computers in exams - question for secondary teachers please

[storminamooncup]

can any secondary teachers advise as I'm confused.

DD is a slow writer but otherwise does not have any ASN. She has 5 Highers and doing mix of AH and Hs in S6. She has had some timed essays and has found them difficult to complete in time. Had same issue in exams. Throughout the year however, her work is A grade standard when she is not being timed.

She says one of her teachers has offered to 'complete a form', so that she can use a computer in exam conditions to type rather than write her essays as she finds it is quicker to type than write. She says she was offered this last year but turned it down because she wanted to try writing. Now that her grades are in, and not as great as she wanted, she is now open to the offer of a computer.

here is where I'm confused though - should this not be just for kids who have ASN? DD has no diagnosis. DD insists anyone can get it if the teacher feels they are slow writers but capable of good marks if they can type instead. She says her teacher says all he has to do is complete a form to get it set up for her.

I'm torn - on the one hand, I want her to complete her essays in time and get the best marks she possibly can, but on the other, it doesn't sound correct, surely if its just a form, anyone can get it, and it becomes almost like cheating?

Can any secondary teachers advise me please as DD is confusing me.

Not a teacher, but ds has this for all of his exams. He's left handed and writes very neatly but painfully slowly. School suggested the computer as it would enable him to finish. Spell and grammar check are disabled I think so he gained no advantage from that.

It's correct that any student can choose to use ICT in an exam if they wish, this can be because of poor handwriting or slow writing or just because they prefer it. It's recorded in a different way to those with ASNs and spellcheck is turned off. Some schools won't promote this as they don't have enough laptops for everyone!

There will be undiagnosed SEN at school so it makes sense to offer it based on need.

Not a teacher but my DD hd this for her exams due to her handwriting. Under pressure of exams her writing gets rapidly illegible so one of her teachers suggested alternative exam arrangements which meant she was on Staged intervention but only for exam conditions. We kept all the paperwork and she has successfully been given the same arrangements for uni (even though most of these will already use computers but thought it better to be safe than sorry)

Not sure about Scotland, but in England the exams officer just has to state that typing is the students normal way of working.

I’m an ex teacher who left a few years ago, so this may have changed, but children were allowed to use laptops in exams, even if they didn’t have SEN, provided we had proof this was their usual way of working. The uptake for this was never high, because students had to provide their own, be totally responsible for it and we were often unable to provide safe storage so most didn’t want to cart a laptop round for two years or so just to prove it was their usual way of working.

Current teacher and it is my understanding that any child can request to type. As an exam marker it is also a god send. As another poster said, schools do not promote it as it would be difficult to provide word processing to all in the final exams and is a bit of a headache to organise.
Ah exams are also very long. Some subjects are over 3 hours.
I have always encouraged my pupils to ask their parents to email their guidance teacher as certainly in the school I teach parental requests tend to have more clout. Just state what you have in this post And your child should say they need it to. If they have some examples or running out of time etc when writing vs typing even better.
It isn't cheating just ensuring your pupil gets the same opportunity as others. Some of them are speed writers but 3 hours in, most of those scripts make you want to throw yourself off a bridge. A typed script actually means as a marker I actually get to see what your child is capable if not just how quickly they can write. Ideally i would have them all type.

Where you may get refused is if they were asking for extra time etc as then the teacher needs to provide evidence this is necessary but if it is simply just typing then I see no reason for it to be refused. You may find your child's teacher may ask them to do one or two essays handwritten just so they have proof they perform better when typing vs handwriting but if she is typing her coursework most of the time, then I would say this is how she submits work and is her most common way of working so it makes sense for it to be typed. My only advice would be for them to make sure they leave enough time to quickly read over their work. They will not get spell check and many a great script has been slightly tarnished by lots of typos (although they do not get marked down for that) it can detract from good work.

Thank you so much everyone, that's good to know.
When she does go to university, how does she arrange similar support if she's not disabled?

I would think that it is expected that ALL students use IT at Uni.

Speak to guidance or sfl at the school they may be able to advise. Once your child has accepted a place at the uni contact student support services to ask how your child gets the support they need. Having this be the 'norm' for assessment should help. However at uni it would likely be the student who would have to put in the request vs the parents.

Teacher here and knowledge of asn. In Scotland a formal diagnosis isn’t required in school to get support. Support is provided on a needs basis so if there is evidence that your dd needs IT to be able to compete with in time that that should be enough to allow her to access that support (IT) in exams.

