FROM THE SECURE ROOM: Surviving Summer

[00:00:15] So for this one we're going to talk a little bit about how you survive a summer season of exams.

[00:00:21] Yeah, it's getting harder as I'm getting older, I'm not going to lie.

[00:00:24] You found it really hard, didn't you, the last one?

[00:00:27] Yeah, yeah, I did, I did. And it's funny, I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it is, you know, I'm sort of in my mid-40s now.

[00:00:34] So maybe it's just that thing of like you, stuff just catches up with you a bit more physically or you recover less quickly when you've had like a demanding sort of physical day.

[00:00:49] We really wanted to think about, didn't we, so not just the planning of the summer season, which you do sort of pretty methodically throughout the year,

[00:00:57] but literally on a day-to-day basis, on a personal level, how you manage to get through the season.

[00:01:07] Yeah, yeah. So this, I guess this is a bit less technical, this one.

[00:01:10] It's more about sort of, yeah, managing your health, your mentality, all that sort of stuff as you move through the probably the most demanding phase of your year.

[00:01:22] And I think it is the most demanding, like mock exams are also quite demanding and all the work that goes into preparing is also demanding.

[00:01:33] But I think it's the consistency across the summer exams, the length of time that you're at it, basically.

[00:01:41] It's so long, isn't it? How long is it in total?

[00:01:43] It feels so relentless. Well, so a lot of people will think it's about sort of four weeks because that's roughly how long the main A-level and GCSE exams last.

[00:01:51] But actually, you start in right at the beginning of term.

[00:01:57] So we start doing all our speaking exams then and you're running, I mean, you know, like I've said before in our school,

[00:02:03] we're running all day every day on speaking exams right up to the point that the written exams start.

[00:02:08] So that's quite, that's quite busy. It's not as full on as doing the written exams, but it's quite full on.

[00:02:14] And then you start the written exams and you run those for, it's more like four and a half to five weeks.

[00:02:19] You do get a break for a half term, which is handy.

[00:02:23] You pass out.

[00:02:24] But there's a disadvantage to that, which I'll get on to.

[00:02:28] But then I think it's the thing at the end of that where you then go into year 10 exams.

[00:02:34] If you've got sixth form, year 12 exams.

[00:02:36] And that's the killer, really.

[00:02:38] Like that's, that's like almost like someone's kicked you when you're down, you know, like it's,

[00:02:45] that's the really, really hard bit.

[00:02:47] And I found this year that, you know, sorry, last year that I was going pretty much right until the end of term,

[00:02:52] just running exams.

[00:02:53] Yeah, you were, weren't you?

[00:02:54] Just until the last week.

[00:02:55] Yeah.

[00:02:56] Pretty much.

[00:02:56] So it is a lot.

[00:02:59] It's physically and mentally very, very demanding.

[00:03:01] How do you mentally approach the summer exam season?

[00:03:06] Because from, from living with you, I know that you start to get, you know, you're thinking about it a lot more.

[00:03:13] I'd say particularly the couple of weeks before Easter holidays, you usually seem, you know,

[00:03:20] you're starting to get worried about it.

[00:03:21] So how do you get yourself in a frame of mind ready to cope with that?

[00:03:25] I mean, I think the one thing that's good about having those speaking exams is that they do sort of ease you into the reality that you're doing this thing now.

[00:03:36] And because they are real exams, they come with that extra bit of kind of spice, you know, that is very important sort of thing.

[00:03:45] But I think it's not easy.

[00:03:48] And I honestly, and I hope this isn't too demoralizing to sort of new exams officers out there, but, and it might just be to do with my own personal temperament.

[00:03:58] But I haven't found that it necessarily gets that much easier as I've become more experienced.

[00:04:05] And what I mean is doing the job has become easier in the sense that I'm much better anticipating things.

[00:04:12] I know what I'm doing.

[00:04:13] But that sense of like nervousness, butterflies.

