Distractions while doing exams

For example, people clicking their pens, or wriggling their feet like they were mad?!

I am especially vulnerable to these distractions - I don't know why - but how do you avoid these stupid distractions. Unfortunately, complaining would not do - because they will just do it more - and seating plans are permanent.

%^*! My solution is to shade my eyes - which is almost just as annoying!

What are your solutions?

Reply 1

wajiha

My teachers are ALWAYS whispering, right near me! It really annoys me, I'm not able to concentrate if there's too much fluttering going on around me.
I'm gonna, shhh my teachers, if they make noise, during my up coming exams. I have more of a right than them to make a fuss, if they're the ones making the noise.

Reply 2

Nintendus

I do my exams in the computer room because I type. My friend clatters on the keyboard vivaciously with his hairy mitts. It's very distracting.

Reply 3

Eau

OP

15

Nintendus

I do my exams in the computer room because I type. My friend clatters on the keyboard vivaciously with his hairy mitts. It's very distracting.

huh?

Reply 4

Mohit_C

10

If you get distracted by that Mauve, it wouldn't be a bad idea to put cotton tips in your ear or block off your ears in some manner.

Reply 5

kellywood_5

17

Clicking/tapping pens, tapping feet and invigilators talking/walking up and down with loud shoes/lurking over your shoulder are all really annoying, not to mention people with hay fever sniffing/sneezing/coughing, although obviously they can't help it. I think you just have to try and get so engrossed in your exam that you block it all out and don't notice it anymore. Easier said than done, I know, but I can't think of any magic solution.

Reply 6

Lupie

People tapping on desks! Grrrrrr. And if someone is coughing/sniffling really loudly close by, that sucks.
And adjudicators who loom over your shoulder. Makes me so nervous!

Oh, and when you get exam desks that wobble! I just can't concentrate if I get one of those. :frown:

Reply 7

Chezua

12

i was doing this mock exam last year and there was this couple of supply teachers whispering and i couldn't pour a single damn bit of concentration on the paper.

i told my subject teacher afterwards and he said that he'll try and change the seating arrangement so that i don't have to sit right at the front but somewhere in the middle.

i also got a similar problem with ppl clicking pens etc. if i were you, i'd stand up to the teachers and demand all 'clicking' pens banned from the exam hall :cool:

they can chew on it instead.

best advice: forget about them, think fiercely that this is YOUR exam and nothing, not even a cough or a sniff, is gonna get in your way! try and wrap yourself with the questions and put 100% attention on the paper. don't look up. don't start imagining whether you got a person behind you or not. i think that really works for me lol :biggrin:

Reply 8

kellywood_5

17

All the grafitti on the desks was quite a distraction too, come to think of it :p:

Reply 9

*bobo*

8

we tend to have a load of little children screaming outside, apparently their playtime is more important than our exams, hmmm. solution: glare at them. can't say it works though

Reply 10

Eau

OP

15

Oh god, I just want to get this over with!!!

Reply 11

purple-girl

17

We have a very echoey sports hall where we do our exams, so whenever anyone coughs it gets magnified loads. Also when we were doing our mocks in January-our first real taster of sports hall exams (except ICT last year), from what I remember there were building works going on outside.

Oh, and wobbly desks are really annoying! They're annoying enough in lessons, I don't want one in exams too, thank you very much. Also if there're other exams at the same time that finish early, it's a bit annoying when that group leaves, due to scraping of chairs, and then them talking as soon as they leave the room...

These distractions are always worst when it's an exam when you're pushed for time, like RS. In Maths and sciences, although there's a lot of thinking to be done, I find that we get plenty of time. Same with languages (except listening, obviously. Actually, writing I find myself slightly pushed for time...maybe it's just reading, and in the case of Latin, the language translation/momentum test).

Reply 12

Eau

OP

15

Oh and those who show off that they finished early!! What they do is they stack their papers really loudly; look around and smile. And then they usually either flip the pages of the exam paper really loudly to tell everybody he/she is only checking his/her answers or sleep.

Reply 13

becky.fm

18

It annoys me when someone has a wobbly table... so they spend half their time trying to balence it, and then it collapses... :p:

It's funny, but very distracting. :frown:

Other than that, i tend to just ignore all the distractions, they don't really bother me :p:

Reply 14

Mohit_C

10

I really hate it when the SUN is in your blooming eyes!! My exam hall is very much like a prison, with little windows at the top of the room and when the Sun comes it annoys especially when you write you see the shadow and that pisses me off so much.
How can I forget, the children playing and screaming in the grounds, argh!

Reply 15

[Vicki]

Wobbly Chairs and tables are the worst distraction ever
If i have one i get distracted for ages
What annoys me is the sun coming through the blinds

Reply 16

kellywood_5

17

I somehow forgot about the children screaming outside, especially the ones who think sticking their head around the door shouting 'HAHAHA THEY'RE IN AN EXAM!!!' at the top of their lungs is hilarious :rolleyes:

Reply 17

becky.fm

18

kellywood_5

I somehow forgot about the children screaming outside, especially the ones who think sticking their head around the door shouting 'HAHAHA THEY'RE IN AN EXAM!!!' at the top of their lungs is hilarious :rolleyes:

Yes, and those who purposely kick the doors of the sports hall, and scream outside.. just to annoy everyone :rolleyes:

Reply 18

brown

4

There was a wasp in one of my GCSE exams, which made a few people edgy. People coughing incessantly and teachers whispering to each other was also pretty much the norm. While I was sitting all of my AS exams there was some form of building work going on (adjacent to the exam hall), which was really infuriating. Before the start of each exam, the invigilators would say: 'If the noise starts to bother anyone, please put your hand up and we will ask them to stop making the noise'. WTF :confused:

They shouldn't have even been allowed to do it in the first place! The thing that distracts me the most when doing exams would have to be the teachers/invigilators who repeatedly walk up and down the aisles and stop just right at the side of me - as if to accuse me of cheating. In this situation I just look up at them and they quickly go to someone else :biggrin:

.

Reply 19

sorcière

6

For my AS exams there were workmen right outside the room where we were having the exam, scraping shovels on the concrete - that really distracted me. I keep telling myself that's the reason why I failed General Studies, lol.

Pen tapping and stuff doesn't really distract me, but maybe that's because I do it myself - I just can't stay still, I need to do something with my hands when I'm thinking.

Distractions while doing exams

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