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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

DD was complaining about her students a couple of days ago. She said all they talk about is "Work/life balance", "Mental Health", and their vegan dietary requirements, "When I was a student we just got on with the work". She says they arrive late in the morning, then they can't do anything without having a coffee, by which time it's almost lunchtime. Then they are surprised because they haven't got anything done. Her professor longs to introduce them to his wife who is doing a night shift at a hospital where she finds herself the only doctor to look after 70 patients.

Disorganized students will always be disorganized.

I must be around 35 years ago that I invigilated exams for one of the major Accountancy Institutes. I gave my usual spiel about being the XYZ Accountancy institute paper on Financial and Management Accounting, that they should check the front page of the exam paper carefully to make sure they understood the requirements of the paper etc etc etc ....

So almost 30 minutes in a guy at the back raises his hand - I go to him to check what the issue is to find him staring, mystified, at the paper.
"I don't understand this" he said
"I'm sorry?" I said
"I'm doing grade 3 auto mechanics, but I can't see my questions"
"This is XYZ Accountancy Institute's Part 2 exam in Financial and Management Accounting"

It transpired that he was supposed to be in a different exam room 2 floors above - but the fact he sat and stared at a paper asking him to prepare cash budgets and balance sheets, while looking for questions on car mechanics made me wonder how on the ball he was ....

And your excuse was … ?

I didn't actually manage. I used to forget things, & once I turned up to an exam I had to pass (one chance only), 15 minutes late & very out-of-breath because I went to the wrong venue. Not enough fingers to count the number of times I forgot to put my name on papers. For some reason I became more organised (relatively speaking) once I got into work. People were always pretty accommodating & I was never sent out or failed because of being scatty.

My son is a professor at an American uni. He says there’s been a big change in their intake of undergrad students since the pandemic. The recent intakes have been much less prepared for life at university, more disorganised and are less resilient when it comes to perceived setbacks. The effects of the pandemic are still being felt far and wide.

MayBee70

Oldnproud

Most of those are inexcusable, but exam nerves can lead to bowel problems and there is not a lot one can do to prevent that if it strikes once the exam has begun. The alternative to leaving the room could be incredibly unpleasant for every single person in the room.

I was well into middle age before I learned to take Imodium before any stressful situation; I wish someone had broached that subject with me when I was a lot younger, it probably would have made quite a difference to many years of my life!

That is quite sad, MayBee. 😔

There is usually a separate space for students who are struggling with the setting of a regular exam.

This has been the case for decades.
I was 9 months pregnant, uncomfortable and "overdue" during my finals and sat them in a side room with maybe 20 others. One had a parent die and was really struggling.
We had easy access to a loo, boxes of tissues and a jug of water - and three staff members invigilating so if we needed to leave we could be escorted to the aforementioned loo or, if we couldn't complete, to the nearby common room till the exams were over.

Germanshepherdsmum

Perhaps grandparents should be turning up to see their GC just before each university exam and asking ‘Have you been?’.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

No problem with using the loo, but for goodness sake these young people must be at least 18 and probably older, if they cannot remember their pencil etc what hope is there 😂😂😂😂

I remember my son in his first year of Uni and in halls and he was horrified at the number of his fellow students who couldn’t iron, cook or use the washing machine!

Oldnproud

Most of those are inexcusable, but exam nerves can lead to bowel problems and there is not a lot one can do to prevent that if it strikes once the exam has begun. The alternative to leaving the room could be incredibly unpleasant for every single person in the room.

I was well into middle age before I learned to take Imodium before any stressful situation; I wish someone had broached that subject with me when I was a lot younger, it probably would have made quite a difference to many years of my life!

Exactly.

How in earth did we all manage? Yet somehow we did. We prepared and planned and took responsibility for ourselves.

That’s no good in real life.

All a bit harsh, how about sympathising with someone with Exam nerves, who panics and just forgets?

I’m sure none of them do it on purpose.

All brains and no common sense springs to mind.

Most of those are inexcusable, but exam nerves can lead to bowel problems and there is not a lot one can do to prevent that if it strikes once the exam has begun. The alternative to leaving the room could be incredibly unpleasant for every single person in the room.

Perhaps grandparents should be turning up to see their GC just before each university exam and asking ‘Have you been?’.

Part of sitting an exam is being prepared, having the correct equipment is part of that.

Children are starting school not toilet trained it seems from what you say they still havent mastered it as a late teen if they cannot even plan when to go.