[00:04:16] That's because it's different students, isn't it?

[00:04:18] It is.

[00:04:19] It's always important every year for different students.

[00:04:21] And also you haven't done it for a year.

[00:04:23] So it's not like you're going in every day and doing this high pressured thing.

[00:04:27] The job is demanding.

[00:04:30] It is stressful when you're running mock exams.

[00:04:33] There's quite a lot of pressure, but there's nothing quite like that.

[00:04:35] And you haven't done it for a year.

[00:04:37] It also always coincides with some sort of massive hideous heat wave, doesn't it as well?

[00:04:41] It can do.

[00:04:42] Yeah, yeah, it can do.

[00:04:46] And, yeah.

[00:04:47] And so I think, you know, I'm always anxious, particularly that weekend before.

[00:04:54] One thing that's quite nice, actually, that they've done is by moving, they've moved some of the early exams to like the first exams to the middle of the week.

[00:05:03] So they always used to start on a Monday morning.

[00:05:04] And now they're sort of starting on a Wednesday and Thursday.

[00:05:06] And I like that.

[00:05:07] I have to say, they're starting a bit earlier.

[00:05:10] But actually, that sense that it's in the middle of the week rather than the beginning of the week.

[00:05:15] You also haven't got the Sunday night dread of hell.

[00:05:16] Yeah, exactly.

[00:05:17] You get rid of that Sunday night dread.

[00:05:19] And actually, you can use the beginning of that week, Monday and Tuesday, to be like, right, we're building into this now.

[00:05:23] We're getting everything set up.

[00:05:24] But one of the things I find really difficult is going in on the first morning, having to set everything up.

[00:05:30] So that is so stressful.

[00:05:31] And one of the things, funnily enough, with experience that you learn is like when I came to organise mock exams was like, don't put maths on the Monday morning.

[00:05:41] You know, put like computer science or something like that.

[00:05:44] You know, something where there's not a huge demand.

[00:05:47] You're not got like loads and loads of different venues to set up.

[00:05:50] So, yeah.

[00:05:51] And also so you can gradually set things up as you move through.

[00:05:56] I think that really does take some of the pressure off.

[00:05:59] And to be fair to the exam boards, JCQ, I do think that over the years, while I've been doing it, they've got much more sensitive to things like that.

[00:06:08] So to not putting a big exam first, try not to put big exams, for example, on Monday mornings.

[00:06:15] And, you know, kind of easing you in with like they often have like religious studies and drama quite early on.

[00:06:22] And smaller numbers, easier for most schools to deal with.

[00:06:28] So, yeah, so that's definitely a help.

[00:06:31] But, yeah, the nerves and the trepidation, like they don't, I don't find that they go away.

[00:06:38] They're there every year.

[00:06:39] And it's weird in a way, it's part of the excitement as well, it's part of what makes it kind of weirdly fun.

[00:06:45] Honestly, what you're building up to all year, isn't it?

[00:06:47] Yeah.

[00:06:47] But I think it probably becomes fun after about three or four days.

[00:06:52] I think initially it's just more like a terror really, you know, to be honest.

[00:06:56] It's really good to have an April birthday like you do, isn't it?

[00:07:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:07:01] Because it's always, yeah.

[00:07:03] The worry is there.

[00:07:04] I think as well, it's like a football cliche in a way, but it's like taking one day at a time.

[00:07:11] Like you take one game at a time.

[00:07:13] Is that a football cliche?

[00:07:14] Yeah, it's like you take one game at a time sort of thing.

[00:07:17] Don't get ahead of yourself.

[00:07:18] I mean, it's just good advice generally, isn't it?

[00:07:20] Because it's one of those things that it's too overwhelming.

[00:07:22] If you think about the whole thing, it will overwhelm you because it's so many exams.

[00:07:27] It's so many students doing different things.

[00:07:30] For so many weeks.

[00:07:31] The volume is huge.

