The Week Before: a Checklist

Most of what goes wrong on exam day was fixable a week earlier. This is that week.

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

Seven days out

Read the instructions for this specific exam. Not the general proctoring page: the rules for your paper, which differ.

For established guidance related to study planning, consult Todoist. Local exam rules still take priority.

Book the practice session if you have not.

Check your machine against the stated requirements.

And if anything needs an adjustment — equipment, space, a medical need — request it now. This is the last comfortable moment; later requests get handled under pressure or not at all.

Five days out

Do the practice run, on the setup you will actually use.

Write down anything that did not work and report it the same day.

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

Three days out

Run system updates now, deliberately, then disable automatic updates for the exam period.

Confirm any adjustment you requested has been recorded. A request that was never actioned is worth finding out about now rather than at check-in.

Tell the people you live with the date and time.

The day before

Clear the desk and the area behind you.

Check the lighting at the hour you will sit, because it will differ from now.

Charge everything and find the cables.

Confirm your identity document is where you will need it and that it is the one your institution requires.

Restart the computer and leave it that way.

What to have written down

The support contact for during the exam, on paper, not only on the screen you are about to lock.

Your candidate number or login.

The start time in your own time zone, checked, because a scheduling error is a real and preventable disaster.

What not to do

Do not install anything new in the last few days.

Do not reorganise your room the night before.

And do not leave the practice run to the last evening, which converts it from a rehearsal into a source of panic.

If something is still wrong at this point

Report it in writing immediately, even if you think it may resolve.

A message sent three days before is evidence of a technical problem. The same message sent afterwards is an explanation nobody can verify.

Institutions respond better to problems raised early, and the people who can help are not available at nine in the evening.

The short version

Practice run. Requirements check. Adjustment requested. Updates done and disabled. Space and lighting sorted. Contact details on paper.

Six things, spread across a week, and they prevent almost everything.

What to check

Which of the six is still outstanding?

Has your adjustment request been confirmed, or only sent?

Do you have the support contact somewhere other than the exam screen?

And have you checked the start time in your own time zone?

The point

Six things across a week: practice run, requirements check, adjustment requested, updates done and disabled, space sorted, contacts on paper.

They prevent almost everything.

Additionally

Report anything still wrong at this stage in writing, immediately.

A message three days before is evidence; the same message afterwards is an unverifiable explanation.

Finally

Report anything still wrong at this stage in writing, immediately.

A message three days before is evidence; the same message afterwards is an unverifiable explanation.

In summary

Report anything still wrong at this stage in writing, immediately.

A message three days before is evidence; the same message afterwards is an unverifiable explanation.

A note on this

Write the support contact on paper, not only on the screen you are about to lock.

And check the start time in your own time zone.

Bottom line

Write the support contact on paper, not only on the screen you are about to lock.

And check the start time in your own time zone.

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.