Terrible Invigilators

I was inspired to start this thread after sitting prelims over the last few days. Our invigilators seem to have no idea of how to be quiet.

The other day, the higher maths paper finished half an hour before the advanced higher one, and after dismissing the higher students, the two old ladies stood and chatted at the front of the hall with no respect for the rest of us working!

This morning there were about 50 students sitting papers in a mix of subjects, halfway through the exam they start boiling the (noisy!)kettle and making cups of tea :s-smilie:

After that I accidently knocked my sheets of answers onto the floor where they flew under peoples chairs and my answers could have been seen. Invigilator Lady looked up, saw me looking at my sheets that were out of reach, and didn't do anything :frown:

I had to get up and go fetch them back myself, causing a disturbance to people around me.

Haha just realised what a rant this has turned into! :tongue:

Has anyone else had bad invigilators or is it just my school?

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Reply 1

FloydRix

One guy kept staring at me

Reply 2

GabGirl

Standing behind you while you work ARGHH

Reply 3

Larry31

Yeah, one of them walked into my desk during a history exam :angry:

made me jog and draw through my essay :redface:

Reply 4

Xyonzz

hasn't happened in my school (except during my history GCSE when 3 of my pens somehow ran out and the invigilator gave me another pen...which was broken too) but i'd imagine it happens to loads of people.
ask for compensation for those distractions in the form of a higher grade :wink2:

Reply 5

emcero

I've never known invigilators be THAT noisy! But when I was at school there was one woman who invigilated almost every single one of my exams from GCSE to A2. She had an amazing amount of dangly anklets on each foot, and would insist on walking about and down the whole exam time. The noise they would make was enough to drive you insane.

Reply 6

Where'sPerry?

Your invigilators sound awful!! I must say though, you have a KETTLE in your exam room? :confused:

Once, the school's exams officer, was telling us at the start of our exam to ensure we had no phones on us and to hand them in if we still had one. Literally, as he said this, his phone rang. Absolutely classic, ever since this event he's got a round of applause whenever he makes an appearance in assembly (':

Oh, and there used to be an invigilator in my school who possibly had the world's biggest bum. I don't mean any disrespect to her, but it literally used to bump into the desks as she walked down the aisles :s-smilie:

Reply 7

TheGoat

The invigilators in my college just seem to have no communication..

They will check our calculators, arms, ears etc and then 2 minutes later the main woman at the front will tell the invigilators to check our calculators etc.. And of course none of them do because they've already done it :confused:

it's silly and a complete waste of time..

Reply 8

TheStudent.

Sneezing into a tissue, and putting it on your table

Reply 9

sherbet_lemons7

When you're waiting with your hand up for about 10 mins in history/modern studies/english or whatever for new paper, and they decide to have a nice little chat up the back of the hall while you start sweating because you're only half way through the exam. :cry2:

Or when they forgot to tell my friend that she could have had extra time in one of her prelims and she only found out when we walked into the next one, and one of the invigilators comes up and says "Oh by the way, I was supposed to tell you..." Needless to say, she wasn't best pleased. :rolleyes:

Reply 10

rachel.h

They were terrible at my school. My mum was one too when they were short of people to do it, so she gave me all the insider invigilator info :wink:

I think one of the worst was a 6th Form exam with only the one student sitting the paper and the invigilator sat and yacked away on her phone the entire time. The student managed to ask her to stop, but she went just outside the door and carried on. So the girl reported her to the exams officer, and the invigilator sought out the girl and yelled in her face til she cried.

They also blatantly ignore you when you have your hand up.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 11

Kim-x

Uni exams:

- Texting while we're in the exam and not even having the phone on silent.
- Noticing you have your hand up and taking 5486 years to think about coming over to ask what the problem is. Then taking the same amount of time to bring you extra paper.
- Woman said to leave the exam as the time was up. I get up and walk to the bags. "Sit down!" I sit down. "Stand up! You don't get extra time." :rolleyes:

Well I knew that, hence my trying to leave the exam when she said.