[00:07:32] It's like, yeah, and really you can't hold all of that in your brain.

[00:07:39] It's sort of like you've got to pace yourself, but like marathon running, isn't it?

[00:07:42] Rather than sprinting, you've got to like prepare for the long haul because I often think you've

[00:07:47] got that adrenaline at the start of the season.

[00:07:50] You cannot, no one can keep that up for the amount of weeks that it is.

[00:07:54] No, absolutely.

[00:07:55] That must be hard mentally to prepare.

[00:07:57] I think there is, again, some benefit that comes with experience.

[00:08:00] So I think one of the things that you're obviously under quite a lot of pressure at the start and

[00:08:04] you feel the pressure a lot more at the start.

[00:08:06] And I think say you make a mistake or something goes wrong at the beginning, then I think if

[00:08:13] you've done it for a long time, you have that slightly wider sense of perspective.

[00:08:16] And you know that when I get into like week four, this thing that's happened on day two is not

[00:08:23] going to seem anywhere near as significant as it does right now.

[00:08:26] So I think that is one positive for new exams officers to realise is that mistakes will happen.

[00:08:34] Things will go wrong.

[00:08:35] You know, you're dealing with so many variables that, you know, every year there'll be something

[00:08:39] that goes a bit awry.

[00:08:42] But that when it happens, it will feel really bad.

[00:08:45] Yeah.

[00:08:46] But by the time you get to the end, it will not seem anywhere near as significant because,

[00:08:52] you know, there'll have been so much that will have gone right.

[00:08:57] But having said that, any mistake in exams can feel quite consequential and can be quite consequential.

[00:09:04] Well, often is, isn't it?

[00:09:04] Yeah.

[00:09:05] So mentally also, you always feel better if you have your JCQ inspection early on, isn't it?

[00:09:14] Not immediately.

[00:09:15] Yeah.

[00:09:15] We've talked about that.

[00:09:16] So I, yeah, having it immediately can be a bit much, having them like turn up on the

[00:09:22] first morning.

[00:09:22] That's never happened to me, but I know people who it has.

[00:09:26] But, um, it's, it's something that, you know, you know, is coming and it's something that

[00:09:31] you want to do well.

[00:09:33] Um, you don't want to let the school down, the school as an exam center.

[00:09:37] You don't want to let it down from that respect.

[00:09:40] Um, and, um, and also, you know, the days do differ.

[00:09:45] So some days you're having a great day and you'd be like, oh, you know, if the JCQ inspector

[00:09:50] was here now, they'd be really impressed.

[00:09:51] And other days things are a bit ropey and you're like, God, I'm glad they didn't turn

[00:09:55] up to date.

[00:09:56] And part of it is kind of not knowing, you know, whether you're going to be having a

[00:10:00] good day or, or, or one of the, one of the bad days.

[00:10:04] It takes a little bit of pressure off, I guess, once that's out and done.

[00:10:07] Yes, it does.

[00:10:08] It does.

[00:10:08] You start to, um, although having said that, I suppose, you know, they can always come

[00:10:13] back.

[00:10:13] So you're not necessarily like, you can't completely relax and you don't want to completely

[00:10:18] relax because that again is when mistakes can happen.

[00:10:21] And the mistakes are still very consequential, even if you've had your JCQ inspection.

[00:10:26] So, you know, if a kid's exam paper goes missing, you know, your JCQ inspection doesn't matter

[00:10:30] in relation to that.

[00:10:31] That's just a really bad thing.

[00:10:33] So you've got, you've got to, once that's happened, you sort of got to say, great, well,

[00:10:38] that's great.

[00:10:38] That's done.

[00:10:39] But also like, we need to keep our standards up, need to keep doing everything properly

[00:10:43] because otherwise something, you know, something like that could go wrong and, and it's a horrible

[00:10:49] feeling when things go wrong.

[00:10:50] I was just going to ask you what specifically you did to mentally prepare yourself, you know,

[00:10:55] and look after yourself mentally during the exam season.

