Instructions to Invigilators for Exams Office run examinations
Before the start of the examination:
1. You must arrive at the Examination Room at least 30 minutes before the start of the examination and sign
in on arrival.
2. Invigilators are jointly responsible for all the papers being examined not just papers from their own school
and must stay for the duration of the longest paper.
3. The Chief Invigilator is responsible for all procedures in the exam hall, including script collection, exam
paper queries and reading out any instructions and announcements. Please follow all instructions given by
the Chief Invigilator.
4. Please read the RED EXAMINATIONS FOLDER and ensure you also familiarise yourself with the
‘Emergency procedures’ and ‘Responsibilities of the Chief Invigilator’ document.
5. Familiarise yourself with the layout of the examination room, emergency exit points and location of toilets.
6. Students are admitted into the exam hall 10-15 minutes before the start of the exam. Refer anyone
without a desk number to the Examinations Office representative or Chief Invigilator.
7. Ensure that all bags and other personal belongings are deposited in the designated area. One or two
invigilators should be stationed at the entrance to ensure that bags are not blocking exits and that no one
leaves the room once they have entered.
8. Mobile telephones, smart watches or other electronic devices must be switched off and put into a bag. If
the student does not have a bag, the phone or smart watch should be placed in a box at the front of the
hall. If a student is caught with a phone in their possession during the exam, label it with their desk
number and place it into the mobile phone box. Complete an INCIDENT REPORT FORM and inform the
student you are doing this.
9. Assist students with missing candidate numbers as requested by the Chief Invigilator.
10. Ensure candidates take only approved items to their desks as stipulated on the rubric of the examination
paper and the exam paper cover sheet; these may include approved calculators and textbooks.
Dictionaries can only be used in examinations if an ‘Authorisation for use of a translation dictionary in
examinations’ form allowing the use of a dictionary, is displayed on the desk.
11. Clear plastic pencil cases are allowed but items such as correcting tape and correcting fluid are not
permitted.
12. Food items should only be taken into an exam hall if there are medical reasons for doing so. Drinks bottle
are allowed provided they contain water only and all labels have been removed
During the examination:
13. No candidate may leave the room in the first 30 minutes, or during the last 15 minutes of their examination.
14. Refer any students not listed and late-comers to the Exams Office representative or the Chief Invigilator.
Late candidates are not to be permitted any extra time. Candidates may not be admitted after the
examination has been in progress for 30 minutes and the Chief invigilator will refer them to their
home school.
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15. After the examination has been in progress for 30 minutes, ensure that missing candidates are recorded
on the attendance list by circling the seat number as requested by the Chief Invigilator. Please take care
to update the list to include any late-comers and any additional candidates.
16. Verify the identity of candidates by checking their University ID cards, which should be placed on the top
right hand corner of the desk. Where no photo ID is provided, please record this on the attendance list.
Lack of a suitable form of ID will not prevent the candidate from completing the examination.
17. Exercise surveillance at all times. At no time should candidates be left unsupervised in an exam hall. Do
not allow a candidate to leave and return to the examination unless supervised by an invigilator while
absent. Do not permit a candidate to communicate with anyone other than an invigilator during the course
of the examination without permission.
18. Your task is to invigilate the exam. During the exam, you must not read, use a laptop or work on your own
projects in any format. You should ensure that you regularly walk around the room and attend promptly to
students with raised hands. If you have to communicate with another invigilator, please do so very quietly
or leave the room if this is possible.
19. Students should be escorted to the toilet and a note ‘T’ should be marked on the front of their exam script
to record each visit to the toilet.
20. Queries on exam papers:
If a candidate believes there is a mistake on the question paper, you should inform the Chief Invigilator,
who will notify the Exams Office immediately, in order to log the query and agree a solution. This is to
ensure that ALL candidates sitting the exam (ie extra-time students sitting in a different room or those
sitting within a School or overseas) can all be given the information at roughly the same time. This
procedure applies even if the author of the paper is able to answer the query and also applies even if the
student is mistaken as another student may make the same mistake in another venue. Do not make any
announcements until the Exams Office has responded with an answer to the query. An INCIDENT
REPORT FORM should be completed. No extra time should be given in the main exam halls for
any reason.
21. Please use a green answer book for continuation paper. Do not use answer books for wonky desks! use a
piece of cardboard.
22. Under no circumstances should students be given an extra script book for planning or rough work. All
planning and rough work should be done in the script book used for the examination. Any written work
that should not be marked should be crossed out.
23. Cheating - should a suspected case of cheating arise, the Chief Invigilator should always be informed and
should:
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ensure that two people confirm that a candidate is suspected of cheating
confiscate any unauthorised material
ensure the student is given the ‘Notice of suspected malpractice’ document from the red folder
indicate on the front candidate's script what has occurred and remove the script
provide the candidate with further examination script/s and permit him or her to complete the
examination in the time remaining
the Chief Invigilator should notify the exams office of any suspected cheating immediately
seek an explanation from the candidate at the end of the examination and complete an INCIDENT
REPORT FORM
ensure that both scripts are enclosed in the script bag but any materials and the INCIDENT REPORT
FORM are given to the Exams Office representative at the end of the exam session
At the end of the examination:
24. See page 3 for script collection instructions:
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Script collection Information
The Chief Invigilator is responsible for organising the
script collection.
Early leavers:
1.
There is no requirement to annotate the script if a candidate asks to leave early. Please leave
their script and exam paper on the desk to be collected with the others and escort the student
to the door to ensure they do not remove any exam materials.
End of Exam:
1.
It is possible that examination durations will vary and so it is important to ensure that students
continuing examinations should not be unduly disturbed by any examinations finishing earlier.
The longest duration paper will start at desk number 1.
2.
If there are several invigilators available, allocate a row/s to each invigilator to speed up the
collection process. Ensure that each invigilator starts collecting from the lowest desk number
in the row in desk number order. Ensure you tell them that everything must be collected
from the exam desks.
3.
If the student has not filled out all of the necessary details on the front of their scripts, wait for
them to do so. Do not move onto the next desk.
4.
No exam papers may be removed by students from the exam hall.
5.
When everything has been collected from the exam desks, please make an announcement to
ask the students if anyone has anything left on their desk.
6.
The students can then be allowed to leave quietly.
7.
Put the scripts in desk number order (which will equate to candidate number order) into the
script bag provided and a few copies of the exam paper for reference. If more than one bag is
used for an exam, please write on the top right hand corner the number of the bag: 1 of 3, 2 of
3, 3 of 3 etc.
8.
Check the yellow summary sheet to see if the exam paper contains answers and if so, enclose
all of the exam papers in the script bag.
9.
Put the attendance list and any OMR sheets into the attendance list and OMR envelopes
provided and then into the script bag and seal.
10.
Hand the script bags to the representative of the Examinations Office. School representatives
may take away the sealed packets, but must fill in their name on the yellow summary sheet as
a record. ID must be provided if they have not invigilated the exam.
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