It has happened again… ‘tech issues’ for Monday sitters

Those Monday morning exam blues came back with a vengeance for some UK-based ACCA December exam sitters.

There were technical issues at Cardiff, Liverpool and Southampton, as exams crashed and invigilators had difficulty getting the exams back online. There were minor problems in Reading too.

The problems ran into the afternoon sessions to. One sitter who arrived at 12.30pm for the 1.30pm exam did not get started until 3.30pm. Halfway through the exam an error message came up and they had to wait until 7.30pm before they could start again. The problem is, they along with two other sitters had a brand-new exam come up – none of their work had been saved! The sitter had to leave as they had a 7-year-old at home and there were issues with trains if they stayed the full 3 hours.

To add to the misery of Southampton sitters there was no heating in the main hall (The White Church Room). Students were advised to bring layers!

Students who had problems should be given the option to resit under the new ACCA Action Plan, unveiled in August. The plan allows both Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exam sitters to sit a contingency exam “within the same two-week window of that sitting”.

To read our day-by-day review of the actual papers go to www.pqmagazine.com.