Exam invigilators

[TheExtraGuineaPig]

Does anyone work as an exam invigilator? I was wondering what it’s like, how much work do you get and most importantly where is the best place to look, is there a specific site or agency?

I'd say it's pretty boring work lots of standing around walking around an exam hall. I've been one in between teaching jobs

I do. I did it, as part of my job at school, though not in my job description, but now do it in retirement. I generally invigilate for students who need additional support, so scribing, reading or one to one. Generally, if im honest, its quite boring. A lot of students who require extra time dont use it, so youre sat in silence until the exam ends. I and the others at our school, are employed directly through the school. There's ads on the school website every year, but you could ring and ask to speak to the exams officer. We have to do safeguarding training(KCSIE) annually and exams training. The pay is usually minimum wage. So if it's a 2 hour exam 25.42. There wasnt that many exams in the afternoon last year for our school and I only choose to work 4 days, so I didnt get a lot for this summer. Your day is broken up a bit and of course youre commited to being available during gcses/goes and at least 2 mocks. If youre in the main exam hall, youre on your feet for the duration.

It’s marginally more interesting invigilating university students. You do ID and equipment checks for each exam, and the exam halls are much bigger, so more students and more invigilators.

I do it for a local school, employed by them directly. I’m retired, so topping up my pension, but it’s not well paid (£13 ish ph) . Have to do quite a bit of training (paid), with yearly refreshers. It’s pretty tedious, and obviously work’s only there during the exam seasons (also mocks). The school wants availability at the appropriate times, so it can affect other activities . Some people also do it at local universities. I think one would contact them directly. And many of the other invigilators are retired teachers, and a bit bossy!

I have been invigilating for about eight years since retiring. It can be very boring but I’m generally a reader/ scribe for children who struggle to access the papers.
I invigilate about four times a year. Year 10 and 11 mocks October/ November again Jan/ Feb and then the actual GCSE exams in May/ June. The pay varies depending on schools/ Uni but is not less than the minimum wage.
You can check out vacancies on school/college/ Uni websites or email local schools. There are also Teaching agencies that offer invigilating.
As part of my role I have annual training provided by the school for up to date JCQ guidance, safeguarding and I expect this year training will include Benedict’s Law which is to do with allergies, anaphalxis and school policies.
You will also need to be DBS checked. The relevant institution will do it for you.
Yes it can be very boring but it’s good to help the children. Where I work I can sign up for as much or as little as I want but that might not apply to all settings.
Good luck.

Heaven forbid as a teacher me being bossy! I find it’s the retired school support staff that are the bossy ones.

i do it every year for the exams in Scotland. I work in a large secondary school and usually with individual students or small groups who can’t be in the main hall for whatever reason - this year I had a lad with a broken leg who needed to get up and hobble round the room every 30 minutes, and a student who had a scribe to write her answers.

pay is pretty much minimum wage but holiday pay on top for about £14.25 an hour. Yes it’s boring but on a 1 to 1 or small group I read a book. In Scotland recruitment is handled centrally by the SQA and they pay for the police checks. Most of my fellow invigilators were former teachers or other self employed people who had timefir a short period.

Also to add I’m not a teacher and hadn’t worked in a school before.

How can you be invigilating whilst reading a book?

It's both boring and stressful (always keeping an eye out for a student in some kind of need) and underpaid but the large school I invigilate in has a lovely team and I've made some good friends through it. I've also picked up extra casual admin work in the exams office. Oddly, we have just one retired teacher out of about forty invigilators, and she's primary rather than secondary and not bossy at all. Perhaps I'm the bossy one!

I do commit to May and June plus mocks (December and March) and the summer can be a slog, putting it mildly, if you do all day every day, but the flexibility suits me and it's fine as a top-up income (I also work from home doing something else). The big plus is the students - ours are great and the feeling of doing something positive for them in one of their toughest times is good.

Reading a book is verboten!

Because I only have one student to watch who is right in front of me, 3 feet away, and I’ve checked before the exam starts that their phone /bag is well out of reach.

It's way stricter than it used to be whenever we were at school

You definitely cannot read a book, whoever says they're doing that or doing it wrong, and I would agree that they're very bossy, but they're bossy because you have to get it right and teachers are bloody annoying!!

You are not allowed to read a book while invigilating.

Certainly in England it is completely forbidden. It's in the invigilator rules & training. You are not allowed to do anything that takes your attention away from the student/s

Back in the day we used to be allowed to read a book & I'd look forward to exam season so I could catch up on my reading 🤣. From memory they brought the rules in around 2014 (maybe earlier) and I dreaded invigilating. Deadly boring but having to stay vigilant!

I've invigilated 1:1 too and reading is definitely not allowed

I invigilated for a few years after retiring from teaching (Early Years). It can be boring but it was OK for some extra money a few times a year. I was employed directly by the school and was used to do Mocks and Computer exams which not all schools do. TA's did the Reading and Scribing for children who needed it so I never did that. Teachers are not allowed in the Exam hall and are not allowed to see the papers beforehand (despite a post on another current thread).

The rules get stricter every year as there are more ways to cheat now - watches are no longer allowed for example.

Yes I know that reading a book whilst invigilating is ridiculous, that's why I asked the poster who said she reads a book why she does it.

That might be true as I started doing it in 2015 and it was definitely forbidden then.

Yes, they're very strict about teachers being in the exam hall and we're not allowed to see the paper till 24 hours after either

Its different at a university as they are adults so less training was needed. We had a number to call if we suspected cheating. One of the invigilators would have to take students to the toilet (stand outside the toilets)which we previously searched for hidden papers etc. Some students asked daft questions which we sort of had to make up sensible answers for e.g can I use a highlighter pen, can I wear earplugs. As employees of the college we mainly did the 2 hour exams which were less boring, and some practical exams like handing around rocks in geology.

Now and into September is a good time to look at university jobs sites if you have any local universities. I know of one that only recruits in September for casual invigilators who are not considered staff members. Resits are also done in late July or August.
I’be done it a few times when I worked at a university when staff members had to alongside their day job - admin staff not academics. I also worked in the exams team for a bit and one job was accompanying students to the toilets. Students can and do hide bits of paper up their sleeves to look at in the toilet cubicle!

I haven’t been about to log in since yesterday - these replies are great, so helpful! Thanks everyone 😊

I used to but not through an agency I worked in a local secondary school and a University. I applied to them directly.
The work is of course seasonal but during the exam period I could more or less have as much or as little work as I wanted. I enjoyed working with small groups that had additional needs or individual students who needed 1/1 supervision but invigilating the large exams often involved a lot of walking up and down in a hot stuffy overcrowded room. I was always happy to take someone out to the toilet to have a break!
Sometimes collecting the exam scripts in exactly the right order and checking them could be stressful.