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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

GCSE exam finished early. What can I do?

450 replies

CAMHShelp · 14/05/2025 15:15

DDs GCSE exam was 1 hour and 45 mins. The invigilator asked the kids if they had finished to which DD replied yes, as she had answered all the questions (ASD) but planned to use remain 20 mins to check answers. They immediately took the paper away and ended the exam early as she was the last one to stop writing.
I have made a complaint to the school but they are being dismissive and fobbing me off.
What can I do?

OP posts:
ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine · 16/05/2025 13:17

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 12:49

But she wasn’t in a position where she had to disagree with or challenge the adult?
She was asked a Yes or No question and said yes when she meant no.

Saying no is challenging the adult. You’re underestimating just how ill equipped to handle these situations some teenagers are, especially those with ASD. Either her perception is that the invigilator wanted her to say yes so she did what she thought the adult in power wanted her to do, or she misunderstood the question and took it the mean had she got to the end of the paper yet rather than had she stopped working and then felt unable to correct the misunderstanding.

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/05/2025 13:33

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 12:49

But she wasn’t in a position where she had to disagree with or challenge the adult?
She was asked a Yes or No question and said yes when she meant no.

She shouldn't even have been asked the question there was still exam time left.

KarmaKameelion · 16/05/2025 13:45

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 12:49

But she wasn’t in a position where she had to disagree with or challenge the adult?
She was asked a Yes or No question and said yes when she meant no.

If there was still time she should not have ever been asked the question.

Banannanana · 16/05/2025 15:30

KarmaKameelion · 16/05/2025 13:45

If there was still time she should not have ever been asked the question.

I do agree she shouldn’t have been asked the question.

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 15:37

Well, we all agree she shouldn’t have been asked the question.
She should have answered it differently, though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Banannanana · 16/05/2025 15:42

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 15:37

Well, we all agree she shouldn’t have been asked the question.
She should have answered it differently, though 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree. Some blame has to be given to your daughter here, OP. She’s presumably 15-16 and capable of taking GCSE exams, not a small child.

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/05/2025 15:48

The invigilator was wrong to ask her as there was still time to run in the exam. That is cause to complain as she shouldn't have been interrupted at all.

Nominative · 16/05/2025 16:06

Banannanana · 16/05/2025 15:42

I agree. Some blame has to be given to your daughter here, OP. She’s presumably 15-16 and capable of taking GCSE exams, not a small child.

She really can't be blamed for not giving a carefully thought answer to a question which should never have been put to her. If the exam board chooses to take action, they would sound utterly absurd saying "Yes, our paid and carefully trained invigilator totally cocked up, but it's all the fault of the autistic teenager with virtually no experience of public exams for not realising that and putting our employee right".

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 16:10

Nominative · 16/05/2025 16:06

She really can't be blamed for not giving a carefully thought answer to a question which should never have been put to her. If the exam board chooses to take action, they would sound utterly absurd saying "Yes, our paid and carefully trained invigilator totally cocked up, but it's all the fault of the autistic teenager with virtually no experience of public exams for not realising that and putting our employee right".

It was a yes or no situation. A carefully crafted response was not called for.

KarmaKameelion · 16/05/2025 17:31

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 16:10

It was a yes or no situation. A carefully crafted response was not called for.

We are also talking about a 15 year old in a stressful situation that they’ve never been in before.

LoveTKO · 16/05/2025 17:36

This from the Guardian recently. I am stunned at the numbers of children with access/extra time arrangements. In an attempt to create a level playing field, it has in some cases created quite the opposite IMO. I thought it was a handful of children, clearly not.

GCSE exam finished early. What can I do?
TeenToTwenties · 16/05/2025 18:13

@LoveTKO Interesting, but maybe not relevant to the thread? What type of school was it talking about?

My own DD gets extra time, reader and rest breaks because she has slow processing, dyslexia, and is recovering from MH issues which meant she missed all of y11. These just allow her to show what she can do, they don't miraculously give her the answers.

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/05/2025 19:00

As an invigilator I did wonder about the students who had to be in a room on their own. Personally, it would have made me more anxious to gave one person looking at me for two hours rather than the relative anonymity of the exam hall. I also wondered what help they were getting to deal with their anxieties in order to face the outside world.
You get a lot of time to wonder sitting silently in a room with one person watching them write.

