This time of the year almost anything can happen and usually does. It's all hands on deck in our department in order to help quell the oncoming turmoil and horrors of the assessments.
And so it begins... The sky darkens, the rivers run red and as expected the phone rings:
"IT Support."
"There are not enough computers in one of the rooms." We get told by the Exam Administrators.
"Ok, then you will need to use a different room." We suggest to them.
"No, it's booked into that room, it can't be changed." They insist.
"When does the exam start?" We ask.
"Five Minutes ago" They answer.
"OK, while the others are working we'll get two of our cabling guys down there to run some network cables, and put some new Cat5 sockets in. We will also contact the electrician to come and fit some new plug sockets. All this could take a couple of hours. They will have to drill the wall and turn the electricity off while they work. Is that OK?"
Silence...
"We'll move the exam to a different room." They inform us.
"Good idea" we agree. "It may also be a good idea to count your candidates next time before you book a room."
They hang up without comment.
The next call was extremely funny at the time; a similar problem. They rang to say that they had a single candidate in a separate room, but there was no computer in it. When we got down there we were not surprised. The room they were booked into was a stationary store cupboard. Apparently they had a choice between the cupboard, or the ladies toilets. Common sense had failed miserably, although as the candidate was male, I sensed a lawsuit if they had gone with option B.
The exams get underway and the phone rings off the hook. Unfortunately we get little or no information regarding the problems, so we end up walking into several problems completely blind or with descriptions of thingy's and whatsanames that were not working properly. Almost always, it's completely and utterly our fault!
With four of us on the prowl ready for action, we made our way out to fight off the evil gremlins of exams.
The first call is a password issue. Each candidate has to enter a unique username and password to start the exam. This is obviously over complicated as 50% of the candidates get them wrong: Regardless of the fact that they have them written on a sheet of paper in front of them.
One girl insisted that she was typing everything in correctly (six times) and that the exam was not setup correctly. Strange: As it worked first time when one of us typed the information in for her.
"My screens gone blank" a guy shouts, waving his hands in the air like he was signalling a helicopter, breaking the silence of the exam room and the concentration of all the other candidates.
I make my way over before he yelled again and broke the sound barrier.
"It's gone blank because you have put your foot on the cable and worked it loose." I told him as he stared into space. How he had managed this I am not sure as the cable had been tied up, out of the way. I plug the monitor back in and he had lift off.
One of my colleagues then gets called over to where a candidate had been logged out of her exam after only one question, and was trying in vain to get back in it. My colleague examines the computer and reboots for good measure, it's not the best of software and a little buggy. Just the thing you need for an important test. Still the exam would not let the girl back in.
"Did you click 'log out'?" He asks her.
The girl shakes her head nervously. "No" she says quietly.
He makes a couple of more attempts and then checks the server. It tells him that the exam is completed and closed.
"Are you sure you didn't click the 'Log Out' button by mistake?" He asks her.
She answers in the negative again and he decides that the exam administrators should take a look. She follows him rather sheepishly to their office. After giving my colleague the third degree on why the exam was not functioning as expected, they finally agree to phone the exam board. They too confirm that the exam is marked as complete and can no longer be accessed. The girl insists she had only just begun. They enrol her for a re-test a week later.
My colleague escorts the girl back to the exam room. Along the way he explains that the only conceivable way this problem can occur is if the exam is logged out.
"Well..." the girl says "I may have hit it accidently. I was wondering what the button did."
My colleague sighed in exasperation and slaps his forehead.
Quiet ensues the exam rooms at last. Only the clacking of keyboards, the buzz of working brains and the occasional cough breaks the still.
Then...
A hand shoots up in the air and the invigilators make their way over, two at a time. They look rather grim and turn to beckon me over.
"This young man is having a few problems." The invigilator tells me in loud, hoarse whisper.
"OK, What's wrong?" I ask him.
The guy points at the screen and mumbles something incoherent. I look at the screen; all I see is his exam. No flashing lights and no error message saying "you have an error."
"What's wrong with it?" I ask again.
He points at the screen again, his finger on the current exam question. "What's that?" He asks.
"What's what?"
"That..?"
I look to his finger again and read the exam question to myself.
I look at the guy and ask "is there a problem with the software?"
He shakes his head and says "what's that?" again.
"The question?" I ask.
He nods. The question is asking about a specific computer component and the guy is looking up at me expecting me to answer it for him. The invigilators, always a mile behind were looking at me expectantly as if to say "why haven't you fixed it yet."
I explain that I was there to fix problems with the IT equipment NOT to do the exam for them.
The guy starts to grumble. I look at the invigilators who merely shrug their shoulders. When they finally catch on I leave them to explain to the guy the whole point of exams. I wonder if he passed? I wouldn't count on it.
This went on all week as we fought for survival against the sheer stupidity and idiotic tendencies of the users in an online exam infested apocalyptic world.
OMFG How Dumb are these people?
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