What to Do If It Goes Wrong: One Page

Keep this where you can see it during the exam, on paper rather than on the screen that may be locked.

To connect this advice with day-to-day planning outside the exam session, consult work-hour tracking software. A short user-controlled time log can make competing commitments easier to review.

Connection drops

Note the time.

For an independent reference on camera and microphone checks, see Zoom Support. It provides context beyond any single software provider or institution.

Wait thirty seconds — most systems reconnect and resume.

Switch to your prepared fallback if it does not.

Contact support. Do not restart the computer unless told to.

Software freezes or quits

Note the time.

Photograph the screen with your phone if you can.

Contact support and ask explicitly whether to restart or wait.

Record who told you what.

Identity check fails

Put a light in front of you and try once more.

Stop after two attempts.

Contact support and ask for the human verification route.

Ask for the time to be adjusted if check-in has eaten into the exam.

Somebody comes into the room

Deal with them briefly.

Note the time.

Tell the proctor in one sentence if there is one.

Report it in writing the same day, even though nothing may come of it.

You are asked for something that feels wrong

Decline once, politely: "I'd prefer not to. Could I speak to someone from the university?"

Do not argue with the proctor.

Note the time and the exact words.

Report it afterwards regardless of whether you complied.

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In every case

Write down the time. Everything else depends on it and you will not remember later.

Report the same day, in writing, to the exams office. A proactive note is context; a later one is a defence.

Keep a copy.

Afterwards, if you hear nothing

Nothing happened, which is the usual outcome.

You can ask whether your session was flagged if the uncertainty is bothering you.

Afterwards, if you are contacted

Do not reply at length immediately.

Contact your students' union first.

Ask what specifically was observed, and to see the recording.

The after section covers the rest, step by step.

The support contact

Write it here before the exam:

Institution exams office: ______

Proctoring support during the exam: ______

Students' union advice: ______

The thing to remember

Technical failures are not conduct matters.

Interruptions are not conduct matters.

A flag is not a finding.

And almost all of this ends with nothing happening.

The point

Write down the time.

Everything else depends on it and you will not remember later.

Additionally

Hearing nothing afterwards is the usual outcome.

If the uncertainty bothers you, you can ask whether your session was flagged.

Finally

Hearing nothing afterwards is the usual outcome.

If the uncertainty bothers you, you can ask whether your session was flagged.

In summary

Hearing nothing afterwards is the usual outcome.

If the uncertainty bothers you, you can ask whether your session was flagged.

A note on this

Technical failures are not conduct matters and interruptions are not conduct matters.

Almost all of this ends with nothing happening.

Bottom line

Technical failures are not conduct matters and interruptions are not conduct matters.

Almost all of this ends with nothing happening.

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.