Being late for exams - a question out of interest

In my experience here in Denmark, students whether at schools or universities and colleges, are not allowed in to written papers once the exam has started, if they arrive more than ten minutes late.

They would often be allowed to sit the exam they had missed in the beginning of the autumn term when sick exams are held, with a different exam paper, but this is at the discretion of the school. The ruling being that only those who have a medical certificate signed by their doctors are eligible for sick exams, but in practice if you are late through no fault of your own or have just received news of a death in the family, you would be allowed to postpone the exam.

If it were an oral, they arrived late for, the normal procedure is to ask the two examiners holding each exam if any of them have time in the afternoon after examining the other candidates to examine the person or persons who arrived late. If it is possible for the external examiner to stay, he or she will agree, but the exam schedules are drawn up by the ministry of education, not by the institution, so one or both eaminers may have to be at the opposite end of the country the following day by 8a.m. and not be able to oblige. I have on more than one occasion as external examiner acceded to the request to allow a late student to sit his oral in the late afternoon.
A colleague experienced a young woman sitting her finals as a teacher going into labour as she sat down for the oral! In the afternoon the examiners rang the maternity ward to hear how things were progressing, and upon hearing that the baby had arrived fairly soon after the mother had been admittd and both were well, went along to the hospital and ask then new mother if she wanted to sit her oral there and then, which she did and passed it.

If it were the case that a wild-cat strike or a serious road or train accident delayed a whole group of students who thus missed the start of the exam, I would expect the headmaster or the dean of the faculty to contact the ministry immediately and request permission to allow those who had been delayed to sit the written paper in a seperate room from those who arrived on time and with the same amount of hours allotted to writing the paper, but that those who had been on time, would not be allowed to leave their examination hall unaccompanied for visits to the toilets, until all the latecomers were seated with their papers, to avoid risk of cheating by students from the group who had already seen the paper passing on information to the others.

I have fortunately never had to deal with this emergency, but did once have to request a headmistress to send a maths teacher to the examination room to assess whether there was an error in the paper that made one maths problem insoluable.

It turned out that it was quite impossible to get through to the ministry by phone,so the headmistress wisely assumed this to be proof that there was indeed an error in the paper, and instructed the examinees to begin with all the other problems until she had verified the issue and informed them on her own responsibility that the quarter of an hour it had taken to get that far would be added on to the end of the exam.

It transpired there was a misprint in the paper causing a problem to be insoluable and the extra time given was allowed.

Charleygirl, that is the ideal situation for any exams officer. Sadly, anything can get in the way. We once had a bomb threat call at the start of the exam and we all had to traipse out and supervise them until we were allowed back in.

20 years ago, after retirement, for around 3 years, I was an invigilator in London and no student was ever late- they were all patiently waiting to be allowed into the relevant room.

Don’t get me started about school bus companies. The bus company that took the kids from our village to the nearby secondary school was so unreliable. I was the village Mrs Angry because I was always clashing with them. Thankfully, as a stay at home mum I was always able to go and pick my kids up when the bus didn’t turn up.

All children don't have parents on hand if the school bus doesn't come, what are they to do if there's no way if them getting to the exam,I do think in certain circumstances allowance should be made, it's common sense, they worked really hard to get to to that point and the stress must be awful.
School bus companies have a duty to these children.
I always am way too early, prepared for there to be a problem, but I don't live in an an area where there isn't a choice.

Because I was always obsessive about getting there on time, I would get the bus one hour earlier than I would normally have done so and would sit quietly somewhere going over prompt notes till it was time to go in. People laugh at obsessive people but sometimes it may be necessary.

Cabbie21

Last week lots of students were late for exams because of a Music Festival, Download at Donnington Park. It affected traffic for miles around.
Normally students would be allowed in to the exam room up to 30 minutes late, but in these exceptional circumstances my guess is that they would be allowed to start when they arrived, maybe in a separate room. Meanwhile the Exam Officer would be ringing the Board for advice as to whether they would be allowed extra time. A note would be put on their paper to show how much they had done by the time the exam ended at its normal finishing time. It would be up to the Board to decide whether to allow the additional work.

There were contingency plans in place at my grandsons school because of Download but his school wasn’t as close to it as the children from Donington who have to travel the Shepshed. He said they would have been escorted into the exam room if they’d been late.

Thanks!

When I retired from the classroom I became the school exam officer. It was over 20 years ago so some regulations may have changed. I seem to recall you had a window of an hour to start the exam but, depending on the time of the particular school's start time, a pupil was considered too late after half an hour of the respective start times. However, depending on circumstances for the lateness, and how late, they could be allowed to sit and it was explained to them that the Exam Board had the right to refuse the grade. As Exams Officer I had to inform the Board and it was their discretion.
Some schools start at 8.30am, the earliest time without prior consent, some 9am and the rest must start by 9.30am with corresponding timings for afternoon exams. No pupil was allowed to leave the exam hall until an hour had passed. The reason for this was because pupils starting at 8.30am could inform friends at schools with a later start what was on the paper, thus giving them an advantage.
Most schools and Boards try not to penalise the student for matters beyond their control and Boards usually only deduct or refuse to accept if they feel the exam security has been compromised.
Schools had to gain permission first from the Boards to alter the start time and ensure the security of the paper was not compromised. This can happen for religious festivals for example.

