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Secondary education

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Original poster

DD has two A-level exams at the same time

45 replies

tulippa · 01/01/2023 13:02

DD has two AQA exams scheduled on the same afternoon. She's been told she has to take them one after the other so she will have four hours of exams in one afternoon. Not ideal.

Is this normal or is there any way to get them scheduled at different times?

OP posts:
Dogsgottabone · 01/01/2023 13:06

I'm an EO.

It's totally normal. She will get a break between the exams in the presence of an invigilator.

The only alternative is her taking it the next morning if her school offers overnight supervision (boarding schools etc).

It sucks but it happens to some pupils every year.

sailingsunshine · 01/01/2023 13:07

Yes it's normal, she will get a supervised break between the 2 exams.

Reugny · 01/01/2023 13:08

Norm and has been for decades.

She will be accompanied between exams to ensure those who have already taken the paper can't talk or communicate with her.

NuffSaidSam · 01/01/2023 13:10

When this happened to some people at my school in the 90's they had to sleep over at a teachers house and do the exam the next morning! Can't believe that was allowed to happen! Doing them both on the same afternoon, with a break seems a better solution.

EL8888 · 01/01/2023 13:14

It’s just one of those things, she will have to do them on the same day

percypig · 01/01/2023 13:19

This is normal and there’s no way round it. My son had a clash of GCSE exams one afternoon last year, along with an exam in the morning. The sleeping at a teacher’s house isn’t done anymore and the internet/social media means it’s impossible to keep the content of exams secret after the exam is over, so what has been proposed is the only option.

SisterGabriel · 01/01/2023 13:19

NuffSaidSam · 01/01/2023 13:10

When this happened to some people at my school in the 90's they had to sleep over at a teachers house and do the exam the next morning! Can't believe that was allowed to happen! Doing them both on the same afternoon, with a break seems a better solution.

This was always the terrifying rumour when I was at school in the 90s. We were properly frit of that happening. And now I’m a teacher and still can’t think of anymore terrifying than pupils staying over at my house 😱

Simonjt · 01/01/2023 13:24

Yep, normal, I had this when I sat my A2’s as they were then, they really cannot reschedule an exam for one child when the entire population if students studying for that subject will be sitting the exam at the same time.

Papergirl1968 · 01/01/2023 13:27

I remember that happening too in the mid 80s, Nuff!

LIZS · 01/01/2023 13:29

Dd had two clashes, not that unusual, and there will be protocols to follow even overnight isolation.

2bazookas · 01/01/2023 13:34

Its totally normal. We all did it.

You can help her exam performance by teaching her to stay calm and methodical under pressure.

There care umpteen opportunities at home to show her how , all the way through 6th form.....organising her time/ homework/social life/hobbies/ revision. Basics like self care, eat well, get enough sleep. Make a list, make a plan, carry it out. Mistakes are not the end of the world, learn from them.

 Those are invaluable skills in examinations, and even more useful in adult life.
ProfessionalWeirdo · 01/01/2023 13:55

I remember that happening too in the mid 80s, Nuff!

I remember it happening in the early 70s! One lot of pupils at my school had three exams scheduled for the same day: two in the morning and one in the afternoon. They had to sit one of the morning exams the previous afternoon, then sleep at the school overnight and sit the other two exams as per the exam timetable - having spent the night in between in sleeping bags on the floor of the school hall. What a nightmare...

clary · 01/01/2023 14:03

Yes this happened to my DD four years ago. She had a clash between a geography exam and a French exam. Luckily (as it goes) a good friend had a clash with the same geog exam and a FM exam.

So the both did the geog exam in seclusion; I think they must have done it earlier; then they had a supervised break (no phones obvs) and went into their other exams. The reason I think they did the clashing exam earlier is that DD definitely did the French exam with the other girl doing French (also a friend as it goes). But I might have got the exact structure a bit round my neck.

But yy certainly a thing. The standout factor for me (and for DD tbh) was that she had Amelia with her in geography and Georgia with her in French so she wasn't doing either exam totally alone and had someone to talk to about it in both cases. Obviously I mean she talked toi them about it after they had finished the exam lol. But that shared "wow that was hard" was important for her.

Sorry OP your dd will just have to suck it up. They cannot be rescheduled. Will there be anyone else in the same position (ie anyone else who does her combo of subjects)?

Purplemagnolias · 01/01/2023 14:05

Very normal.

They get a supervised break between the exams

TheTeenageYears · 01/01/2023 14:09

Happened during DS's GCSE's - first exam was taken 1.5 hours before schedule by anyone affected by the clash. They came out 15 minutes after everyone else went in and gave time for a break before the second exam which was taken at published time.

chickbean · 01/01/2023 14:09

SisterGabriel · 01/01/2023 13:19

This was always the terrifying rumour when I was at school in the 90s. We were properly frit of that happening. And now I’m a teacher and still can’t think of anymore terrifying than pupils staying over at my house 😱

Show quote history

This happened to me. A friend and I stayed at a teacher's house overnight. It was fine - despite it being the strictest teacher in school.