[00:10:58] But I just remember that we started a podcast.

[00:11:00] Yeah.

[00:11:01] So, um, you know.

[00:11:02] That wasn't a good idea from a kind of mental, my mental health point of view.

[00:11:07] So I'm going to be honest with you.

[00:11:09] As a whole, it's been great doing this podcast.

[00:11:12] But, um, but yeah, that was an extra pressure in a time when things are already quite pressurized.

[00:11:19] Also pretty cathartic though.

[00:11:20] Yeah.

[00:11:21] Yeah, that's true.

[00:11:22] That's true.

[00:11:23] You know, hoping that your fellow exams officers were listening to understanding.

[00:11:27] And I got to talk to other exams officers during that period of time as well, which I

[00:11:31] guess was kind of good because it does give you that outlet, um, you know, and, and obviously

[00:11:38] whether or not you can talk to someone about your day and like the stresses and strains

[00:11:44] of it is, is important.

[00:11:46] And you really wanted other people, you know, to express what you were doing each week, wasn't

[00:11:50] it?

[00:11:50] And also to, uh, show people that they weren't alone and the, you know, have a bit of a

[00:11:56] laugh in the process.

[00:11:57] Yeah.

[00:11:57] Yeah.

[00:11:57] And it's also that feeling that, yeah, like you say, you're not alone.

[00:12:00] Like there's someone else somewhere who's going through exactly the same thing.

[00:12:03] And the fact that we've said before that exams officers are well networked means that there

[00:12:08] is that.

[00:12:09] And it's really important.

[00:12:10] Probably people don't think about it in those terms that much, but it is a kind of, I suppose,

[00:12:14] a sort of therapy of like, you know, you're, you're, you feel like you're sharing, you

[00:12:20] know, problem shared is a problem.

[00:12:22] And celebration though, isn't it as well?

[00:12:23] You know, everyone's pleased for people when they've had a, had a good day or a good

[00:12:27] experience.

[00:12:27] Yeah.

[00:12:28] So that's kind of the mental preparation side of it.

[00:12:33] How do you prepare yourself physically and how do you survive it on a physical?

[00:12:38] I think this is a question that's going to become more apparent to me now, uh, as I'm,

[00:12:44] as I'm getting older, actually.

[00:12:46] Um, and, um, I, I never found it that much of a problem before.

[00:12:52] Or, you know, I, I didn't think of it, I thought of it in terms of mental pressure and mental

[00:12:56] exhaustion, but physical, um, tiredness is not something that I really had to.

[00:13:04] Because it's an incredibly physical job, isn't it?

[00:13:05] It is, it is.

[00:13:06] Yeah.

[00:13:07] Um, and you know, I've said before, you know, you're work, you're walking 20,000 steps often

[00:13:14] in a day.

[00:13:15] Um, and you're doing that under stress as well.

[00:13:18] It's not like you're going for a nice stroll.

[00:13:20] You're often basically running.

[00:13:21] Yeah.

[00:13:21] Um, and you're doing it with your heart rate.

[00:13:24] You usually wear out a pair of shoes, don't you?

[00:13:26] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:13:28] Yeah, I go, I'll, I'll usually go through one pair of shoes, um, completely.

[00:13:33] Because you've had to have like a couple of emergency trips to TK Maxx.

[00:13:36] Yeah, yeah.

[00:13:36] I'm sure an exam season of you to buy new shoes.

[00:13:39] Yeah, it's crazy really.

[00:13:40] And, and it's funny as well because there are points in the year when your job is very sedentary.

[00:13:45] So you have these crazy, um, contrasts, which I don't think you get in a lot of jobs.

[00:13:49] Part of the appeal to me, I quite like it.

[00:13:51] I quite like the thing of like, you know, for a bit of the year, you're sort of sat concentrated in your office, you know, doing very specific, um, sort of technical tasks.

