Alternative to laptop clocks for exams.

[jthompson]

Interesting, I was discussing this very thing in passing with our exams officer the other morning and it turns out that yes, teenagers are increasingly unable to read analogue clock faces, or at least confidently work out the remaining time from them, etc. I suspect we'll start using digital wall clocks in exams before too much longer.

[PotNoodleTech]

Sounds like you're trying to address an IT issue that isn't really an IT issue at all!

 

Normal £5 wall clocks here. Exams team are in charge of making sure they are correct before the exam starts.

 

Mind you, it doesn't really matter if there a few mins early or late as long as the exam is started and finished on the same actual clock.

[Rob_D]

One of our extra time rooms has a xibo screen so we throw a digital clock on that during exams. Otherwise its just large format digital and analogue clocks for all the exam rooms (I think we have both in each room where possible).

[HPlum78]

Yeah should be a none IT issue but like @FishCustard you ask the question and you get the standard IT Heath Robinson approach of taking something simple and embellishing it.

 

for the younger audience :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Heath_Robinson

 

(Just rock up with a Grandfather clock!)

 

:-P

[DrBeaker]

The term "over-engineered" springs to mind.

[sonofsanta]

Just my 2-cents, but in an exam situation students of GCSE level should surely be able to at least tell the start time and end time and hopefully be able to figure out how much time is remaining in the exam?

 

By exam regs they have to be able to work it out themselves. I coded up a JavaScript clock similar to that ExamInvigilator software someone linked above that gave you a countdown of how long was left, and within months the exam boards put out guidance that we weren't allowed to provide this information, only start time, end time and a clock for the current time. Which, really, is the exams system in a nutshell: here is an arbitrary hoop to jump through that has no relevance on your expertise in the subject examined but exists only to create unnecessary stress and pressure, in particular for those already less academically inclined.

 

Our exams take place in a big hall that already has a projector, so at the start of the season we log on a laptop, load up a simple webpage with a digital clock, and just show the invigilators how to turn the projector on and off. We've got wall clocks as well but if you're sat in the middle of the hall they're difficult to see.

[jmak]

Which, really, is the exams system in a nutshell: here is an arbitrary hoop to jump through that has no relevance on your expertise in the subject examined but exists only to create unnecessary stress and pressure, in particular for those already less academically inclined.

 

^^ This. So much this.

 

Telling the time is assessed in primary school maths. It has nothing to do with most of the GCSE subjects being tested. If you need to, test it in one subject, not all of them.

 

Doesn't have to be an IT solution; there are plenty of countdown clocks available.

 

Even for those who can tell the time, it's easy to make a mistake when you're under pressure.

[jthompson]

I suspect the guidelines from the exam boards are there to try and set as equal a set of conditions as possible for candidates up and down the country. If candidates at one school are getting aided by countdown timers, but candidates sitting the same exams in other schools aren't, is that fair? It could also swing the other way: candidates might feel less relaxed with a countdown timer or a seconds display that their peers elsewhere aren't being subjected to.

[Rob_D]

I suspect the guidelines from the exam boards are there to try and set as equal a set of conditions as possible for candidates up and down the country. If candidates at one school are getting aided by countdown timers, but candidates sitting the same exams in other schools aren't, is that fair? It could also swing the other way: candidates might feel less relaxed with a countdown timer or a seconds display that their peers elsewhere aren't being subjected to.

Does that mean there are regulations as to whether exam clocks should have a second hand/display?

[HPlum78]

Does that mean there are regulations as to whether exam clocks should have a second hand/display?

 

I don't think they care if its new or second hand! :-P

[jthompson]

Does that mean there are regulations as to whether exam clocks should have a second hand/display?

 

No, not that I'm aware of. I was just thinking that a seconds display might add to someone's clock-related stress.