Original poster
tulippa · 01/01/2023 14:12

Thanks everyone. Guess it's always going to happen to someone isn't it? There's one exam that she'd definitely prefer to get out of the way first so I'll speak to the school closer to the time to see if they can schedule it that way.
She's pretty methodical and structured with her revision so she should cope ok and I'll supply her with extra Mars bars on the day.
And she'll be glad she doesn't have to stay overnight at her teacher's house! Shock

OP posts:
Prescottdanni123 · 01/01/2023 14:14

Very normal. I had to do it.

It is the exam board, not the school who schedules the exams, so every school/college are doing each one at the same time. If they weren't all done at the same time, they'd tell students from other schools what the questions were or post them on social media or sell the information. And she can't do one of her exams on a different day for this reason.

She'll be fine. It is a bit of an intense day but they often arrange it so they have a few hours break in between to have lunch/do revision.

antipodeancanary · 01/01/2023 14:14

As a former invigilator I've often had to supervise these students. We used to give them a toilet break, a bit of a walkabout if they wanted, hopefully they had brought a snack and drink, then another toilet break if needed. Up to about half an hours break. It might be she is the only one or more likely there will be a few of them.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/01/2023 14:16

Happened to me in 1979, but less inconveniently. Two A level exams scheduled for the same morning. One must have been Greek, as I was the only candidate for that. I took the other exam with everybody else and then at the end I had to go with the invigilator (a teacher, all our exams were invigilated by teachers at the time) to THE STAFFROOM. Less scary than staying with a teacher overnight, but spending the lunch hour in the staffroom with the staff was still a bit daunting! Did the other exam that afternoon. As I knew absolutely nobody else taking A level Greek and mobile phones/internet were things from scifi films at the time, the chances of finding out what was in the paper during that lunch hour were non-existent, but I understood the reasons for my seclusion.

BanjoVio · 01/01/2023 14:17

NuffSaidSam · 01/01/2023 13:10

When this happened to some people at my school in the 90's they had to sleep over at a teachers house and do the exam the next morning! Can't believe that was allowed to happen! Doing them both on the same afternoon, with a break seems a better solution.

This still happens if the duration of the exams combined is longer than 6 hours for A Level (or 5h 30m for GCSE). This is a very real situation for those entitled to extra time especially.

Tinysoxxx · 01/01/2023 14:45

One will be moved to the morning. If your Dd has a preference, see if you can talk to the exams officer asap, as psychologically it can make a difference. If people have extra time or have 3 clashes (happened to someone doing a Spanish/Science/Humanities combo) then you have to fill in a form to say all social media/internet access will be switched off overnight and they do the third the next morning.

clary · 01/01/2023 14:55

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/01/2023 14:16

Happened to me in 1979, but less inconveniently. Two A level exams scheduled for the same morning. One must have been Greek, as I was the only candidate for that. I took the other exam with everybody else and then at the end I had to go with the invigilator (a teacher, all our exams were invigilated by teachers at the time) to THE STAFFROOM. Less scary than staying with a teacher overnight, but spending the lunch hour in the staffroom with the staff was still a bit daunting! Did the other exam that afternoon. As I knew absolutely nobody else taking A level Greek and mobile phones/internet were things from scifi films at the time, the chances of finding out what was in the paper during that lunch hour were non-existent, but I understood the reasons for my seclusion.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I did A level Greek! I was also the only one haha.

This was in 1982 so close to you, wow what a coincidence! Luckily I didn't have a clash but I clearly recall the final Greek exam being on the afternoon of the day we all brought our books back to school and chatted about "what are you doing this summer?" I was all "well I have Greek prose [English into ancient Greek - the WORST] this afternoon so".

This was on 1 July as well - exams were bit later in those days lol.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/01/2023 15:21

@clary, I did that paper too! It was tough but the alternative was doing additional set texts, IIRC, and in the long run I think the prose paper stood me in better stead as I went on to do a Classics degree. We did the prose option for Latin A level as well (I was one of three taking that). Happy days!

clary · 01/01/2023 15:36

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/01/2023 15:21

@clary, I did that paper too! It was tough but the alternative was doing additional set texts, IIRC, and in the long run I think the prose paper stood me in better stead as I went on to do a Classics degree. We did the prose option for Latin A level as well (I was one of three taking that). Happy days!

Love it Grin Brilliant that you then did classics. We actually had about a dozen people doing Latin A level (I took French and German instead of Latin) but only me on the Greek. Man I recall how tough that was - when I ran out of prepared Homer I just had to plough on! Did more work for the A level than just about anything before or since!

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