Croyden Exam Centre

Hello

Did anyone else write and complain to the institute about the chaos at the Croyden exam centre for the people who sat the combined paper?

s

 

What was the nature of the 'chaos'?

 

Don't tell me - wonky tables, roadworks and choir practice??

 

Chaos - explained

They gave half the exam hall the wrong exam paper (ie one of the half papers) then collected the wrong papers while allowing the people with the whole correct exam to look through the paper and study the questions. They then sent the entire exam hall out to where bags and notes were. Students some of whom who saw the questions were then given 30 minutes (the time it took to photocopy the correct paper) to peruse their notes and brushing up on crucial knowledge. This certainly gave some students an unfair advantage.

I wrote the next day to the institute but have not heard a word back.

 

Infuriating

That is enough to make my blood boil! How can they get such imcompetent people to be examiners?

I bet the institute is not going to do a thing to the whole situation and the rest (that sat elsewhere) will just be worse off. As if the whole Actuarial Education system was not demotivational enough

 

The amount of people sitting croyden was about 50 odd - so i would guess about 25 people had the chance to read the questions then their notes.

 

But I assume you were allowed to talk outside, so surely the 25 who saw the questions then told their friends (or anyone if they were feeling generous) the questios too? Either way, it is so annoying

 

This never happened when you were sitting university or school exams, I'll bet, because they were invigilated by professionals - teachers or university lecturers who had an interest in the sound running of exams. They would have got all necessary materials ready the day before. Who are the people that invigilate anyway?

 

That's unbelievable! My last bit of faith in the exam system is offically gone!

 

Oh but it does happen elsewhere. Every time there are GCSEs taken there seems to be some new item that XYZ school all sat the wrong paper.

As for who invigilates, generally it's qualified actuaries from a nearby office or other members of the profession. As far as I know, the invigilators aren't allowed to open the packets until the day of the exam ie in the presence of candidates. Hence they don't have the opportunity to prepare early. So don't blame invigilators. It could have been an issue at dispatch.

I doubt you will get an individual response from the Institute. Things like this often appear as items on the Student Consultative Committee discussions so check that website. Maybe worth contacting your area rep too.

One of the invigilators responsibilities is to complete an 'incident' sheet and this kind of disruption should have been noted on that. Ie the Institute should already know what happened.

Still you'll be out of your misery soon. Shame pass rates aren't published by centre!

 

Turtle, Have you given them a call? Might be worth a try Keep us posted.

 

I appreciate that the invigilators can’t prepare before hand, and yes an incident report was written. But they could have started the exam with half of the students starting on the 103 section and they certainly shouldn’t have let the students look at their notes/leave the exam hall while waiting.

I do like the idea of publishing the results by exam centre – could provide some interesting reading.

Does anyone know of anybody else who sat the exam in Croyden?

 

Unbelieveable

I agree with turtle that they should not have been allowed out to see their notes. If this is not taken into account this seriously disadvantages those who did not get to look at their notes and I dare say that this will be taken up with the Institute.

Was anyone else aware that this had happened? Has anyone contacted the Institute?

 

Unreal

I agree with you Jen, it is unbelievable that some candidates got to read their notes after reading the exam paper. These people definitely have an unfair advantage. It may artificially push up the average mark on the paper, therefore making it tougher for those candidates who didn't have this unfair advantage to pass.

 

student reps

To find a rep on the student consultative committee, go into the actuarial actuaries.org website and in the quick search type student consultative committee and you'll find something that will give you a list of reps from the different regional societies. Sorry, not sure which one covers Croydon.

I guess at the end of the day, there has to be some reliance on the integrity of students to resist the temptation to look at the notes in these circumstances. That would constitute cheating which is a disciplinary offence.

We are professionals after all.

 

thanks

thanks for the update on the student reps - will see how things go post this evenings results.

Ofcourse it would be cheating - but you can't honestly say that if you had time to read the question and then were sitting there for half an hour with your notes next to you that you wouldnt just take a look?

I think the main disadvantage i found was the stress of it - and taking time to relax and focus once all the chaos was over.

 

Well i was not amongst the 41% of people luckily to pass. am curious how other people did - anyone know of students who sat in croyden?

 

This is shockin

Hard luck turtle that would of wrecked my head . I never would of been able to relax and calmly do the exam after that , I'm a new student haven't taken an exam yet and the more i read this forum the less i want to be an actuary