NDQ - Exam invigilator
Created by Mats Brenner, mats.brenner@kvalitetskompetens.se
Member of the NDQ network:

  • Learn about routines and preparations for examinations

📘 Arrive well in advance

You arrive and begin your shift before the test starts. Often this means that you must be there between one hour and forty-five minutes in advance (specified by the test or education provider). The Chief Invigilator distributes areas of responsibility, for example who is in charge of which section, who will interact with certain test participants in the room, who takes care of possible post-admission or the bathroom list. During a digital exam, someone must also be able to monitor the session on a computer/tablet. During an analog examination, one or more must receive the written paper exams/collect test material from the participants.

Before the exam begins, you work together with the following:

  • Setting up placement lists for the participants
  • Possibly place login details, e.g. one-time codes for the digital exam system at the seats to be used
  • Set up a bathroom list
  • If participants are allowed to use paper, placing the sheets at the seats
  • Check that the seats look okay
  • Set up or take down any privacy protection
  • Check that there is nothing hidden inside the toilets
  • Check that there is nothing hidden by the wardrobe or in other places in the room
  • Check the escape routes (where they are and that they’re easily accessible)
  • Know where the assembly point is

When the participants start arriving, they should be able to find their spot on the placement lists and then go directly to their seats.


If it’s a digital exam, the participants log in with their own login details and shortly before the exam starts may also receive a code needed to begin the test.


If it’s a paper exam, papers are handed out when everyone has sat down at their seats.



📘 Orient yourself in the room

Start by orienting yourself in the room.
You need to know or find out (ask the Chief Invigilator, education administrator/responsible for the test center):

  • Where rescue equipment is available (yellow life jacket, flashlight and instructions)
  • Where the escape routes are
  • Where the assembly point is after an evacuation
  • Which doors should be used by participants for entry
  • Where the placement lists should be located
  • Where participants with special needs will sit
  • Where participants should hang or put their outerwear
  • Where participants should put their valuables, e.g. watches and phones that they’re not allowed to have at their seats
  • Where the bathrooms are
  • Where extra paper/allowed aids are, e.g. calculators
  • Where spare equipment for computers are available, e.g. keyboards, mice, USB sticks

In each room there should also be an instruction folder with, among other things, important phone numbers. Find out where it is located.

Rules

  • The exam invigilator should orient themselves in the room and be informed about escape routes, the assembly point after evacuation, fire alarms and extinguishing equipment.
  • The exam invigilator is responsible for evacuating the room in case of an alarm.

📘 Let the participants in

Placement according to lists

The participants should not have free placement during the exam. In order for them not to be able to sit next to a friend or in a special spot in the room, the exam- and education administrator has decided in advance where they should sit. The Chief Invigilator collects attendance lists with the participants’ location at the intended location/room/computer.

Admission A

Upon the first admission, participants must show identification and be ticked off an attendance list. This check is done to know that the participants/examinations have ended up in the correct room and are registered. The participants’ social security number or validity must be checked. If you can’t find the participant on the attendance list or the participant doesn’t have a valid ID with them, contact the Chief Invigilator.
When the participants are allowed into the room, they directly get to know where to sit and then go find their place. The exam invigilator may need to help them find their assigned spot.

Admission B

Registered participants who arrive late should only be admitted when, for example, 30 minutes of the exam session has passed. These will be informed and have their ID documents checked outside of the room.


Participants missing a valid ID

Valid ID documents for identification of participants before exams is a physical ID with a photo, or other digital ID that is valid and previously informed to the participants. In connection with the ID check, participants must show their face.


Rules

  • Participants must sit in their designated seats. Free placement is not allowed.
  • Placement lists with the participants names and seat numbers must be clearly established.
  • If a participant is not on the placement list, the exam invigilator should contact the examiner or person appointed by the examiner to check if it’s a mistake and why.
  • Participants who are late have to wait outside the room and are admitted later in one or more rounds. Before being let in to the room, the participants will receive instructions.
  • Participants who are delayed by more than, for example, 30 minutes do not get access to the exam, but are referred to another examination session. They could also get an extension of the writing time depending on informed rules.
  • Participants may leave the exam no earlier than 30-45 minutes after the exam begins - depending on how long the exam session is.


