I am an examination invigilator at a local high school (which had best remain nameless). It is the most boring thing I have done in my long life and yet - at the same time - a most fascinating experience and one that I much enjoy and would not miss.
Passing the time during a long examination can be a problem and it is essential that I keep my brain active. I plan what I am going to do for the rest of the day. In my mind's eye I look round my garden and do some planning there, too. And I write stuff - again in my mind, if you see what I mean.
This morning there were 82 students sitting a mock GCSE examination in history. I read the paper, whilst keeping a weather eye on the students, for if they need more paper or a tissue or their pens has run out, I have to be at their side, quick at a flash and even faster or the Senior Invigilator - She Who Must Be Obeyed - will be after me with a withering look (and believe me, her looks can wither, although Anne is kindly at heart and rather sweet, but do not tell her I said so for she will give me clip round the ear next time we meet).
The topics were quite different to those that I studied for my School Certificate in 1949 (yes, 1949 - not a typing error). The Suffragettes, white slavery at Bryant and May in London's East End (the factory may be seen from the railway line running into Liverpool Street and is now up-market residential flats) and the Tolpuddle Martyrs. My history studies were riddled with Kings and Queens and Wars and dates and the like. Much more challenging studies today. But after reading the paper and realising I would have a problem filling an hour and a half with writing about this subjects, I then started the Count - an activity which causes much amusement to my colleagues for many of them wait for the results of my configurations rather as my Dad used to sit by the Wireless (radio to you, Gertrude) to listen to the football results on Saturday afternoons.
Today 16 per cent of the 82 historians write left-handed, while 23 per cent wore spectacles, 54 per cent were of the female variety and 22 per cent had brought a bottle of water to feed their brain and calm their nerves.
The percentage for left-handers was higher than the year as a whole which, at earlier sittings, I had ascertained was 11 per cent, which was lower than last year's Year Eleven where it ranged around 20 per cent. I would expect the percentage with water will go up when the public examinations start in May for the heat can be a problem.
