Am I the only one that pressed finish after the first exam?

Spanz85

So, after taking all week off work to study and being fully prepared, I automatically failed my synoptic assessment on Friday. Why?! Because I pressed finish when the timer was on 5 seconds left of the ethics exam. I thought I was finishing the first exam. But I ended the whole thing! Did not even get to do the spreadsheets part!

Cd83

A girl in my class did the same thing. She was in floods of tears. I would have thought there would be a fail safe from doing what you did. It's easily done.

Casu

Don't know about the new exams, but the old ones used to ask two or three times are you sure you want to , hour blur. Anyway, point is for these -was nothing covered off in the initial instructions? If not I would put a call out to the AAT immediately and make a complaint and if you are not satisfied put it in writing to them.

AbbyCarr

In the instructions did it state which button to press to switch over to the second part of the exam? If that wasn't clear you can make a complaint. On other forums and groups it's happened to quite a lot of people, you really aren't the only one. Plus the numerous other problems caused.

There probably will have been the confirmation spiel, but if you have time left for that section, you may be mistaken to think it's asking you if you're sure you'd like to finish that particular task.

There will likely be a review due to the number of issues caused. Please put a complaint to the AAT and your learning provider if you have one. The more people that speak out, the more likely it is they'll look into it.

Spanz85

Hi,

Yes that's the thing; in other exams I have had plenty of time left so felt certain I could finish. Never had a warning. But with the ethics I did not get round to the last question because there was so much to write. The timer flashed up that there was under a minute left. I panicked thinking if it got to zero and I had not pressed finish that I would lose all my work. So I quickly pressed it. The warning came up but I thought it was referring to the question I did not manage to answer. I did do both mock exams on the AAT website and should have known that I should have pressed next. But a similar warning came up when you pressed next to move on. And in the pressure of an exam environment and a countdown I just did not think properly or have time to.

Spanz85

*i meant in other exams I did not get a warning that I had not answered all the questions. Because this is the first exam that I did not answer all the questions.

It did not specifically say 'press next to move on to spreadsheets'. I do think my lack of common sense was mostly to blame. (I have been described as clever but with no common sense several times!). However, maybe it should have been clearer. If there are 2 time limits and you cannot move back to the last exam then I can surely be forgiven for thinking you need to physically 'finish' one.

Oh well. I'll be more prepared next time!

Thank you for the comments.

AbbyCarr

I would definitely make a case to the AAT and learning provider. It's happened to a fair amount of people in comparison to the amount of people who have sat it. With the way the exam has been laid out, it's not an error that you could ever justify on any other CBT. I haven't sat this exam or looked at the layout, but its obviously not as clear as it should be to move onto the next section. Perhaps, you shouldn't be able to complete the exam without going onto the second task? It should be considered by AAT as the button is not required. It seems ridiculous if you cannot go back to the first task, for there to be a finish button on it! Because no one would ever be finished on task one, or would press it knowingly if that makes sense.

Hayleybubs

This did not happen to me personally but 2 out of 24 sitting this actually did this at my college. You are not alone x

annvboys

Spanz85 - I did exactly the same as you and for exactly the same reasons. Never failed to finish before or had a time warning either. Our exam invigilator even used my error to warn others in the exam room and 2 or 3 still made the same mistake. When you're under pressure anyway you don't want to be fannying about wondering what button to press, especially when it isn't the same as in the practice exams where the clock ticks down from 3 hours.

It is always more annoying when you really know it is your own fault but I realty do think the AAT could have done more to help students. In a way I am quite glad I screwed up because I didn't have the stress of a bug-ridden xls exam and instead had beer...and wine...

I do feel marginally better knowing so many others have made the same mistake but it still remains an exceedingly frustrating situation. And we not only have to resit the spreadsheets but the ethics/synoptic as well - grrrrr.

Is it 2 exams or 1. Make up your mind AAT!

annvboys

Just want to let you all know that AAT have confirmed to me that it is 1 exam, not 2 and so the overall pass mark is 70%, which means that you do not need to achieve 70% in each section.

So if you get 100% in the synoptic you only need 25% in the spreadsheets. 100% in the spreadsheets leaves you needing 50% in the synoptic. (I think!)

DanRhys

I did the same, just had results for the first part, Friday 25th August, and I think I got 57 out of 60 for the first part, which I'm amazed by. I hadn't pressed finish at the end of the first part of the assessment in the mocks we had, it's just something that I've done completely without thinking. I've pressed finish so many times at the end of these exams, I've just done it on autopilot. I only realised that I had pressed finish after it exited the program rather than loading the spreadsheet section. Like you Spanz85, I took a week off work unpaid to study.
I've had to continue studying over the summer, to keep myself ready for the resit. And our teacher has asked us to Study up on Credit Management in preparation for an exam when we return to college in September. I was devastated, I spent so much time, particularly with spreadsheets, I don't work in an office, so I pretty much had to teach myself spreadsheets from scratch. I was probably the first one to finish the first part in our group, but as far as I am aware no one else made the same mistake. I know that I would have passed had I not pressed finish and attempted the spreadsheet exam, I knew that I had passed the first part - even though I didn't know quite how well I had done. Anyway, really proud of myself for doing so well in the first part. I know I'm capable of passing this exam, I wish Spanz85 and anyone else in the same boat the best of luck with their resits.
Just invested so much nervous energy in worrying and preparing for the synoptic that I felt really flat on the morning of the exam. I was really struggling to think clearly that morning, which is part of the reason why I'm proud of how I did in the first part. It really was attrition for me in that exam room. I did feel really ashamed and embarrassed at the time though, not so much now, but I was very nervous and felt under a lot of pressure which is part of the reason that I made the mistake.

Spanz85

DanRhys

57% is amazing. I got 47% for the exam where I pressed finish before second part. I have just passed my re-take, by the skin of my teeth! Spreadsheets let me down. Significantly below on the last 2 tasks. I barely started the last though. Oh well. Level 4 in 2 weeks! Good luck with your re-sit and sorry to hear about what you went through.

DanRhys

Well done Spanz for passing your retake. We didn't take our synoptic until July 10th. Should be able to take the resit ,maybe, October time. Best of luck with level 4. I'm going to start on level 4, see how things go. Trying to remain confident about resitting the synoptic.