📘 Inform the participants

When all participants are present and the examination is about to start, someone will inform the students about rules and the exam. Those of you who are working during the examination can agree on who will be in charge of this.

In addition to the oral information given, students also receive the exam rules provided by the school/organization, either as a start page on the computer or on paper. This information also shows in detail which equipment is permitted at the seats. Students will sign the exam rules on the screen or paper and may then proceed with the exam itself. If someone were to refuse to sign the rules, that student is allowed to continue anyway; you can never force anyone. The oral information needs to address escape routes and the assembly point, where the bathrooms are located and the procedures for bathroom visits, how and when ID checks will take place.



Checklist of information provided to participants

Inform participants before they get started:


About the room and location

  • Escape routes & the assembly point
  • Bathrooms
    • Procedures regarding bathroom list (and show where to find it)
  • Reminder of what they can have at the table
    • Their ID, if they can bring pens, something to eat or drink
    • Unauthorized equipment counts as cheating
  • Code paper and ID should be placed clearly visibly to the left
    • When we do ID checks we try to disturb as little as possible
    • Repeated ID checks during the examination
  • Notes are written on scrap paper
    • Don’t write on the code papers, as you’re not allowed to take notes out out the room but will need to bring the code paper with you
  • Urge participants to turn off phones and take off their watches – they should be handed over to the exam invigilators


Digital examinations:


Log in

You log into the exam in several steps. Start as soon as you can:
  • Log in to your computer
    • Use the intended login
    • Raise your hand if you’ve forgotten it, and we’ll help you
  • Log in to the examination
    • Log in with the username and password received earlier or that is located on site
  • Open the exam on the computer
    • To be able to do this a pin code might be needed


During the exam

If the participants are going to the bathroom, it is advisable to do so when they have entered a question and not begun answering it yet. If there are digital aids the the digital platform, e.g. calculators or other functionality – please inform about this in the introduction to the test.


Submitting the exam

On the last page of the test there should be instructions about how the participants should submit it, to save everything in the best way and log out safely. Remember to include the code paper as it is with these login details that participants most probably will receive their test results.



Explanation why certain information is important

  • Which equipment is allowed at the seats – To make the examination process equal and fair, there are rules about which equipment is allowed. For example, it is not allowed to have one’s phone or watch at the seats.
  • That conversation is prohibited – It is of course a rule that the participants are not allowed to talk to each other during the ongoing exam. This applies from the start time of the test to its end time and as long as participants are in the room. There are two reasons for this; partly because conversations can be disturbing for participants trying to concentrate, and partly because the conversations can be an attempt to cheat.
  • The routines for bathroom visits – Naturally participants must be given the opportunity to go to the bathroom, and of course they may do so without anyone following them in. But it is important that they know the rules regarding bathroom lists, and that an exam invigilator will follow them if bathrooms are located outside of the exam room. Also inform that the toilets are checked both before and during the examination, to make sure nothing is hidden in them. The exam invigilator must note on a list who and which times the participants go to and return from the bathroom. Bathroom visits should only be a maximum of 15 minutes or other set time that has been previously informed about.
  • When students may leave the room – When the exam has started, no participant may leave the room for the first, for example, 30 minutes. During that time, participants who have arrived late may be admitted in one or more rounds and they shall then have no opportunity to speak to anyone who has seen the exam.
  • Escape routes and assembly point after evacuation – For safety reasons, participants must be told where the escape routes are and also where the assembly point is.

Adapted examinations


Adaptation of the exam should be granted by the examiner if there are special reasons, for example disability or other grounds of discrimination. When adapting examinations, content and learning objectives as well as the level of expected skills, knowledge and abilities for the education must not be changed, removed or lowered.

In order to be granted an adapted examination, the participant should, normally at the latest by the start of the course/class, inform about their wishes and justify why it should be accommodated.

Adaptation can, for example, take place for participants with dyslexia, extended writing time, etc.

Adaptation of the room and writing spaces should be accommodated for participants with disabilities and special needs.
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