[00:14:03] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:04] And then you, you do this big social, you're doing this big social role, like, um, for five, six weeks in the year where you become almost like, um, a focal point within the school.

[00:14:15] Which is completely different to the rest of the time.

[00:14:17] Um, but that, I find that contrast good.

[00:14:20] I couldn't do either of those two things all the time.

[00:14:24] Well, physically you couldn't, you know, keep up with that, could you?

[00:14:26] No, definitely, definitely.

[00:14:27] So how, how do you cope with it then?

[00:14:29] The tiredness, the physical exhaustion of it?

[00:14:33] Um, uh, not always that well.

[00:14:35] Because you always have quite good, I feel like we always have a good Easter holidays.

[00:14:38] You have a really, really, I've got these good intentions.

[00:14:40] I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.

[00:14:42] Yeah.

[00:14:43] Um, I'm still going to go to the gym.

[00:14:45] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:14:45] I'm going to eat really healthily.

[00:14:46] I'm going to walk to work.

[00:14:48] You always say that to get some, you know, fresh air in the mornings.

[00:14:50] But that, that does take them off.

[00:14:53] I really struggle with this because I'd like to think that I can keep everything else in my life going as normal when I'm running exams.

[00:15:02] And that that's what will keep me feeling physically and mentally well.

[00:15:06] So, you know, I do, I do go to the gym from time to time.

[00:15:09] I wish I could be more consistent with it than I am.

[00:15:13] But I do do it from time to time.

[00:15:15] And, um, and I always say, right, I'm going to continue doing that while I'm running exams.

[00:15:19] But I never do because I'm always too exhausted.

[00:15:22] Yeah.

[00:15:22] You know, I'm just always too tired.

[00:15:24] And, um, and maybe from a mental point of view, it would be better to go to the gym because it's as much the fact that you're taking yourself out of what you've been doing all day as the kind of physical exercise.

[00:15:36] Never feel bad after going to the gym.

[00:15:38] No, I do just feel during that period too physically tired.

[00:15:42] And I think the other thing is like eating what I eat as well.

[00:15:46] So, um, I'm type one diabetic, which means I have to be quite careful about what I eat and my blood sugar levels and things like that.

[00:15:53] Um, and that can be quite a challenge around exams in a way that isn't the rest of the time.

[00:16:00] So the rest of the time I, um, try to eat, you know, as healthily as I can, not eat things which are going to like really elevate my blood sugar and things like that.

[00:16:09] Um,

[00:16:09] Um, it's not the same truth.

[00:16:11] No.

[00:16:11] And it completely changes during the exams because obviously I need so much energy and I need to put energy into my body.

[00:16:18] So I can't necessarily eat the things that I'd eat the rest of the time.

[00:16:21] So, so then that sort of disrupts a lot of, of that.

[00:16:24] And there were times this year when I sort of got home and I was like, I need to eat a pizza.

[00:16:30] Like I haven't eaten enough for the amount of exercise that I've done.

[00:16:36] And my blood sugars are kind of going low because I've done so much exercise, but I haven't eaten enough to keep my blood sugars up.

[00:16:43] So, and then you, you know, I remember one night coming home, it's disgusting, but I got a whole like large pizza hut, deep pan pizza.

[00:16:52] And I just ate, I ate the whole thing like in about 10 minutes.

[00:16:56] Like it was just horrific.

[00:16:58] But that, that was, that just shows you like how much energy you're expending.

[00:17:02] And I'm sure some of that's probably nervous energy as well.

[00:17:05] Um, but, um, it is really physically, physically demanding.

[00:17:09] And I think that's something that probably is, it's definitely not on the job advert, you know, like you wouldn't know that, um, until you actually did it.

[00:17:17] It'd be interesting to hear from some of our listeners, um, some advice about what they're doing.

[00:17:22] What they do to mentally and physically prepare.

[00:17:25] It's a common theme that's come up with our guests, isn't it?

