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Your Guide to
GCE
Examinations
Summer 2015
Updated April 2015
This guide is to help answer questions you may have regarding
examinations
If you have any queries regarding your examinations please speak to
the Head of Sixth form, your year manager or the examinations
officer. The examinations officer can be found in the office opposite
the staff room.
PREPARING FOR YOUR EXAMINATIONS
In March you will receive your examination timetable. This should
contain details of all the examinations that you will take and it will
include the time and date of the examination. Please check your
timetable carefully. Make sure your personal details at the top are
correct. Make sure the examinations you expect to take and the levels
you expect to take are shown correctly on the timetable. It is your
responsibility to check your exam timetable. If there is anything that
you are not sure about or you think there is a mistake please come to
the examination office (opposite the staff room) with your timetable.
SITTING EXAMINATIONS
Make sure that you know where you are sitting for your examination.
The seating plans will be pinned up on the examinations notice board
by the small hall entrance. You will have a different seat for each
examination that you take. Please note that the time of your
examination is shown at the top of the seating plan, the times shown
next to your name are the expected finishing times.
You should report to your exam venue by 8.45 am for morning
examinations to start promptly at 9.00 am and at 12.45 pm to start
promptly at 1.00 pm for afternoon examinations.
Afternoon
examinations may run past 3.35 pm. If you usually catch a school bus
home and your examination is due to finish after 3.35 pm make sure
you know how you are getting home. You will not want to be worrying
about how you are getting home while you are sitting your
examination.
Mobile Telephones and MP3/4 players and smart watches with data
recorders
Examination Board regulations state that mobile phones must NOT be
present in examination rooms, even if switched off in bags. Therefore
we ask students NOT to bring mobile phones to school on examination
days. However, we understand that for some students this is not
possible. If it is essential that you bring your mobile phone into school
it must not be left in your bag. The phone must be switched off and
placed on the designated table at the front of the examination venue.
This applies to MP3 players too as many of these now have recording
facilities. If you are caught with a mobile phone or MP3 player in your
possession or in your bag then you risk not having your examination
paper marked which will result in a U grade – it really is not worth
taking the risk.
LEAVE YOUR PHONE AT HOME OR HAND IT IN!
Meals
Students may prefer to bring packed lunches on examination days.
Students may get lunch in the small hall canteen before afternoon
examinations if they wish to. The Canteen is open from 12.40 pm and
often opens early when exams are taking place. If a student has a clash
of examinations and they need to be kept under supervision they must
bring a packed lunch with them.
Equipment
Candidates are responsible for bringing equipment for each
examination, such as black pens, pencils, eraser, ruler, compasses,
protractor and calculator in working order. It is advisable to bring spare
pens, cartridges and batteries, and all equipment must be carried in a
clear pencil case or bag. Examination Boards require that all written
answers must be in black ink. No other colour may be used except for
diagrams or drawings. The use of Tippex or other white erasing fluid is
not allowed. English candidates must provide their school copies of the
set texts for English Literature. The school cannot provide equipment
for students who have forgotten to bring their own.
Illness
If you are unable to attend an examination because of illness, the
school must be notified by telephone by 8.45am (for a morning
examination) or 12.45pm (for an afternoon examination) on the day
concerned.
Examination Boards do not allow examinations to be
transferred to another day.
Clashes between Examinations
Sometimes there will be a clash of examinations which is when two
different subjects are on your timetable to be taken at the same time.
You may need to take a morning examination in the afternoon, or vice
versa, once it has been agreed by the examination board. In these
cases you will be supervised at all times between examinations. As you
may not contact other students, you will need packed lunch and drink
and will be required to hand in any mobile phone/MP3 player.
EXAMINATION RESULTS AND CERTIFICATES
You (or your parents) may collect your results from the Mansion Block
(Room M2) between 10.00 am and 11.30 am on Thursday 13th August
for GCE and Thursday 20th August for GCSE and you must sign for their
receipt. After 11.30 am results will not be available for collection. They
will be sent by first class mail to your home address. Please ensure that
the School Office is notified of any change of address.
Queries about Examination Results
If you wish to query examination results you should first discuss this
possibility with a member of the sixth form staff running a results
Surgery. If you have a query about your results which affects your
university place make sure you speak to the Head of Sixth form staff
on results day.
A separate information sheet is available from the exams office which
contains information on this.
Examination Certificates
Examination Certificates are important and valuable documents, and
will be required by future employers or institutions of Higher or Further
education to which you may apply. It is not possible to get duplicate
copies of your certificates if you lose them. All certificates will be
awarded at the end of Year 13. There will be a formal Presentation
Evening in December 2015 or January 2016, when you will be invited to
receive your certificates. Any certificates which have not been
presented will need to be collected from the school office in January.
Exam boards recommend that certificates are not posted to students as
they cannot be replaced if they are lost in the post.
If you have any exam related queries please speak to your year
manager or the exams officer