My husband used to be Exam Secretary (along with various other roles, including deputy head) at the independent school where he worked, and I’m fairly sure that I can assure you that any late comers, where it’s not their fault, would be put into a different room to do their exam and give the allotted amount of time to do it.

Oh Cabbie I do feel for her. What an unfortunate thing to happen. I hope she settled down once she got started and it didn’t jeopardise her grade.
We had the potential for a similar occurrence this morning. A tree had blown down in the storm yesterday and was partly blocking the road. Fortunately with care drivers could get round it.

Grandma70s

I have taken lots of exams, and invigilated a lot more, but I don’t remember anyone ever being late!

Well, I was thinking back, and the last time something on this scale happened was about 10 years ago - so the chances of it happening in exam time is low, but quite catastrophic for kids, and must happen sometimes.

Agreed, Greenfinch.
My granddaughter drove herself to an exam last week. She allowed lots of time but didn’t expect a lorry to get jammed under a low bridge! She turned round and took a longer route and got there in time, but she was very stressed as she was relying on having time to get some toast at school and have a last look at some data.

Not to mention the emotional state the students would be in not knowing what would happen to them. Hardly conducive to performing well.

I have taken lots of exams, and invigilated a lot more, but I don’t remember anyone ever being late!

Interesting - thank you. The traffic chaos was such that I imagine all students who aren't within walking distance would have been late. Some might have been able to walk if they had known in time - but that is a dilemma - start walking and certainly miss the bus, or wait at the proper stop? I expect that is what the phone calls were about.

Also, in this rural area, many kids who are within 'walking distance' get transport because of safety - they could have walked today, between the stuck cars!

And realistically, the only way of being CERTAIN to be there on time is to camp out overnight at the exam centre! Although such major incidents are rare, it does seem very unfair to penalise students who could not have foreseen this (you really can't 'allow extra' if your only method of transport is the school bus!) It took 2-3 hours to clear, not sure if they managed to prioritise school buses. And if some parents did turn out to help, they would have only added to the gridlock.

Invigilated.

I agree with biglouis regarding the university exams but when I invigilators for school pupils they were usually taken somewhere else and often allowed the full time. Not sure what happens now

Last week lots of students were late for exams because of a Music Festival, Download at Donnington Park. It affected traffic for miles around.
Normally students would be allowed in to the exam room up to 30 minutes late, but in these exceptional circumstances my guess is that they would be allowed to start when they arrived, maybe in a separate room. Meanwhile the Exam Officer would be ringing the Board for advice as to whether they would be allowed extra time. A note would be put on their paper to show how much they had done by the time the exam ended at its normal finishing time. It would be up to the Board to decide whether to allow the additional work.

When younger son was doing his Masters in Manchester, he had to hand in a Long Essay by a certain time. It was the Labour Party Conference and several roads were closed. He was a few minutes late but had 5 marks deducted. He still passed his Masters and a PhD later on, so all was not lost. I worked as an Academic Administrator at Oxford University and the Schools were very strict about sitting written exams and handing in essays on time. They would do anything to enable students to take exams (extra time for dyslexic students, lap tops for those who couldn’t write and I remember one student who had problems with legibility who was allowed to dictate their work to someone!) but at the end of the day they had to be there on time.

We were almost in that position this morning. DGD gets on her coach at the first stop which is nearly opposite our house. The coach is generally there by 7.25 for a 7.35 pickup. Today it was late and it was English Language GCSE which is vital. I was just about to get the car out to take her at7.45 when it turned up so all was well. There are 5 Year 11’s on the coach so I don’t know what the school policy is if they are all late.

After 30 mins late Pearson has to be informed, the student is still allowed full time to complete the exam.

A normal late arrival of less than half an hour would be allowed in to the exam but get no extra time. If they were held up because of external factors, it would be expected that they would contact the SMT in charge of exams who would speak to the chief invigilator and they would probably start the exam late, if a significant number of candidates were in the same position. The arrangements of the exam are the responsibility of the exam board and the school facilitates that. No secondary school in Scotland would want candidates penalised for events outwith their control

I have no idea what happens now, but way back, when I arrived late for a French A-level exam, because the school bus simply didn’t turn up. It took two different public transport buses and a long walk to get to school. The three of us involved were put into a classroom and had to do the exam in there. Like the children the OP mentioned we were desperately worried.

I expect it is harder for children in rural areas who have less frequent or reliable public transport. I don't imagine that will cut any ice with the exam boards though.