[00:17:28] Yeah.

[00:17:29] Everyone seems to talk about the kind of physical, um, side of it, uh, which is, yeah, is, is, is probably something again that, that people wouldn't have thought of.

[00:17:39] What's your biggest mistake do you think you've made in this area?

[00:17:42] Like, has there been a year where you just have sort of collapsed and just, it's just been too much and there's something you could have done to prevent it, do you think?

[00:17:53] I think, I think one of the, the big things is, um, and there isn't always a necessary, a solution to this.

[00:18:00] But, um, when I first started the job, I had an assistant and what's good about that is that you can sort of slightly dovetail, you know, when someone's a bit tired, the other one can take on a bit more and, and what have you.

[00:18:15] And, um, we had a very good, like kind of understanding.

[00:18:19] So without even having to say really, we would get when the other one needed a bit of a rest and, and what have you and to pick up the slack.

[00:18:27] Um, obviously like exams have changed, school budgets have changed.

[00:18:32] A lot of exams officers now don't have that support.

[00:18:36] And so you have to be quite, um, I think you have to be quite forthright about asking for support.

[00:18:43] So the last couple of years I've had a member of our, um, schools admin and finance team who have helped, has helped me.

[00:18:51] So they're not like an exams assistant.

[00:18:53] They're not doing stuff to that level, but on the days of exams, they're doing certain things for me running around, you know, checking certain rooms, um, making sure that certain corridors are monitored, putting up signs in places and things like that.

[00:19:05] Some of those kind of more physical jobs actually that require you running around the school.

[00:19:09] Um, so I think, um, one of the mistakes I've made in the past is not to ask for help.

[00:19:15] Um, so, uh, because I think you, you want in the end to just be able to manage it yourself.

[00:19:22] Um, but, um, I think because it's, it's not that I can't deal with it in terms of organizationally, I can do all the organization.

[00:19:33] I can do all the preparation, but I think it's on the day really that I've, I've, I think that the support is, is helpful to ensure that you don't burn out during that period.

[00:19:43] So I guess my biggest mistake would not be, would be not asking for help.

[00:19:48] And probably my biggest tip would be to ask for help.

[00:19:52] So to make sure that if you're finding it difficult physically, you'll find it difficult mentally is to say, is to ask for help, but to do it in a way which is, um, uh, which is kind of boundaried.

[00:20:06] So that you're not just, you're not going in and saying, I can't cope.

[00:20:09] Um, I need help that you're going in and saying, I need help to do these specific things.

[00:20:15] For this amount of time.

[00:20:16] For this amount of time.

[00:20:17] Yeah.

[00:20:17] Yeah.

[00:20:18] Um, and also, you know, I think, think about who you'd like to help you as well.

[00:20:23] Yeah, have a solution in mind.

[00:20:24] Because, yeah.

[00:20:24] And also because we've talked about in our episode with invigilators, how having someone who's not really on board or who's, you know, who's not always constructive.

[00:20:35] You know, as an exams officer, you've got so much to think about.

[00:20:38] You can't really be dealing with that.

[00:20:39] I think in the same way, if you're going to get someone in the school to support you, make sure you've thought about who that person's going to be.

[00:20:44] Do they have the right skill set?

[00:20:45] Have they got the right character?

[00:20:47] The right skill set, the right character, right mindset around exams.

[00:20:50] So that means, like we've said before, being calm under pressure, um, not losing their rag, um, and always looking for a solution.

[00:20:58] So if you can identify someone within your, you know, kind of your admin team or your wider support staff who you think fits the bill, then, um, then think about, you know, how you could present that as, you know, as getting some support for like a limited amount of time to do a limited number of things.

[00:21:17] Um, I've found that to be, to be really, really helpful.

[00:21:21] Um, definitely.

[00:21:22] And have pizza when you want it.

[00:21:23] Have pizza whenever you need it.

[00:21:30] Thank you so much for listening to the exam man podcast.

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