to want to complain about this exam invigilationr?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

One of my children was in an A level exam today.

They started 15 minutes late.

Without announcing it, the invigilator turned the clock back at the front of the hall to the time it should have started. So turned it back from 2.15 to 2.00pm.

She did this without announcing it, I'll just say that again.

However, there was another clock in the hall telling the correct time.

My child was completely distracted by the question of what was the correct time and when would the exam actually end throughout the exam.

In the event, it ended 15 minutes before she was expecting and she missed out on answering her final question properly.

AIBU to be livid?

No warnings permitted anymore other than for saving on a computer

So much wrong information on this thread, I still happen to have the rules open from when I looked at them yesterday and a 1 second search brings up the actual facts.

Why post if you don't know what you're saying is correct, I hope you aren't an invigilator

"Only a five minute warning to candidates is permitted. Where candidates have different finishing times the centre must consider the impact on them"

this is something invigilators used to do

Some invigilators

Ive never seen it done or heard from colleagues that its happened at other schools

We don't do the 5 minute warning either, so there must be some variation as long as its not against the rules

As it was in this case

"Invigilators are definitely allowed to give a 5 minute warning."

Depends on the exam board actually

Which boards aren't covered by the JCQ rules, they must be absolutely tiny niche ones, the rules apply to ever board I've ever heard of. Even one name that the rules don't apply to would be interesting to know

Invigilator here : different examboards have different rules re time warnings as I explained on page 1 of this thread.
CIE - 5 mins warning
EDEXCEL, AQA and OCR - no warnings.

ok

What about wbej or whatever its called

But that would explain why we dont do it

Surely a 17/18 year old can tell which clock has been turned back out of the two she can see and choose to look at that one for the time?

I’m a teacher and would be furious if an invigilator had done that during my students’ exam. I’d be the first to speak to the exams officer. They’ve been working for the last two years for these exams and some are bags of nerves. Nobody should be doing anything to confuse them or anything that breaches the rules and jeopardises their results. I don’t understand why people are being so unsympathetic.

JCQ says you can give a 5 minute warning.

OKBobble the JCQ rules which are very user friendly I've found say that they apply to Edexcel, AQA and OCR and are quite clear that a warning can be given, are boards allowed to ignore these rules, what's the point of them then?

Here:

Rufus - the rules apply to wjec as well, its' on the front of the book

Here's the latest OCR guidelines (I think it changed recently).

The websites for AQA and Edexcel link to the JCQ handbook. I am reasonably confident that I'm correct that a 5 minute warning may be given in exams 4 AQA, OCR, Pearson, City and Guilds, wjec/cbac and Cambridge.

beautifuldaytosavelives

Candidates are allowed analogue watches unless there has been a blanket ban by their centre. They have to take them off and put them on the desk.

Sorry, they are allowed digital watches (unless they have information stored in them or can communicate with the outside world).

That's just being petty. At 17/18 you are old enough to pick one clock and watch it. They all received the right amount of time so it's a non issue.

So in that case CIE must be mandatory and the others being "permitted" the instutution where I work has opted out, which I assume must be similar to OP's daughter'a school if they gave no warning or they did but her DD has left that out.

Ta muchly coco

OKBobble

Not true. The exam board is JCQ, Joint Council for Qualifications.

This board covers AQA, OCR, Pearson, City & Guilds, cea, wjec/cbac

It states within the invigilator booklet, issued by the JCQ, that a five minute warning is acceptable. And that clocks must match the exact time that the exam started.

I agree with others re the 5 minute warning. It's allowed but not compulsory. Our school always gives it

For those confused about how the DD had 15 mins less than she thought she did.
Let's say exam starts at 2.15 and should finish at 3.45.
Clock gets turned back to 15 minutes earlier to match the time on the exam paper but unbeknown to DD.
DD still expecting exam to finish at 3.45 by the clock but actually, because the clock has been put back 15 minutes it finishes at 3.30 by the clock. 15 minutes lost.

OKBobble

Yes that's correct - the five minute warning is mandatory for CIE. I expect most centres tell invigilator to give a 5 minute warning for everything so as not to confuse, particularly when there are multiple exams happening in the same room for different boards.

OP if your dd thinks the invigilator changed the time on the clock then definitely let the EO know. I doubt much will be done as, like a PP mentioned, special consideration given for even major things is a tiny amount but it's very clearly against the rules and shouldn't be happening.

coconuttelegraph as far as I know JCQ rules don't apply to NCFE, BCS (ECDL) CACHE, VTCT, CSKILLS and CIE. We don't use all these boards at my current centre but they're the ones I had which don't come under JCQ.
Some of the confusion between people on this thread is probably due to the fact that some rules such as watches on desks/ banned, 5 minute warnings etc are centre delegated rather than set in stone by JCQ, so different schools do things differently.

I don't know if she realises she can ask a question after the exam has started but I will make sure she now does as a result of this thread.

She surely hasn't got around to A levels without knowing you can ask questions in an exam. She surely would have seen others ask questions along the way.

You're told from early SATS that you can ask questions.

The rule about watches on desks is definitely in the JCQ book.