People not showing up to exams?

[Kingsizeduvet1]

I've just sat my 3rd OU exam in recent months and at each one there was a huge amount of no shows! Today was terrible, out of roughly 50 seats there were 12 of us. 3 different exams in the room too so not specific to my course.

Can any invigilators etc. say if this is normal? I can understand a few for obvious reasons, emergency or illness, but so many?

This happened in my first year of uni, but none of the no-shows came back for the second year. I was also quite shocked by several people turning up twenty minutes late and just sauntering in like it didn't matter. Why bother at all? These were mainly mature students who had chosen to be there, not teenagers.

Yes there's always a couple come in late too. From speaking to a few people before we were all in year 5 or 6 (part time) so year 2 or 3 exams today.