Sheffield exam delayed for almost an hour due to a ‘technical fault’

This morning a first year psychology exam was delayed for nearly 60 minutes due to ‘technical faults’.

After an already delayed start, the students, who were sitting an online paper, logged on to realise that all of the questions weren’t in the correct order. Their first question, marked ‘C’, said ‘using your previous knowledge of the question’, which caused obvious confusion.

Students quickly drew attention to the staff and invigilators in the room, and after promises that the situation would be resolved, students were told to ‘look at the questions and take notes’ while they waited, before 15 minutes later, invigilators announced no notes were allowed to be taken and collected the paper while instructing students to log out of the exam.

The omnishambles continued when invigilators realised they didn’t have enough paper, so students received their notes back, a clear confusion of organisation and instruction. We’re told that students then waited another 30 minutes before being allowed to log back in, causing the exam to eventually begin at around 9.45 am.

The exam took place in the diamond

The social secretary of the psychology society, Lewis Hayes, was sitting the exam and commented ‘I was all set. I’d had my marmite on toast and coffee, I was in the exam room and ready to go. Once the exam began, you could then feel the confusion in the room as people started, with questions being in a randomised order. I just got on with, thinking it was an anti-cheating mechanism.’ When asked if he was annoyed by the incident, Lewis said simply that ‘these things happen’.

Charlie, also on the psychology society committee, told us ‘everyone was just in disbelief. Quite disappointed. When we were told to submit the exam without answering questions we were all pretty worried we’d end up getting zero’.

This is just one of many stories this exam period about poor organisation, or delays due to tech or printing, leaving many students annoyed or anxious about if or how this may affect their results.