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

It sounds as if he may have been allowed to develop a manner of working in his exams that may not be exactly as permitted; so either way the head of exams has something to sort out there. I hope it can be clarified properly for him before any other papers where a similar thing might apply, so he can rethink how he does his planning if necessary.

My DS is sitting STEP maths papers and I understand they don't allow any extra paper beyond the booklets. I'm crossing my fingers tightly that he doesn't go too far down rabbit-holes on any questions that means he has to start again with a different approach (you'd expect to at least a little). The only vaguely equivalent maths exams I ever did had unlimited paper.

Another invigilator here. This situation also happened yesterday. A new invigilator, only a few years older than your son, handed out the incorrect extension sheet (we had several different papers with different exam boards all taken simultaneously) this may have been an explanation of how it happened in your son's case.

It was quickly rectified, and exam officer informed. Unfortunately, I'd be very surprised if additional points were given in this case. It's not really a serious administration error as the problem was noted quickly and resolved
. The appeals process exists to provide students who have real difficulties on the day (illness, death etc) I really don't think this situation will amount to that and nor should it.

You only get 5% special consideration of a parent dies so 1 to 2% is definitely the maximum you are looking at here, if anything.

yes, this is more my issue here.

I see DS’s papers often - the school has never once used official “booklets” and has always given additional A4 lined paper.

An other poster mentioned that they should be informing people about paper usage at the start - DS says this isn’t happening though

It sounds as if he may have been allowed to develop a manner of working in his exams that may not be exactly as permitted; so either way the head of exams has something to sort out there

Yes, it does. Maybe in the mocks they just gave out a load of loose leaf paper and in his mind he separated the planning paper from the paper he was writing his answers on. Then he assumed he should always do it this way because he didn't listen to the information at the start.

Honestly it feels like I’m being demonised for raising what is a valid concern just because XYZ had it worse. I’m quite assured that DS did well anyways (he does 5 language A-Levels)

We haven’t gone demanding to the school for extra marks - we’ve laid out how he felt, what happened, and what their view was on it. He has similar papers yet to sit, (French) so I’d rather know now where we stand.

Either way, I’m glad I know now before this debacle could be repeated on another exam.

Best of luck to your DS - STEP is a formidable exam!

This is off topic but he’s doing 5 language a levels plus at least one other (history - you mentioned his coursework). Poor kid must be overloaded and beyond stressed. No wonder this has thrown him, he must be on a knife edge juggling all that.

as someone who has studied languages at university I am impressed there’s a school offering 5 languages to A level.

OP I mean this kindly and not as a criticism but if your son is reaching for the A* grade at what is likely to be an academic university and a small issue of paper is enough to cause the amount of stress to affect a grade he may really struggle to cope at uni. I worked at a Russell group uni and honestly admin errors and issues like this happen ALL the time. Students are expected to get on with it (lots of support in place for SEN students mind you but equally they are treated as adults). It is likely across his degree programme minor mishaps will happen and if he’s away from home and cannot cope it may cause a lot of stress. I would make peace with what is a small error, reassure your son even if he ‘just’ gets an A he’s got great options and consider his needs holistically not just drive for the highest academic grade.

I’m quite assured that DS did well anyways (he does 5 language A-Levels)

Crikey, why?! I never really understood the need for this. Would it not be better to focus on the standard three and get 3 A stars with a manageable workload than the immense stress this many must cause? Especially for a pupil who has additional needs.

Yes JCQ guidelines (which all centres follow) are clear on no extra paper and everything written in the booklet. The fact that he was stopped is a good thing otherwise it could have had to have been reported as malpractice

The current cohort of Year 13 haven’t sat formal exams before and mocks often let things slide you simply can’t in the actual exam (whose guidelines are incredibly strict).

Consideration for this does seem excessive.

My DD has extra time and special consideration due to health issues meaning she is in pretty much constant pain and has problems concentrating. She's been off school since Feb.

We drop her off at the school office and she is taken to the exam hall. One day they started the exam 15 minutes early (which I didn't think they were allowed to do), and didn't take her over to the exam hall until after the exam had started. They said they would give her the time she had missed at the end but they didn't. She was really thrown by everyone having started so it took her a while to get going and she had barely finished when her paper was taken away. The school immediately phoned us to apologise and said they would be asking for further consideration from the exam board. I think it was justified in those circumstances.