Others:

- Not giving you a question paper.
- Trying to tell me I wasn't allowed an unannotated copy of the texts in an AS Literature exam.
- Moving a table round the exam room
- Perching on the edge of my table.
- Opening a door right next to me which started to make me cold.
- Not giving any warnings of the amount of time remaining. I was working to the time on my watch and hadn't finished.
- Not telling the people that were making a racket outside to shut up.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 12

Harley

Original post by Where'sPerry?

you have a KETTLE in your exam room? :confused:

Yup, we always have a kettle in both rooms, I never thought it was unusual till now :confused:

Though to be honest 'exam room' is probably a bit much, it's a glorified gym hall with PE teachers constantly passing through carrying badminton rackets while we are sitting the exams :frown:

Reply 13

IlexBlue

There was the time during my A2 English mock when one of the invigilators decided they simply loved walking back and forth all around the area where my desk was, and they had a cold, so literally every ten seconds there was *clack clack clack clack* *SNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFF* *clack clack clack clack* *SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIF*
ARGH.
I took all my strength not to throw my pen at them.

And then the time when I'd done in my exam - GCSE mocks, I think this was - and I absent-mindedly started doodling on my hand (not even inconspicuously, so I wasn't shifty-looking or anything.) My strict English teacher looked at me, nearly had a silent aneurysm, grabbed the back of my hand and then sheepishly put it down and went all awkward when she saw it was just a badly drawn music note.

There was also the Hyacinth Bucket wannabe who seemed to dislike for no discernible reason other than the fact that I existed and glared at me during the entire exam. Whenever I lifted my head up to do a pause-and-think or check the clock, she was glaring at me. I finished twenty minutes early and had a dirty-look-staring contest with her. She got so annoyed but couldn't do anything about it. :tongue:

Reply 14

morecambebay

Ours used to play pac man around the tables. I got a few fired after complaining about it. Might've been harsh of me...but god damn it was annoying.

Reply 15

hevlar.kelmet

You know, the invigilators are required by JCQ's rules to walk around the room frequently during the exam.

They defo shouldn't be noisy though, it's specifically stated several time that the invigilators and students must be silent throughout the exam.

Reply 16

TheStudent.

Original post by IlexBlue

There was also the Hyacinth Bucket wannabe who seemed to dislike for no discernible reason other than the fact that I existed and glared at me during the entire exam. Whenever I lifted my head up to do a pause-and-think or check the clock, she was glaring at me. I finished twenty minutes early and had a dirty-look-staring contest with her. She got so annoyed but couldn't do anything about it. :tongue:

rofl

Reply 17

littleone271

I don't know why but they always make me feel nervous and you know when people say 'imagine everyone naked' when people have stage fright? Well I imagine having sex with the invigilators and it's disgusting but I can't help it lol now THAT is distracting...

Reply 18

Harley

Original post by morecambebay

Ours used to play pac man around the tables. I got a few fired after complaining about it. Might've been harsh of me...but god damn it was annoying.

Heehee i'm imagining 5 invigilators, each wearing red, orange, pink, blue or yellow chasing each other round the desks... I'd quite enjoy watching that actually!

Reply 19

alsam005.310

During my English Language exam, which is very restricted on time, the clock broke. So, when I looked up, I had 15 minutes, but really there was less. I began to relax and write slowly, when the invigilator announced the clock was broken and we had two minutes. Bless the poor soul that has to mark the last question on that paper, as it is a bunch of scribbles
I hate it when they "Advice" us as to which section we should be on, when I'm no where near.
Also, during my maths exam, there was an empty seat behind me, so the gap between my seat and the empty one became a zebra crossing for the invigilators. Every two minutes, they would jog me, until I eventually hissed at them to be stop it.
Ignorant fools. XD

(edited 12 years ago)