TeenToTwenties · 16/05/2025 19:06

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/05/2025 19:00

As an invigilator I did wonder about the students who had to be in a room on their own. Personally, it would have made me more anxious to gave one person looking at me for two hours rather than the relative anonymity of the exam hall. I also wondered what help they were getting to deal with their anxieties in order to face the outside world.
You get a lot of time to wonder sitting silently in a room with one person watching them write.

Edited

When my DD started college, having as I said above, missed all of y11, it took a massive amount of effort for her to be sat in the same classroom as others. The pandemic hit just at the wrong time for her and the 'people are dangerous' message took a massive hold. Even now she swaps chairs over when she goes to tutoring, and was anxious when a line of schoolchildren approached us when out for a walk. She didn't need a single room but did need a small group. CAMHS resourcing is woeful and the pandemic screwed up the MH of a lot of youngsters.

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/05/2025 20:20

TeenToTwenties · 16/05/2025 19:06

When my DD started college, having as I said above, missed all of y11, it took a massive amount of effort for her to be sat in the same classroom as others. The pandemic hit just at the wrong time for her and the 'people are dangerous' message took a massive hold. Even now she swaps chairs over when she goes to tutoring, and was anxious when a line of schoolchildren approached us when out for a walk. She didn't need a single room but did need a small group. CAMHS resourcing is woeful and the pandemic screwed up the MH of a lot of youngsters.

I was invigilating before the pandemic and stopped in 2021 before exams were reinstated again so didn't see any effects of that. I wasn't disputing that there were good reasons for the adjustments and it was none of my business anyway but, as I said, you have a lot of time to think and wonder about things doing nothing for 1 or 2 hours.

LondonAndy · 17/05/2025 08:07

Report to JCQ and OFSTED.

Banannanana · 17/05/2025 11:24

Annascaul · 16/05/2025 16:10

It was a yes or no situation. A carefully crafted response was not called for.

How do you need to carefully craft a response to “have you finished” it’s yes or no. She said yes when she meant no.

poetryandwine · 17/05/2025 12:53

Hi, OP -

I am an academic and can say that what happened to your DD would be grounds for Mitigating Circumstances at the (excellent) universities I know. Most likely DD would be awarded a Resit as First Attempt in August, which is sadly not an option here.

We would regard the question as a serious breach of protocol and assume that anyone, but particularly a student with ASD (and the invigilator cannot know who that will be) would feel pressurised to answer ‘yes’. Thirty min from the end of the exam the other students are forbidden from leaving early.

Why should a GCSE pupil be assumed more immune to this pressure?

This is beyond the general principle of not speaking to individual examinees, of course.

poetryandwine · 17/05/2025 13:02

I think @ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine has particularly good advice above. You do need to behave impeccably - you sound very reasonable here.

Thank goodness for (your?) CCTV and the fact that you were home when DD arrived.

I would start by emailing several people at the school and, not sure I have seen this above, asking MumsNetters for advice on whether you should request a copy of their report to the exam board. Then the BoG.

All the main exam boards in England and Wales accept complaints concerning maladministration directly from parents. It appears that contrary to advice above, JCQ does not. But OfQual, which regulates the exam boards, does.

Good luck with this. Even if your DD gains only a few marks or none she will remember that you stood up for her for the rest of her life

Lollylucyclark101 · 17/05/2025 17:24

CAMHShelp · 14/05/2025 15:15

DDs GCSE exam was 1 hour and 45 mins. The invigilator asked the kids if they had finished to which DD replied yes, as she had answered all the questions (ASD) but planned to use remain 20 mins to check answers. They immediately took the paper away and ended the exam early as she was the last one to stop writing.
I have made a complaint to the school but they are being dismissive and fobbing me off.
What can I do?

She said she had finished?

broney · 17/05/2025 17:28

That's totally wrong. Why on earth would they ask such a question? Was the invigilator in a hurry to catch a train? Go to a football match? Meet his mates in the pub? They CAN'T take the paper off the candidate until the full time is up.

ConnieHeart · 17/05/2025 18:01

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/05/2025 19:00

As an invigilator I did wonder about the students who had to be in a room on their own. Personally, it would have made me more anxious to gave one person looking at me for two hours rather than the relative anonymity of the exam hall. I also wondered what help they were getting to deal with their anxieties in order to face the outside world.
You get a lot of time to wonder sitting silently in a room with one person watching them write.

Edited

Oh god, I used to invigilate in a small room with 1 student. It was incredibly boring with no air & we just had to watch the student for up to 3.5 hours. Talk about potentially intimidating for the student! In the good old days I'd look forward to invigilation when I could catch up on my book!

