Exam invigilator cocked up!

[JadeEmpress]

Hi all,

DS has sat one of his exams today, in which he asked for extra paper for planning an essay. This request was initially granted, yet a second invigilator rushed over and confiscated the additional booklet, saying it wasn't allowed for his paper (an Edexcel language exam), and it seems to have put him off track and adversely affected his performance - not very happy at all, as I would've thought that it was common practice and its referenced all over the internet!! Now have a stressed DS who has 4 more papers to go.

He has done the same in mocks, and there has never, ever been a problem. Google searches and JCQ information go at odds with what the examiner has done. He has uni offers to meet and this frankly isn't acceptable...

We have put in an appeal with the school and are hoping for special consideration, though I'm not confident of whatever the outcome will be - does anyone have any experience with this sort of dilemma? What should we be doing? What sort of special consideration, if any, is accorded? Google seems to be saying 1-2%, but this is ridiculous, surely, there's more consideration?

Would appreciate any input, v stressed

When I used to invigilate you were only allowed to provide continuation paper for it’s actual purpose as all continuation paper used must be submitted to the exam board, you weren’t allowed to use continuation paper to make notes that were then thrown away. The only exam where this was almost possible was media, but the notes had to be retained until the appeal window was over. Any paper bar continuation paper (and original answer books) were explicitly not allowed under JCQ regs.

Thanks for sharing.

DH, DS and I are very sure that what DS requested was explicitly allowed however - we wouldn’t be trying to argue an exception if there was already a rule in place - our problem lies within the fact that they seem to have disregarded what is provision that should’ve been made.

It’s important the school is aware. I would email the head of English and copy the head teacher and exams officer in too.
Rules are very clearly set out for exams and one of the invigilators was in the wrong.
You are right OP to want it reported to the exam board too.

Thanks. We have contacted the head of exams at DS’s school - hoping for a reply tomorrow. Exam head is reliable from past experience and impartial, so we should get an answer either way.

i shouldn’t think the exam board will need to know at this stage - im hoping they can rectify it without having to go complain to them as i really dont want to be causing too much trouble.

It was paper 1 today-listening, reading and translation, so no 300 word essays in sight. It even says on the front of the paper that you may have more space than you need, hence why no additional sheets would’ve been needed. Fingers crossed that your DS did ok.

DS doesn’t do spanish. He’s on edexcel - the papers started much earlier! This was his final paper.

Ah ok so Russian. Even on paper 2 there is sufficient space on the actual paper for responses. This is probably why an additional answer booklet wouldn’t have been given out.

Actually JCQ regulations state explicitly that students are not allowed additional paper for planning and that they are to write them in the exam booklet and neatly cross through anything he doesn’t want marked.

This is included in the speech read / played at the start of every exam so all students should be aware of this.

Whatever happens right now he needs to concentrate on the next exams, tell him it whatever happens he’s still on track and getting there and to just keep going, he can do it etc etc

He needs to move on and concentrate on the next exam. I am guessing that he is borderline in achieving the grades for university otherwise why the fuss. You really really need to step back when he goes to university.

So would the minor setback op needs ro complain about be that he was first given one, rather than it was taken away?

Also - I’ve said this on other threads - a student sitting in an exam hall CANNOT tell if they’ve got an A or an A*, otherwise why would we pay a lot of money for people to mark the papers? Nobody even knows where the grade boundaries are until after everything’s been marked! And students are notoriously terrible at judging what they’ve got right/wrong in my experience.

Students aren't allowed paper unless they need it to finish an answer. He should have done his planning in the booklet and crossed it out. As a PP says, this information is read out at the start of every exam.

If this genuinely threw him off his exam and he needs you to make this much a fuss on his behalf I think he is really going to struggle at uni.

You’re making a fuss out of nothing in the hope to use it as an excuse to get him a better grade by the sounds of it. It’s only 2% of a nose bleed or concussion or other more significant issue. Issues with extra paper are issues that don’t warrant special mitigation.

You sound very invested in such a small thing. What are you going to do when he goes to university and something tiny happens - storm down there and read the riot act?

I think the key bit of info missing from the op is that your son is autistic. This is relevant as "resilience" over what seems a minor setback is going to be harder and a perceived injustice is harder to overcome.

My ds is now in Uni and is preparing a "mitigating circumstances" request for a couple of his exams from these last few weeks. He has a separate room, a scribe and extra time. Making some of his maths exams 4+ hours long. He was put in a room off a busy corridor, several times people entered or tried to enter, he was listening to loud persistent drilling throughout one exam, and his glasses broke in one exam. All causing distractions. Ironically the main exam halls are in quieter parts of the campus with low chance of people wandering in and far from the construction work. DS with sensory issues is disproportionately affected by noise and wears ear protectors which is a small part of the reason for the separate room, the main is the need for a scribe so he can't be placed with others. So yes it is important to learn resilience but empathy towards those who do struggle with what seems "minor" to you is also important. I hope your ds gets the results he wants and has worked for op.

Until recently, I used to invigillate exams at the school I work in. Was extra paper part of the access arrangements the school was supposed to provide? If not, they have gone against that. Not providing the required access arrangements for a child with SEN shiuld be a bit more than a minor upset, but I'm afraid I don't know how JCQ sees that. It was always drilled into us to give kids with access arrangements that they needed.

Granted it's been a good few years since I sat exams but I always wrote an essay plan out first and then the essay. I only asked for continuation sheets if I had finished writing in the original booklet. Any paper written on has to be 'marked'. I'm not convinced they did anything wrong here OP.

Access arrangements are specific and not just give what they need. I have worked with students with a very wide range of complex access arrangements and it’s never included giving rough paper. JCQ is quite specific about paper!

Am I the only one that read the title and thought the invigilator was high on coke? 😂

Seems to be confusion - lots of posters saying extra paper is against rules?

I am an invigilator and the speech we give at the beginning of the exam states that tough work should be completed in the exam booklet and a line drawn through anything the candidate does not wish to have marked.
extra booklets or paper (depends on the board) are then provided if candidates have filled their answer booklet.
Clearly there was some confusion between invigilators regarding paper for rough work/planning and ideally your ds should have been reassured that he should fill the booklet as per the instructions at the beginning of the exam and then have extra paper if required. You could mention to the examinations officer that there was confusion, but I wouldn’t mention it to class teacher as they will be less familiar with the rules.
does this warrant special consideration? As invigilators we note down any issues eg I have had candidates with nose bleeds and the information goes to the examinations officer.

I know it's not what you want to hear but he is going to have to get used to unexpected issues arising like this. When at university he can discuss any special measures that can be put in place due to autism but this won't cover every eventuality.

It's always a risk when 'needing' high grades. Hopefully he's done enough but if he hasn't I hope he has a good plan b.

I didn’t say extra paper was against the rules. I said that having a separate sheet of paper for rough work etc is against the rules. They are specific that all rough work has to be done in the booklet. IF you use all the paper (including any additional pages) within the booklet then of course students can have extra paper to write their answers on.

These rules are read out to the students before every exam (and also would have been before their GCSES- I know their were no proper GCSEs for this year group but every school I know did proper formal exams for their year 11) so he will have heard these instructions many many times. Depending on the board it may also say it on the front of the paper.

assuming the exam Centre followed JCQ rules then it’s difficult to see what case he has.