A Checklist for the Whole Process

One page, in order. Each item has a note explaining it.

For students coordinating revision with jobs or caring duties, the full explanation provides a practical reference for separating projects and reviewing time voluntarily. The record should stay simple and under the user’s control.

A month before

Find out which type of proctoring your exam uses.

For established guidance related to personal cyber security, consult the UK NCSC guidance. Local exam rules still take priority.

Read your institution's page about it, and ask the eight questions if it does not answer them.

Request any adjustment you need — equipment, space, medical, disability, caring, religious.

Ask about alternatives if home monitoring is difficult for any reason.

A week before

Book and do the practice run, on the setup you will actually use.

Check your machine against the stated requirements.

Test your connection at the time of day you will sit.

Confirm any adjustment is recorded, not just requested.

Read the rules for this specific exam: paper, calculator, phone, AI tools, materials-permitted scope.

Ask about anything unclear, in writing, and keep the reply.

Three days before

Run updates, then disable automatic updates for the exam period.

Tell the people you live with the date and time.

Prepare a fallback connection and test it.

The day before

Clear the desk and what is behind you.

Check the lighting at the hour you will sit, with light in front of you.

Set out: identity document, water, permitted materials, cables.

Write the support contact on paper.

Restart the computer. Sleep.

On the day

Sit down fifteen minutes early.

Close everything, silence notifications, phone where the rules require.

Check in unhurried. Show what is asked and no more.

Work normally: look away, stretch, think.

If something goes wrong: note the time, follow your one-line plan, contact support.

Immediately after

Write down anything that happened: interruptions, disconnections, crashes, anything asked of you that should not have been.

Report it the same day, in writing, to the exams office.

If you are contacted

Establish whether it is a question, an allegation or an outcome.

Write your own recollection before re-reading theirs.

Contact your students' union before replying substantively.

Ask what specifically was observed and to see the recording.

Reply factually, under two pages, with your evidence.

If the outcome is wrong

Get the reasons in writing.

Find the appeal deadline first.

Appeal on procedural grounds where they exist, and cite any adjustment that was not accounted for.

Ask for the completion-of-procedures letter when the internal process ends.

Throughout

Keep everything: emails, times, notes, confirmations.

Tell somebody.

And if the stress is more than nerves, speak to the wellbeing service rather than pushing through.

The point

Keep everything: emails, times, notes, confirmations.

And tell somebody, rather than carrying it alone.

Additionally

Keep everything and tell somebody.

Those two habits do more than any individual step on the list.

Finally

Keep everything and tell somebody.

Those two habits do more than any individual step on the list.

In summary

Keep everything and tell somebody.

Those two habits do more than any individual step on the list.

A note on this

Report anything unusual the same day, in writing, to the exams office.

That single habit underpins most of this list.

Bottom line

Report anything unusual the same day, in writing, to the exams office.

That single habit underpins most of this list.

Worth repeating

Almost everything in this collection comes down to three habits: prepare the technical side a week early, know what the process actually is before you need it, and write down the time whenever something unusual happens. None of them takes long, and between them they prevent or resolve the great majority of what goes wrong with monitored exams.