Catdaddy1978 · 17/05/2025 18:13

CAMHShelp · 14/05/2025 15:15

DDs GCSE exam was 1 hour and 45 mins. The invigilator asked the kids if they had finished to which DD replied yes, as she had answered all the questions (ASD) but planned to use remain 20 mins to check answers. They immediately took the paper away and ended the exam early as she was the last one to stop writing.
I have made a complaint to the school but they are being dismissive and fobbing me off.
What can I do?

Escalate your complaint to the board of governors and threaten them with both Ofqual and Ofsted as this could be seen to be a very serious breach of the rules. If you know which exam board it was with complain to them as well. Students are legally entitled to the correct amount of time allocated for the exam.

Skodacool · 17/05/2025 18:45

Nominative · 14/05/2025 15:38

No experience of this, but are invigilators allowed to do this? Surely they have to wait till the end of the exam unless everyone has handed their papers in and left, rather than interrupting them to ask if they have finished?

I think you should complain and ask the school to make a formal report to the examiners and a request that your child at least be given special consideration.

Invigilator here; this is malpractice and the school could be in serious trouble. Make an official complaint to the exam board. Complain in writing to the headteacher,(they are the head of centre), and to the school’s exam officer. You should also ask that the exam officer puts in a request for special consideration. The invigilator’s behaviour is shocking.

Caligirl80 · 17/05/2025 19:03

Others have said this already, but there can sometimes be benefit to having another person confirming: each examinations board has a complaints system. That complaints system should be available in writing for you to review (should be online - most exam boards have their own websites) but if you have any difficulty then, again in writing, submit a request to the school/organisation that held the examination and say you urgently need the complaint information for the examination board and also for the company that provided the invigilators. Then submit a complaint, in writing, immediately: try to focus on objective statements - so information about the exam, information about when your child was told the exam ended. Then give as much information about the exchange between the child and the invigilator(s) as possible: who the invigilator was, whether there were other invigilators in the room, and what the invigilator said when they interacted with your child. Frankly an invigilator shouldn't be talking to your child at all unless the child has put up their hand, or there is a problem. Asking a child if they have finished is absurd - if a child has 3 hours for a test, then they have 3 hours.

Your complaint should also contain your expectations for what the exam board should do next: if you aren't sure what the options are then demand the exam board reply to you in X number of days and provide you with the options available to your child with respect to their examination and also with how to escalate the complaint if you feel unhappy with the exam board's response. You likely won't be the first person to have an issue with how the organisation that ran the examination in question did their job.

Now: Does your child have other imminent exams they are taking? If so I would urge you to write a letter that the child can take with them to each examination. That way, if anyone tries to cut their time short again your child has a copy of the letter to give to the invigilator from you in which you tell that invigilator that you expect your child to be given the full time allotted to them. If possible include whatever citations from the Exam Board's rules/requirements you can find that support you (it should be blatantly obvious but hey). And tell your child that if the invigilators tell them they can't have all their time that you give your child permission to tell the invigilator that you need to speak to the Headteacher (assuming they are in school for the exams) immediately and that they need to contact you immediately (and any other caregivers your child may have) so they can also be in that meeting with the Headteacher.

Here's some thoughts for anyone who doesn't understand why this matters: Children who have been taught proper exam technique know that to manage time effectively that if get stuck on one they should flag it and come back to it (in the case of a multiple choice just provide any answer - you don't get penalised for a wrong one!!). Then, if and when they have more time at the end to think about the "flagged" questions, they can use the "extra" time to ponder the "best" answer. As such it's common for children to have "finished" reading the exam questions, but to not actually be done making a decision about what "best" answer to give if they aren't completely sure about certain questions. Having time at the end to go back and ponder the more difficult questions (again assuming they are multiple choice ones for example) gives the child the time to ponder the question more thoroughly, and to narrow down the particular potential answers - so at the very least they aren't guessing between all 5 answers, but are picking between, say, 2 potential correct answers. They may still not know what the correct answer is, but if they've narrowed it down to two they think may be correct then (assuming they are correct) a guess at that point is 50/50 - which is far better odds of a correct answer than if they'd just selected one of the 5 answers as part of their "come back to it later" approach.

This underscores why it is so important for children to have all the time allotted to them to contemplate their exam answers - even if they "finish" early they can go back and refine their answers, re-read the exam questions and perhaps catch a silly mistake or assumption they may have made etc etc.

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