Any candidate can request to type in SQA exams. As PP have said, however, it's not widely advertised as schools could not support this en masse.

Can they touch type? Might be an idea to try and maximise typing speed between now and next May.

Also might be worth ruling out additional support needs if that hasnt been done already. Why do they write slowly? Any chance of dyslexia or dysgraphia? Hypermobility also affects writing speeds.

No signs of dyslexia. Don't think DD has dysgraphia either as no issues with motor skills or spelling. Think she's just a slow writer (her obsession with long fake nails likely doesn't help eiither).

Just do it!

DD used a computer for her exams as she has some sort of joint issue where her hands hurt and swell when she writes.

Another child used a computer because, although very bright and able, his handwriting was so bad even he couldn't read it.

I don't think it's a big deal now, there are lots of reasons to use a computer and it really helped DD so I would just ask for the form to be filled in.

As others have said, if you can establish it as the "normal way of working" this can be organised via the exams officer. But you may need to provide a laptop for class use and ensure it's charged each day (unless the school has them readily available/charged/capable of emailing work as otherwise the teacher will never see class work and DD won't have a copy either).

Don't assume a device can be charged in school or that WiFi will be readily available/at all.

Don't assume a student can type any quicker than they can handwrite. This needs checking on and practice.

Some parts of exams have to be or are better done by hand (diagrams, workings, multiple choice). Switching between hand and typing takes time and students have to be careful to number questions and check tje script makes sense once collated. You're trusting the school to competently print and collate stuff and not lose a page...

Mocks and in class assessments can't always be done on laptop unless the student has their own.

In England at least, you can type some subjects and handwrite others if you wish, however.

As you can see, laptop use does have its downsides, ones that in my experience under 16s need a fair bit of help to navigate. Certainly worth it for a fluent typer in an A-level essay subject. More marginal elsewhere and some students don't like being different and won't use the darn thing! Or it's never charged.

I'm in England so ignore anything that doesn't apply.

Sorry to revive this thread - just looking into typing for DS’ exams next year. I can see lots of references to typing but this seems to cause a problem switching back and forth between a plain word processing sheet on screen and a paper copy of the exam. Sounds like one of those situations where the help creates a whole load of other problems and isn’t as easy or helpful as it should be!!

has anyone got permission to type on to a pdf version of the question paper using a PDF editor (eg Adobe Reader etc)?

it would make it equivalent to doing the exam on paper but just with electronic assistance.

thanks

I think you'd better have a look at the JCQ regulations. I've never heard of this being allowed, probably because centres wouldn't have a pdf of the paper you can't edit them anyway as they're watermarked.

A pdf copy is one of the adapted papers which can be specially ordered for access arrangements. Edexcel do one with interactive boxes that can be typed into directly. No other exam boards yet. But they all offer non-interactive pdfs interestingly - so far it seems that the technology is all very low-tech. Surprising!

It's not that surprising. I take it you haven't seen the state of the school laptop collection in most schools?!

😂

My DS was allowed to use a computer and had (20%?) extra time in exams with no formal diagnosis and on the say-so of the school.

I was an invigilator with the SQA for the exams this year and around 25% in some exams had additional arrangements like more time or a scribe.

Silly me - just seen this is Scotland, sorry!

All ASN support is needs based. No diagnosis is needed.

I can’t imagine you would be allowed to use your own laptop in an exam!

Most secondary children have access to chrome books or similar in school (and would be unlikely to be allowed to connect their own device to the schools WiFi)

I don't know about the rules on who can use computers (but teachers must think it would be approved).

But we only found out close to the exams that the device dd used would need to be kept in school from before the 1st exam (to check nothing could be accessed during exams) until after the last.

As dd depended on the computer for work, had all her notes for 3 years coursework on the device etc, she couldn't actually hand up "her" pc. School devices were all laptops - but dd device (for 5 years) was an apple mac (she took mine when lockdown happened as we didn't have a laptop and she needed a device - so it was perfect for everything up to that point as could link to school systems even though different).

So we ended up getting a new Mac, to send to school for the exams, and which we then sold again after exams.

So be prepared to have a second device available (hopefully school devices are what your DC is used to and can be used) if DC uses their own device as part of their normal schoolwork/study notes etc.