Help! Just done an exam, IT problems, should I contact uni's or not?!

Why would you tell unis that something possibly could have happened but maybe didn't? That's stupid. Either find out if it happened, and then take appropriate action or leave it. But don't waste their time or my time by making stupid threads.

Here's the situation. *there is a short section at the end in ** if you can't be bothered to read the entire thing*

I am in a new school for year 13, never did an exam with them before. I use a laptop for exams. The programme they opened up for me to use was notepad. Entire paragraphs went on one line ( which seemed to go on forever, and ever) . Having never used notepad before, I had no idea wordwrap existed (my dad told me about it when I got home) but I swear all the options I had under format was font. My work is going to be really badly structured! Futhermore, for some reason I couldn't click anywhere other than the beginning or the end of what I wrote. I spent more time in my exam scrolling then typing so i didn't get to write as much as I usually would, it consumed so much time. Not only did I find it impossible to check through my work in this way, (only being able to see on estimate a fifth of a paragraph on the screen) but they wouldn't let me see my paper printed off. In the past two school's I've done exams at, they made me sign that it was my work, so I got to check they'd printed it all out. Once my first school missed off a page somehow so we had to reprint!

The biggest problem is, when I got home my dad told me old versions of notepad, will only print up to a page's width. If this is the case they'll only have printed off about one fifth of my paper!!! We are going to phone the school up tommorow, but chances are they'll have deleted the document after printing it off.


The other problem is, I have health problems. The stress of exams, really makes them worse, if I have to retake this paper I'll have three exams in a week, which I know is not a lot compared to some people, but the max I had last year was two, and I hadn't recovered for my third exam weeks later, and got hospitalised straight after that.

I'm a lot better this year, but who knows how I'll be in the summer, it would really be better for me to do the smallest amount of exams as possible. So if all my paper did get printed off, and I got a C (which is probabaly the max I'll get from the amount of time I spent actually answering the questions) I should be able to bring it up to an A with the summer paper. However, I'm predicted an A*. If I have to retake the exam, chances are it'll adversely impact how well I do in another subject, as that'll be the third exam in the week.

So do I let my uni choices know what happened?! Because there is no way I'm going to meet my prediction now and it may bring another subject down a grade retaking? Can uni's withdraw offers?!

(Oh and it won't happen again, my dad talked to the deputy head about not being able to see my paper printed off whilst I was sitting my exam, however he presumably didn't tell the exam officer as I hadn't seen it printed off and I had no idea the deputy had sided with us (and also agreed I could use Word next time). )

*SUMMARY FOR THOSE WITH LITTLE TIME*:
*Basically did exam on laptop, because of old version of notepad, it's quite possible only 1/5 of what I wrote was printed off. Even if it all printed off, the programme consumed most of time scrolling rather than anwering the exam; it did my paragraphs on one line and I wasn't able to click to places. So best case scenerio, I won't have done very well. Do I let the universities I've applied for/ have offers from know what happened and that I won't reach my prediction? Do I also let them know, because of my health problems, taking three exams in a row is likely to affect my performance in another subject so I may not reach my prediction in that either?*

I had 9 exams over 8 days last session out of which on 3 days it was two exams a day. I got stressed out and bombed one of my exams completely and I tryed to explain it to people but they didnt seem to understand either. Hope it works out for you. Also sorry for being direct, but If I read what you just posted here as an admission tutor I probably would not think very highly of it. It seems your trying to blame too much on one action. I understand one paper went badly for you and uni's might recognize that and wont mind if its lower then the prediction. But anything above that is a bit too much. They're going to be asking themself " Do we really want a person who cant handle 3 exams in one week when there are other applicants who do maybe 2-3 times that much and come out fine? " . Those many exams are generally expected at university level anyway. My advice : Dont ask universities for any sympathy over this.

Ahh that sucks I think my exams were like that at GCSE but not since! Did you do retakes?

Well not being able to see what I'd written properly and wasting a huge amount of time seemed like a big deal at the time however I wish I could get this thread deleted. I'm really embarrased - I got 77/80 UMS (96percent) Good thing I took everyones advice and didn't contact any admissions tutors.

The thing is it might seem like every exam, but autoimmune dieseses flare up during times of stress, so during exams the scenerio has been some random internal organ decides to become inflamed, or my immunity is lowered because my body is too busy attacking itself to remember defence, so i get infected with something nasty. Jan was the first time where I was reasonably well for an exam, so I felt gutted that I wasn't able to fufill my potential... but can't really complain now I've got the result

Uni's have varying levels of sympathy, part of me thinks I should firm Loughborough just because they were so understanding and the disability person suggested if exams are too strenuous for me they can arrange alternative ways of assesment (more coursework most likely) because exams are supposed to test ability rather than stamina.

Working on the assumption that you took your exam in a centre which is regularly used for public examinations, there's a pretty fair chance that the exams officers are geared up for people using laptops - it's not really uncommon - and are professional enough to use the appropriate software and judgement. Go and express your concern to them if it will make you feel better, but I think it highly likely they will know what they are doing.