Laptop for exam- will it work

[Orchidflower1]

Dn is sitting the rest of his exams next week ( in Scotland so it’s not half term). He has hurt his wrist so has been allocated some extra time and a laptop. This is a recent thing as not all of his exams have been taken in this manner.

My dbro and particularly sil are worried about what will happen if the laptop goes down/ stops working etc. I’ve said I’m sure that it’s all checked etc and surely the invigilators check it’s working before hand.

If there was an issue does anyone know what would happen? Dbro is convinced he would then be given his mock grade which dn wasn’t happy with.

My dc are much younger and we have the English education system so hopefully someone can allay the fears of my sil!

It will be fine. Lots of students in the school will use laptops for exams for various reasons and they’ll be special exam ones. The school will deal with this all the time, please don’t panic.

The laptop will be either fully charged or plugged in, it’s part of the exam officer’s job to arrange and check that. If there were to be any unforeseen technical issues, measures would be taken (more extra time) to ensure your son wasn’t disadvantaged.

I can only think of one time when a computer issue caused a problem, and it was a software glitch to do with spacing out paragraphs in long written answers- the candidate was told to just type and then given time with the exams officer at the end to reformat before printing.

It's extremely unlikely that anything will go wrong. But if it does there will be a spare and his time will be suspended until the new laptop is setup.

DS uses a laptop in school for his exams - we're in Scotland too. He does the exams separately in a different room rather than in hte hall with everyone else. The IT problems we have had concerned the prelims, memory sticks an DS rather than a hardware fault....

Your child won't be the only one on a laptop, OP. There will be lots of children doing their exams using alternative arrangements and they'll just slot him in. Give the Learning Support department at school a ring on Tuesday (or Monday if you're not on holiday) and ask how it all works.

(Exams finished here, my DS is out celebrating!!)

Oh and on the mock/prelim thing - I don't think so. The one issue we had at Prelim time was a paper not being saved properly onto a memory stick and then lost, so DS didn't get a prelim mark in that subject at all. We were assured that in the real exam processes are differnent and papers can't be lost in the same way - DS says the work is saved locally onto a hard drive, then immediately printed to hand to the invigilator. If it gets lost, print another copy.

Appeals based on prelims are nowhere near as common as they used to be. I would imagine that as a previous poster indicated they'd just stop the exam time and move him - easy as he'll be in a separate room. If that doesn;t work and for some reason he can't complete the exam then it's another conversation. If it's NAT5 and he's predicted to do well enough, and carry the subject on for Higher the sensible course of action would be to not worry about it, and just sit the Higher exam next year. If it's a subject he woudln't be continuing, you'd need to discuss with school and the SQA.

He will be fine. He will be given a special log-in which will allow very restricted access on the pc / laptop. Assuming Scotland tge same as England he will type in Wordpad and save his answers on a memory stick - this will be a new, blank one specifically for his use in exams. There is a special form the invigilator will fill out with him which specifies whether he typed all answers or whether some are in the answer book (multiple choice ones for example). The one thing to keep drilling into him is to keep pressing save regularly!! The invigilator will then ensure his work is printed and securely attached to his exam paper in accordance with the individual exam boards rules. The memory stick will then be erased.

The laptop / pc should be logged in before the exam starts (I log all students in before they enter the room - other centres may be different).

These are English rules but I imagine Scotland same / similar.

In the unlikely event of computer failure the timing would be stopped whilst it is rectified and then restarted. The responsibility to save his work does however lie with him.

Ds did all his public exams on a laptop and had no issues. The main problem is waiting to print out and hoping the printer works! Just tell him to save his work regularly and hands up quickly of there are any glitches. Will he get rest breaks? Might be better than extra time. A scribe may be an alternative option.

Thank you all for your informed responses. I’ve sent screen shots to dbro and SIL and they both feel sooo much better. I think because he hasn’t done all his exams in this manner it’s more of a worry.

Yes @Kitty it’s NAT5 level.

Thanks again everyone. I told them (dbro and sil) I could count on MN!!