Senior School SENCO help please - Laptops in Exams!!!

[goinggetstough]

My DS has permission to type his A2 exams and has completed all the relevant paperwork etc. He has complained often that the programme they have to use for exams is difficult to use in an exam situation because he doesn't know how much he has written. I have queried this with the school and they say the exam boards state they must use the "word pad" programme and this has no word count and it can't be added. If this is correct (is there a link?) does anyone have any strategies for getting round the problem that they have taught their students.

Is there a word limit on the exam? I don't understand why he needs to know how much he has written. There's no accurate way for anyone handwriting to keep track so why would there be for him? (I say all this as a dyspraxic dyslexic who used a laptop in all my exams including at university). I (and my hand writing friends) used to estimate by picking a line at random, counting the words and multiplying by the number of lines written.

Absolutely true blue but whereas on a normal handwritten page you can see how many pages you have written with this programme it is just continuous prose with paragraphs. Sorry if didn't explain myself well.

If you go to File -> Print Preview you can see how much of a page you have typed, or how many pages.

I see, I didn't realise the program was so basic. Wow. noblegiraffe is right, use Print Preview.

If a word processor allows the candidate to know what their word count is, it puts those candidates who write with a pen at a disadvantage.

amerryscot I don't think it does as if you are writing by hand you can see how many pages you have written and this programme doesn't allow you to do this. Having it split into pages would be best but as an alternative we were looking to see if there was a word count alternative.
fidgety I think you are correct. I had looked at the JCQ regs and they state a spell check must not be used,but nothing else. I was worried I was missing something.
Thanks everyone for your comments.