GCSE exam clash

[Citygirlrurallife]

Has anyone had experience of an exam clash where there is already another exam that day? One day this summer DS is scheduled to have an English Lit exam at 9am and two further exams (Computer Science and Mandarin Listening and Reading so actually 3 exams scheduled!) at 1:30pm one day. Have done some googling (and emailed the school just waiting to hear back) and found that usually an exam clash means you do them back to back but that would mean him doing 3 exams that day and with them being very different that’s a lot of context switching! Has anyone managed to get one of the clashes moved to another day - isn’t that what contingency day is for?

That’s not what the contingency day is for - students can’t sit an exam on a different day from everyone else unless they’ve basically been supervised and not allowed to use their phone or the internet in that time. Occasionally done overnight but sitting three exams in one day is far far easier.

Clashes are quite common- half of DSs year have at least one GCSE clash this year. Schools are very used to it.

No - he will sit all exams in the same day.

It's so he can be continually supervised by exam staff and no chance of speaking to his friends about the questions in the paper they sat earlier.

The exam officer will already have planned for this, it happens to some children every year. They will speak to your child about exact arrangements.

I remember someone in my school staying overnight with a teacher for some weird clash/can’t get to the exam problem (I bet that wouldn’t happen nowadays!)

three exams is a lot, but I remember having two x 3-hour exams on one day and surviving. What’s the schedule like day before and after?

This is very common. I had 5 students with 3 back to back exams last june. Unfortunately he will just have to do them. Plenty of snacks and a big bottle of water!

DS had this. We had to collect him from school by car, sign to guarantee that he’d be quarantined (no internet access), he had his phone confiscated by school overnight. Then we had to sign him in the next morning confirming that he’d been in isolation.
they used to host students at a teacher’s house in the past for this circumstance but then there were too many safeguard ing issues around it.

If total time for the exams goes above a limit (5.5hrs??) then he will get a small consideration for the last one, I think.

Unless the total is over 6hrs he has to do them all in a day.

We do very occasional overnight supervisions for. Alevel but that's when the exams are usuaally over 8 or 9 hrs.

His exams officer will resolve the clashes and you should speak to them directly.

It's really common. There will be a plan.

Also op, there are no rules about eating in exams

I'm an EO in a big school and I let my pupils with clashes or access arrangements bring unwrapped sweets to suck for energy.

Also they don't have to have water, as long as the bottle is clear it can be orange juice or an electrolyte drink etc.

They normally pick one (usually with least candidates or shortest paper) and keep them in isolation until they can take it. Ideally on same day but there is a limit on overall time spent in exams per day.

Here are the rules OP.

Sorry I don't think that is clear.

Google JCQ ICE guidelines. It's freely available.

Actually I don’t think HCSE clashes are that common, but Mandarin is not so commonly taken hence the clash.

Very common at A level. None of my DC had GCSE clashes but DD had an A level one, geography and French. Luckily a friend also had a clash (FM and geog) so they were together in a room doing IIRC their geog paper early. They then stayed in the room all day, no phones obvs, until they went to their afternoon exams.

The r and l exams are only an hour tho I presume? So he’ll just be in school till about 5pm? It’s tough but that’s just how it is. He can’t do one three weeks later or he’d know the questions.

Most gcse papers are 2 hours max, so 1:30-3:30 comp sci and 4:00-5:00 mandarin rand l for example.

Having gone through this last summer with DD she had two days with clashes and 3 exams each day. It was knackering. Basically they did one exam. Had a supervised 20 min break then the next. So she finished late in the afternoon.

Not read the full thread so not sure if this is mentioned but it's to do with the hours. If it goes over a certain amount of time they can do the clashed exam the following day. With certain conditions set for supervision.

Ok good to know. We’ll prep him to do all 3. For me it’s more that it’s massive context switching to go from essay writing in English to programming in code to listening and reading in mandarin than about the time spent doing it really. If it was a physics/maths/further maths day it wouldn’t be such a big deal

Well that happens all the time tho. Maths in the am, history in the pm.

When I said an hour for the Mandarin, I meant an hour each. How long is the CS exam? School has the discretion IME to pull the CS one forward - so Eng lit 9-11, then CS 11.30-1.30 then Mandarin 2-4pm. But ofc he has to be in isolation for all that time. Worth liaising with school tho.

It's really common and he'll be fine.

He presumably switches context every lesson change anyway, and has been for nearly 5 years...

Cool I’ll ask them about this. Computer science is 1:45, mandarin 1hr x2

its his first day of exams as well!! Ah well, worse things happen at sea

The exams officer will have it all sorted

My DD has three exams one day. She also has extra time which means the total time is over the 5.5 hours limit for GCSEs (A-level limit is 6h in one day).
We discussed this with school and had the option of sitting them all in one day (you would get 'special consideration' for the final exam which is only 2%), or moving one exam to the following day, which fortunately only has one exam timetabled in the afternoon.
Given that my DD has ADHD and processing difficulties we decided that she would be too tired and unable to concentrate for over 6 hours and a 2% uplift wouldn't compensate for that.
As her clash is in the afternoon she has been told she can decide which one to sit the following morning and we just have to ensure she is supervised overnight with no phone/internet and she can't get the school bus

I think that's probably because clashes tend to occur between exams that are less commonly taken together. My DS did two A levels that are very frequently taken together and one that isn't. The 2 commonly combined ones were spread far apart but the other one was on the same day twice and at the same time once. Timetabling all those exams must be a logistical nightmare so I guess they schedule the most common combinations, so they don't clash meaning that if you do get a clash they're more likely to be dissimilar subjects.

It's a long day have multiple exams on the same day. Based on my son's experience I would say a key thing is to ensure that they've got plenty of high energy snacks for the break and enough water to last the day to ensure good hydration.

It happened to DD1 at A level when Physics and English were at the same time. Students were told to do the longer exam first, which was Physics for her. However, the formula sheet which had been downloaded was the wrong one, so the students were all asked if they wanted all of them to have a delayed start, or just the Physics lot, whilst new sheets were printed. They decided that they'd all start late, so it was rather a long day for DD. Still, can't have done her any harm as she scraped A stars in both.

This has been normal for at least 30 years (I’m 41 and I had at least 3 delays of GCSEs with 3 exams). These days, they are often better spaced out but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Your child will just have to suck it up like everyone else.