't have to share an office with anyone, the phone never rings, no one knocks on the door as he is halfway through costing up his project and there are no noises from outside. A medieval hermit's cell might just do it, but they are few and far between these days.

Still laughing despairing at the assumption the Exam Boards provide the Invigilators!

And in some schools, other classrooms have to be used at times for overspill, use of computers or other SEND needs already and the nightmare of re-rooming the classes normally in those rooms is just hellish for the pupils, teachers and Admin staff. Extending this just so some students don't hear footsteps at some point in the exams just makes me want to cry!

(And believe me, lots of Invigilators walk up and down rows during the exams anyway so I don't understand the difference really)

If you're focusing properly on the task in hand then nothing around you will disturb your concentration... So stop looking for excuses in advance

Exactly! When I was at school, the shorter exam candidates were sat in columns to one side of the hall. At the end of their exam, the invigilator spoke the bare minimum of words to tell them to stop writing and then to leave the room silently. Virtually no disruption, maybe a couple of minutes at most. Leaving the hall can be quick and silent. It's entering where they'd be lots of noise which is why all the exams start at the same time!

Anyway, learning to concentrate and not be put off by what's going on around you is also a valuable life skill. When my son did the 11+, the supervisors made it clear that they (10 year olds) should ignore whatever's happening near them, and warned them about kids bursting into tears, wetting themselves, etc., and if that happened, just to ignore it and carry on as if nothing had happened.

DD gets extra time, so others always leave earlier.

The school now allow her to sit at the front, rather than in the normal alphabetical order, so she is less disturbed. (Her dyslexia report recommends seperate invigilation so it is a fair compromise.) It might also be worth checking that the school will shoo the early finishers away from the exam hall. Once or twice, though for school exams, DD has had to listen to excited post-mortems taking place just outside the door, as she is trying to complete the same paper.

FWIW STEP is tough. For good candidates this may be the first time they have struggled in a maths exam. It is perfectly possible to get 100% UMS on A level maths papers and yet put in a very average performance on STEP. And there is often a lot riding on it. Cambridge maths, say, apparently give out twice as many offers as they have places, relying on STEP to differentiate. Candidates will differ in how easily they are distracted (which is why it is recommended that DD has seperate invigilation) but this does not have much bearing on maths talent. Or is Living suggesting that Universities do not want SEN candidates.

Why? Because for those students whose grasp of the subject is such that they are capable of STEP, they should be so absorbed in the complexities of the paper that they have absolutely tuned out whatever's going on around them. When DH brings home the STEP papers to have a go at himself, I won't be able to get through to him until he's done, pretty much!

Using other rooms won't work because the papers are usually longer than the hour of lessons the pupils aren't in the classroom.

It really isn't that distracting. Whoever said that your ds shouldn't be doing STEP if distraction is an issue is right!

What is STEP?

DD didn't even notice her friend (sitting in front of her) get up, be accompanied to the toilet (to spew) and come back and she has 0 concentration most of the time!!

DH (Maths teacher) did say that if he's so easily distracted that other students leaving the hall bother him, he shouldn't really be doing STEP...

Ha that's funny. I didn't know what STEP papers were until I just looked them up! Given the OPs initial question I had made the assumption they were some level of remedial paper like a Foundation or something like that!

(So yes agree, even more true.)

If you're focusing properly on the task in hand then nothing around you will disturb your concentration

DH (Maths teacher) did say that if he's so easily distracted that other students leaving the hall bother him, he shouldn't really be doing STEP...

I used to invigilate - it really isn't a problem. The shortest exam students are nearest the door and they were all, in my experience, thoughtful enough to leave completely silently. They're reminded that exam conditions remain until they've left the hall. I do see why you're anxious about it but you'd be amazed how efficiently and quietly it's done.

If you're focusing properly on the task in hand then nothing around you will disturb your concentration... So stop looking for excuses in advance

Students can leave at any time (after 15 mins,I think)
For GCSE and A level exams, JCQ regulations apply and pupils cannot leave the exam room until 1 hour after the official published start time for the exam. Most schools make pupils stay for the full exam time.

This happened when I was in school and I'm in my 30s now.

This happened when I was at school and i'm 44! And at Uni. At the start of the exam the invigilator will make sure everyone has the right paper, is aware of finish times and will usually write end times on the board. The disruption is minimal.

There's even going to be students sitting the same exam who have extra time in the same room, and as has been pointed out you can leave at any point if your sure you've checked your paper and your happy with the answers.

I had extra time in all my exams the room was just laid out so I was at the furthest edge to the door.

A classroom doesn't work as there other classrooms surrounding it that will be being used for normal teaching and the bustle of other children. Unless of course your in Ireland and secondary school actually finishes next week for all but those taking state exams.

Speaking as the person that has to find rooms in a school when the exams are on, I can tell you it isn't as simple as just using a room that's free!

A room might be free for an hour, but then there's a class in there or the only rooms available at the ones that are used for that particular exam, so we can't use them because of the displays on the wall. Or the fact that it's a noisy corridor or the sun shines right through at that particular time of day or it's just not big enough. You can only get about 12 students in an exam room.

We might already have at least 4 classrooms being used for children with access arrangements or someone with a broken arm or someone in long term exclusion who is still allowed on the premises to do their exams.

Simply saying 'use a classroom' just doesn't work!

"Well there should be lots of rooms spare where students would normally be having classes"

And who is going to pay for the extra invigilators required? Not to mention the problems with noise distraction from the rest of the school.

It simply isn't practical to do this, and most schools don't just happen to have spare extra halls to seat students in.

Standard procedure and students with shorter exams sit at the back. The problem with holding exams in different rooms is keeping these areas silent when the rest of the school is at break/lunch - this is far more disruptive that some students standing up and silently leaving the room.
It was the same when I was at school (over 30 years ago) and for my degree and professional qualifications.

This page suggests it costs £48 per paper to enter a student for STEP so your school is making a loss.

www.admissionstestingservice.org/for-test-takers/step/dates-and-costs/

If you wanted separate rooms and invigilators, you'd have to pay far more than that.

Yes, the exam fees are nothing to do with the school so whatever you've paid for your son's STEP papers, the school isn't seeing a penny of it.

It really isn't practical to hold exams in lots of classrooms rather than one big hall as, as others have said, the rest of the school is going on as normal with all the noise that that entails. Plus, the JCQ rules for how exams are set up and invigilated are very strict now: inspectors drop in unannounced and expect to be able to see where the exams are being held, check that all the instructions are being followed, quiz the invigilators about their training, etc. They would not expect to see exams being held in ad hoc locations without all the correct signage and so on.