System issues during synoptic level 3

Evening all. I sat my level 3 synoptic exam in November and got my results in December. Unfortunately I had several issues during the exam, first being that I couldn't open up the instructions in pdf form for task 2.2, I resolved this by opening up 2 excel spreadsheets, 1 with the questions and 1 to work on. I got to the last task of 2.2 and was just starting the task when my whole excel system crashed and lost all the work that I'd done! ? The invigilator advised not to worry as it had happened in an exam she had invigilated before and they had marked that individual based on her work on task 2.1, giving her additional marks (her words were they are very generous with the additional marks) to compensate for the stress caused. I attempted to submit what I could in the 10 minutes or so I had remaining, working from memory as I didn't even have time to re-read the question, therfore not underling, bolding, merging, centring, calculating why my tasks didn't balance and work on any formulas that hadn't worked, all of which I had done first time round. I unfortunately failed the exam and have since learnt that it was marked based on what I produced in 10 minutes with additional marks awarded (no idea how they calculated the additional marks but each task is marked by a different person so 2.1 was not even looked at and I got a lower mark for 2.1 than I did for 2.2,) I felt as confident, if not more so in task 2.2 and I got "below requirement" for this task. I feel I have been hugely disadvantaged and mislead as I could have just given up and produced nothing based on the reassurance from the invigilator. My question is has anyone else had this sort of issue and/or know anyone that has? I'm extremely disappointed in the AAT website as they don't give any sort of guidance around how technical issues are dealt with and if what the invigilator is saying is true my exam has been marked differently to another student which experienced the same issue which is unfair. I would be happy to re-sit the exam, in fact I really wanted to at first but I now know I have to wait until March and then wait another 6 weeks for results, I was convinced I had passed and was planning to start level 4 this month. Any advise anyone has would be hugely appreciated. I got 61% so worse case scenario I re-sit in the knowledge that I wasn't far off even with only having 10 minutes to complete a 50 minute task. Thanks all.

Comments

  • DorotaOmeally
    DorotaOmeally Registered Posts: 8
    A friend of mine had very same situation where the system crashed and then she could not submit the work done. She failed however did not have to pay £50 to retake due to the fault with AAT page. However it might be the case with yourself that you will pass....
  • Helsmt
    Helsmt Registered Posts: 6
    Thank you for the comment. I'm studying AAT as an apprenticeship, my employer therefore covers the cost of my exam but thanks for the info as I definetly would have looked into this otherwise. I have appealed the marking and they confirmed I was awarded a 1% mark increase as the incident was classed as a "minor inconvenience. " How losing 40 minutes of work is classed as minor and 1 additional mark be classed as a reasonable adjustment I do not know!! I'm so frustrated and really resenting having to resit when I'm confident I would have passed otherwise. If it wasn't for the fact I'm rubbish at ethics I wouldn't mind so much.
  • DorotaOmeally
    DorotaOmeally Registered Posts: 8
    That’s rubbish but doing lvl 4 I’ve learnt that fails are only there to test how motivated you are to keep going. I failed costing and synoptic twice each and picked myself up, studied and passed. Don’t forget that real life work is more challenging and frustrating than retakes!! Just realise fails are there to teach us something too like resilience
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