You may have heard in recent news that wrist watches, digital, analogue and smart watches are no longer allowed to be worn in exams. The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) have announced that this new rule will be put fourth this summer for A-level and GCSE’s pupils. Rather than students wearing a watch on their wrist so that they can tell the time throughout their exam, students must now place the watch either on their desk or underneath their chair.
JCQ states:
“The invigilator, prior to the examination starting, must ensure that candidates have removed their wrist watches, placing them on their desks.”
The reason for this change is of course due to the risk of cheating. In the past invigilators have reported that students touch the buttons on their watches during exams and could be using them for information, or even having material wedged in-between the watch and their wrist. Web-enabled technology has been banned from exams such as mobile phones and mp3 players so with the advancements in watches allowing the devices to connect to the internet and other information sources their is an explanation for the new change.
Although wrist watches are not strictly banned from the exam hall currently and are acceptable as long as they are not worn during the exam there are still rumours that their will be a complete ban on taking a watch into exams. Currently, there are analogue clocks at the front of the exam hall so that student can keep track of their exam time however this is being changed to digital as there have been many student complains about being able to read the time during the exam.
If you are a student or your son or daughter is currently taking exams at the moment then let them know to leave their watch behind on the day.
For more information on First Class Watches then please don’t hesitate to get in contact via our website, via phone on 01926298499 or visit our watch shop in Kenilworth if you are local.