I'm an invigilator
We have to read from a script before each exam
Exactly the instructions as written
Every time
Respectfully, perhaps your ds wasn't paying attention/distracted?
Whilst I'm sure it was an irritation and the first invigilator was wrong, if that is enough to make him underperform, then you gave bigger issues tbh
Luckily, it was caught by a more experienced invigilator, so his paper won't be invalid
By all means, report to the exams officer (the lead invigilator will have reported it anyway...we have to note any issues and time of occurrence on our official paperwork ) but to ask for consideration on this basis is ott imo

It's hardly a debacle .

It’s lightyears away from a debacle.

I have an ASD daughter. You’d bet I’d be asking for special consideration. It would totally freak her out.

About 5 years ago my A level class we’re given the wrong answer booklets. They were swapped but it unsettled them. They were given special consideration.

I do plenty of mocks in class but they are just on loose paper and generally not to the exact format of the exam (for time/curriculum reasons). However the actual questions are nearly always taken from the real exam materials or written myself to replicate them closely. The purpose of classroom mocks is to give students practice writing to time and organising their answers, not to use exam hall conditions. In all honesty, teachers have not invigilated real exams for years and we are not very well informed of the rules (because we don’t need to be). I wouldn’t have a clue about extra paper etc because it’s literally not my job to know. So you can’t rely on classroom mocks to be a simulation of the real exams. They should have done at least one set under exam conditions though.

My son is autistic and is at a Russell Group Uni doing maths and yes there is support in place. If we had accepted that "small" issues were not worth raising throughout ds's school life he would have not managed. It is the minutiae of daily life that trips up ND people. So he has learned to advocate for himself, and challenge - politely and constructively. He is raising a few small things now as mitigating circumstances that may affect his exam performance. There is a process for doing that. It may only be an additional 1% or amount to nothing but every mark counts for him. He is a perfectionist, makes for a good mathematician but not relaxing company 😂

So absolutely you can sweat the small stuff and go to an RG uni.

.

@JadeEmpress the papers of your ds’s that you have seen are internal exams and really have no bearing on this situation.

His exams are subject to JCQ regulations which you can easily Google. He will have been read / played a standard speech before the start of the exam which states clearly that all rough work should be done in the booklet. This will have happened immediately before the start of the exam and is the speech where there is a pause for students to write their name on the booklet. He may not have listened to the speech or followed the instructions which are given - many do not but it will have happened.

Inam sorry your ds felt unsettled by the experience - exams are a challenging time for many students - but it does not sound like any cause for complaint or that the invigilator cocked up - he was given extra paper in error - presumably because the invigilator A thought he had run out of space but when invigilator B realised the mistake they removed the paper given in error.

Yes it’s nice to write a plan on a separate piece of paper but JCQ regulations do not permit this and explicitly say “all rough work should be done in the answer booklet and then crossed through with a single line” (you will be able to find this speech easily with a Google).

The only thing unfortunate - as another poster mentioned - is that he has been allowed to develop a style of working which is not in accordance with JCQ regulations - and this may be worth raising with the school to make exams run smoothly for other students in the future.

Many thanks all for the advice (less so for the unbalanced criticism….)

DS school has responded today and have set out essentially what others have said here. They have apologised for allowing unrealistic expectations in mocks and have noted it as a problem to address with future candidates as they recognise its not something they gave awareness too.

They also mentioned the possibility of extra consideration which they’d support, however since they’ve been good about it and DS has cooled off considerably since then (poor lad is stressed, as am I!) I’m not going to bother since it’s not worth it IMO.

on the 5 a level points, before anyone accuses me of putting undue pressure on my son or being a bad mum, 2 are native language A-Levels (Italian and French) - so realistically he is sitting about 3.5 in terms of workload.

No idea about other kids 🤷‍♀️

the school is very maths and sciency so i imagine they don’t really require extra paper as there’s not much essay writing

I would say this has probably come up as a problem because this year group didn't sit official GCSE's - so they've never had to use the official booklets and they haven't already been told a thousand times by the invigilators that rough work is done in the booklet and then neatly crossed through.

Most schools do mocks on lined paper but only proper answer books are allowed in exams. If this had happened in an exam I was in though I would have reiterated to the student (especially if autistic!) to do planning in the booklet and cross it through if they don't want it marked and that if they needed more booklets later to finish answering then no problem. We have extra booklets for every board (although one board does have extra sheets of 'special' lined paper rather than booklets). It's very common for students to use extra sheets and booklets which are then treasury tagged together.

I hope this hasn't thrown him too much, I think it's tough on the kids that didn't do GCSE's.