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I had my Aqa English paper one today.
My question is regarding while the exam had taken place.

The exam had started and I was busy working through.
Suddenly while I was work quickly I got stopped by a staff member. This resulted in me stopping and not getting the full time. She stated another student needed a highlighter. Does anyone find this unacceptable from the staff member?

I feel because of this I missed a good amount of time to answer and it will impact my grade. I’m so upset and I’ve brought it to my tutors attention. Did I do the right thing?

I also have extra time and they said the exam board is never wrong and dismissed me for extra time and coloured paper.

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Reply 1
Original post by JemmaLouise89
I had my Aqa English paper one today.
My question is regarding while the exam had taken place.

The exam had started and I was busy working through.
Suddenly while I was work quickly I got stopped by a staff member. This resulted in me stopping and not getting the full time. She stated another student needed a highlighter. Does anyone find this unacceptable from the staff member?

I feel because of this I missed a good amount of time to answer and it will impact my grade. I’m so upset and I’ve brought it to my tutors attention. Did I do the right thing?

I also have extra time and they said the exam board is never wrong and dismissed me for extra time and coloured paper.

Oh my. Just reading this made my blood boil. WTF. I would swear at the person if that happened to me. Conditions weren't so great for me either. I had this ***** with a runny nose who kept making noises :frown: :mad:
Original post by JemmaLouise89
I had my Aqa English paper one today.
My question is regarding while the exam had taken place.

The exam had started and I was busy working through.
Suddenly while I was work quickly I got stopped by a staff member. This resulted in me stopping and not getting the full time. She stated another student needed a highlighter. Does anyone find this unacceptable from the staff member?

I feel because of this I missed a good amount of time to answer and it will impact my grade. I’m so upset and I’ve brought it to my tutors attention. Did I do the right thing?

I also have extra time and they said the exam board is never wrong and dismissed me for extra time and coloured paper.

Hi there.

Although this was completely wrong of the teacher to do, I don't think that it'd be viewed as making a significant difference to your grade if it was a brief request (but could be completely wrong)

Try to focus on your second paper for now. @Muttley79 would be a better user to advise you about extra time, coloured paper and the situation (sorry to tag you again) :smile:

Best wishes for your remaining exams :smile:
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 3
Original post by TriplexA
Hi there.

Although this was completely wrong of the teacher to do, I don't think that it'd be viewed as making a significant difference to your grade if it was a brief request (but could be completely wrong)

Try to focus on your second paper for now. @Muttley79 would be a better user to advise you about extra time, coloured paper and the situation (sorry to tag you again) :smile:

Best wishes for your remaining exams :smile:


For english. Any disruption is significant as it will disrupt your flow. Wasting many mins
Original post by Oongie
For english. Any disruption is significant as it will disrupt your flow. Wasting many mins


I agree that it can make you lose your train of thought but I'm not sure if the other staff/exam centre would view it as being significant :s-smilie:
Original post by JemmaLouise89
I had my Aqa English paper one today.
My question is regarding while the exam had taken place.

The exam had started and I was busy working through.
Suddenly while I was work quickly I got stopped by a staff member. This resulted in me stopping and not getting the full time. She stated another student needed a highlighter. Does anyone find this unacceptable from the staff member?

I feel because of this I missed a good amount of time to answer and it will impact my grade. I’m so upset and I’ve brought it to my tutors attention. Did I do the right thing?

I also have extra time and they said the exam board is never wrong and dismissed me for extra time and coloured paper.

Speak to the exams officer - did you have additional time in other exams? How long was the interruption which, by the way, was totally inappropriate.
Reply 6
Original post by Muttley79
Speak to the exams officer - did you have additional time in other exams? How long was the interruption which, by the way, was totally inappropriate.


Muttley's words of wisdom
Original post by TriplexA
Hi there.

Although this was completely wrong of the teacher to do, I don't think that it'd be viewed as making a significant difference to your grade if it was a brief request (but could be completely wrong)

Try to focus on your second paper for now. @Muttley79 would be a better user to advise you about extra time, coloured paper and the situation (sorry to tag you again) :smile:

Best wishes for your remaining exams :smile:


Hey!
the discussion lasted a few minutes and disrupted a good few students. People where looking at me as if I had done something. In the panic of everyone looking at me and worried about my time. I just agreed with giving a highlighter. The teacher kept saying things like you been very fixed in your work. Unfortunately it wasn’t a quick discussion or I wouldn’t feel it a thing.
I rang my dad for advice and he said I should of told her to F off.

trouble is what family will say is one thing but the option on someone on the outside. Just makes it clearer.
Original post by Muttley79
Speak to the exams officer - did you have additional time in other exams? How long was the interruption which, by the way, was totally inappropriate.

