University student arriving at exams without the right equipment, one even forgot his pen

No they are not allowed to leave in first half hour unless it is an emergency! They still ask!

This cohort of students is the one that has been most affected by the pandemic.
The first exams they took in a traditional exam setting was into their 2nd year at university. Socially, they are under-confident. They had little experience of being out and active in the world during their 6th-form years and little opportunity to take a gap year.
They will get there! We shouldn't judge them too harshly.

Yup, exam technique and behaviour was drilled into us at my all-girls grammar in thr 60s/70s.
If you had to leave the examination hall you'd have better had a bloody good excuse and you'd be accompanied there and back by a gimlet-eyed teacher.

NotSpaghetti you are right, I invigilated for years in a Special Unit at one the big London Universities for Students who needed a bit more flexibility when taking exams. Being heavily pregnant was an obvious reason but unfortunately anyone who said they were troubled in some way could get extra time and time just sitting out. We often stayed long after finishing time for someone who had spent a lot of time out. It was a necessary need but as ever open to abuse. Some of the overseas students were in a terrible state as they feared what their family would do if they didn’t get a first. I was always glad I had had nothing to do with it all

Deedaa - ✔️✔️✔️✔️
And then wonder why they can’t find a job once they graduate?
Yes, before I am shot down, of course there are exceptions (especially our own grandchildren) but when I read that Oxbridge students are now occupying their university lawns in support of Palestine, it just makes me want to sigh.

Oxford and Cambridge students have begun occupying lawns with pro-Palestinian camps in an echo of protests that have swept the US
Tents sprang up outside the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum on Monday morning, which the organisers claimed was “a disturbing hoard of artefacts stolen from colonised peoples across the world “
On the lawn of King’s College at the University of Cambridge, students said they had set up an encampment because the University “supports Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
(I find that “support” hard to believe )
www.google.com/url?q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/06/uk-university-protests-pro-palestinian-oxford-cambridge/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjetYnn5viFAxUVVUEAHVtVDkIQFnoECBkQAg&usg=AOvVaw0wa6EKY-PEIZtHZb0STEdt

The school where I did lots of invigilating prepared them from year 7.
I did find that university students , especially ones from USA could show entitlement . However many times you went through the must does there was always someone who thought it didn't apply to to them.

One of mine was ADHD and really struggled with organisational skills so, yes, he had the equivalent of an exam pack and a Mum who double checked everything. Despite this, he does hold down a full-time, well paid job and manages albeit somewhat chaotically at times; I am no longer necessary! Fortunately there are enough understanding people in his life who make allowances for those moments where things don't go so smoothly.

I am a little taken aback that so many posters think that this lack of organisation is acceptable. It has nothing to do with the pandemic. In our family, children are brought up to organise their equipment for school well before the end of Primary school.

Many years ago I was an invigilator at a local school where the teenagers were sitting A and O level exams or whatever. It appeared to be the fault of the invigilator if several darlings had forgotten to write their names. Not on my watch, that is the first thing I asked them to do before they officially started.

Why didn't the students rise up about the war in Syria, or why not about the dreadful troubles in the Sudan ?

I was a Chief Invigilator for 21 years and if a student wanted to go to the toilet they were escorted there.

They were not allowed pencil cases on the desks or even water these were on the floor.

At the start of every exam I announced what the exam was and the paper number too.

So there shouldn’t be anyone there who was in the wrong exam.
The school prepared the students for exams during the prelims and they were well aware of the guidelines.
The guidelines were set out by the exam body.

The students are nervous and that was always taken into account and I could write a book about all the ways we found and heard about students cheating. One girl even wrote answers on her thighs under her skirt. She was caught!

Having worked with a lot of them unfortunately all they think about is having night out or next party not have I got a pen. You got to let them stand on their own two feet they never going to learn if you do everything for them.

My son is a university lecturer and is far from happy with the attitudes and behaviour of some undergraduates

As an academic I was not impressed by them either! And that was back in the 1990s. And these are the kinds of young people emerging from uni who are often fast tracked over experienced capable (older) people because they have an extra bit of paper.

My son started University in September. Since before he started school I'd had concerns about his behaviour. Everyone dismissed me - school, health visitor, GP...
He's now been diagnosed (privately) with Dyspraxia and ADHD.
These conditions ruined his school life Dyspraxia affected his executive function (remembering to hand in homework, or take equipment to exams).
It's not always being lazy, or not thinking, sometimes it's a recognised condition that they can get help for.
He's very happy at University now he's getting support, and doing well.

Students ,at school or not are always escorted to the toilet during exams.
It is important that they are drilled as if students , and this includes children at school , do not follow the instructions they loose marks, or indeed get no marks at all. It does matter that they answer in black pen for example, unless given other instructions. Ask examiners what they come across when marking .

When I was doing a history exam at school , I think it was senior cert , or something, I struggled as every date I even learned disappeared from my memory bank !
I was moaning to my best friend when she started laughing
It was Coronation year , my biro was a fat white job with all the dates of the kings from 1066 till Elizabeth the second
How clever of me (and the invigilator) not to notice
I did pass

They should be escorted to the toilet

When I was at uni the youngsters used to come to me and ask for a copy of my notes because they knew I never missed a lecture. They were probably in bed with a hangover. Unfortunately for them I made very minimal notes - usually half a sheet of A4 with some odd words or phrases on it and lots of arrows from one to another. Then I went home, did the reading and wrote a much fuller version on my early equivalent of a laptop. I used to suppress the laughter when I handed some lazybones a copy of my initial notes, for all the good it ever did them.

Cambsnan well said. Thank you for being compassionate, Some kids are probably so wound up and nervous things go out of their heads. A little leeway would be kind.

Have you ever done an exam at degree level? Until you have I don't think you can make nasty comments about students forgetting things. Exams at that level are incredibly stressful, and usually after the first time, the undergrads get better at managing their time, what they have to take, etc. Please be a little kinder to our poor young people, many of whom are still struggling after the lockdowns. My GD was on her own most of the time as her single mum was an essential worker.

It's very likely that most students would not be allowed to use their own calculators in university exams as they can be pre-programmed which is not allowed. They are likely to be provided.

Even if they are escorted to the loo, surely they can grab a quick look at an answer on their phone whilst in there?

I assume the ‘escort’ doesn’t actually go in the cubicle with them!

We had a NQT start at the senior school where I worked who asked her head of department if she could start at 8.30 instead of 8.00 as she couldn't get up early enough to arrive on time!

Oh well so what’s new here! Just incompetent overprotective or neglectful parents

Message withdrawn at poster's request.