My tutor is forwarding a email for me to the exam board. Yeah since coming home and spoken to my family such as my dad on advice. I do feel Something not just in my head. It lasted about 5 minutes as she was just talking. It was my first exam of the year
Original post by JemmaLouise89
I had my Aqa English paper one today.
My question is regarding while the exam had taken place.

The exam had started and I was busy working through.
Suddenly while I was work quickly I got stopped by a staff member. This resulted in me stopping and not getting the full time. She stated another student needed a highlighter. Does anyone find this unacceptable from the staff member?

I feel because of this I missed a good amount of time to answer and it will impact my grade. I’m so upset and I’ve brought it to my tutors attention. Did I do the right thing?

I also have extra time and they said the exam board is never wrong and dismissed me for extra time and coloured paper.

100% you did the right thing, that's really irresponsible from the teacher. Im sure she will face repercussions of some sorts or you will get special consideration.
It needs to come from the exams officer - they are the correct channel.

Can you tell me more about why you didn't get additional time? [I'm a teacher and have been a SENCo]
Original post by JemmaLouise89
My tutor is forwarding a email for me to the exam board. Yeah since coming home and spoken to my family such as my dad on advice. I do feel Something not just in my head. It lasted about 5 minutes as she was just talking. It was my first exam of the year
Thanks everyone for your kind words and support.
I did speak with family about it and they all said it don’t seem ok and that did make me think ok then it’s not just in my head. But I wanted know what other’s thoughts as a bigger picture.
Original post by Muttley79
It needs to come from the exams officer - they are the correct channel.

Can you tell me more about why you didn't get additional time? [I'm a teacher and have been a SENCo]


The lady said she don’t have it in her notes. I questioned it and a different lady said “well the exam board don’t lie”

I felt Humiliated and I’m a shy person and my dad tells me I’m too nice and don’t stand up for myself

I would post the email to the tutor but I don’t know how on this lol 😂🤷🏼*♀️
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by JemmaLouise89
The lady said she don’t have it in her notes. I questioned it and a different lady said “well the exam board don’t lie”

I felt Humiliated and I’m a shy person and my dad tells me I’m too nice and don’t stand up for myself

I would post the email to the tutor but I don’t know how on this lol 😂🤷🏼*♀️


I will PM you :smile:
Original post by Muttley79
It needs to come from the exams officer - they are the correct channel.

Can you tell me more about why you didn't get additional time? [I'm a teacher and have been a SENCo]

I have always had extra time and blue paper
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by JemmaLouise89
I have always had extra time and blue paper


Remove the attachment = it's got personal info :smile:
i thought that you're not supposed to share equipment between candidates anyway? (Says so in the guidance I think but I'm happy to be corrected if that's wrong). What is it with schools like mine and other schools recently on here not being able to run exams properly and not knowing their stuff when it comes to exams in general it seems🤦? God's sake mate. I'd be on the school's case and argue with them if that happened to me.
Original post by JemmaLouise89
I had my Aqa English paper one today.
My question is regarding while the exam had taken place.

The exam had started and I was busy working through.
Suddenly while I was work quickly I got stopped by a staff member. This resulted in me stopping and not getting the full time. She stated another student needed a highlighter. Does anyone find this unacceptable from the staff member?

I feel because of this I missed a good amount of time to answer and it will impact my grade. I’m so upset and I’ve brought it to my tutors attention. Did I do the right thing?

I also have extra time and they said the exam board is never wrong and dismissed me for extra time and coloured paper.


This is unacceptable behaviour from the invigilator. Speak to your Exams' Officer: at the very least the school should train staff and ensure they know how to invigilate appropriately.

Re extra time and coloured paper, again speak with your Exams' Officer. If you have coloured paper for a clear diagnosis of eg Irlens then the school must support that. Some are steering away from doing that because some students have tried to play the extra time system. Unfortunately some students who genuinely need the measures are being disenfranchised, especially if they don't speak up. And again, the staff involved need to be trained and informed re the students who do require particular measures.

Good luck.
You're correct - no sharing. I guess the person had never invigilated before and not been trained ... terrible.
Original post by Talkative Toad
i thought that you're not supposed to share equipment between candidates anyway? (Says so in the guidance I think but I'm happy to be corrected if that's wrong). What is it with schools like mine and other schools recently on here not being able to run exams properly and not knowing their stuff when it comes to exams in general it seems🤦? God's sake mate. I'd be on the school's case and argue with them if that happened to me.
Original post by Muttley79
You're correct - no sharing. I guess the person had never invigilated before and not been trained ... terrible.


Yeah, like I think that the invigilators/school themselves can give you equipment (correct me of I'm wrong) e.g you're sitting an A-level Science exam and need a working calculator for example but between candidates it's a no-no according to the guidance. Also you can use a pen to underline the key points 🤦, highlighter is not necessary if you have different colour pens or a pen and pencil. Heck even if you only have one pen just say "ok I'm going to circle this" and "I'm going to underline that" maybe I'm sounding bad though but yeah.

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