To become an exam invigilator in the UK, you apply to a school or college near you, usually by contacting its exams officer, and the centre trains you before your first exam. You don’t need a teaching qualification or any knowledge of the subjects being examined. Schools want someone reliable who can stay alert for a whole paper and follow the rules to the letter.
Below is what the job involves, how to get it and what the training covers. If you’re an exams officer looking for new invigilators, there’s a section for you near the end.
What does an exam invigilator do?
An invigilator runs the exam room so that every candidate sits the paper under the same conditions as every other candidate in the country.
Before the exam, you help set up the room and check the materials. During it, you supervise the candidates. Afterwards, you collect everything and secure it so nothing goes missing.
You don’t need to understand what’s on the paper. In fact you mustn’t read it, comment on it or help anyone with a question. Your job is the room, not the subject. You’re not there to catch people out, either. Most candidates want to follow the rules, and a calm, quiet presence helps the nervous ones do their best.
What do you need to become an invigilator?
No formal qualifications. Plenty of invigilators are retired, and some are parents who want work that fits around school hours. Temperament counts for more. Can you concentrate for a long stretch without getting bored or distracted? Are you careful with paperwork? Will you ask when you’re not sure, rather than guess?
The work comes in bursts. The main GCSE and A level exams run in May and June, and many schools also hold mocks and resits at other times of year. Be clear about your availability from the start.
Because you’ll be working in a school, expect the same checks the school makes on anyone who works with its pupils. The exams officer will tell you what they need.
How to become an invigilator for exams: applying
It’s a simple process:
- Make a list of the secondary schools, sixth-form colleges and further education colleges you could get to easily.
- Check their websites and local job listings, but don’t stop there: plenty of centres recruit by word of mouth.
- Email or ring the exams officer, say you’re interested and give your availability.
- Fill in the application, complete the school’s checks and go to the training.
Spring, before the summer series, is a good time to ask.
What does a day invigilating exams look like?
You arrive early, because there’s a lot to check before anyone walks in.
Every candidate needs their own desk, with at least 1.25 metres between the centre of one chair and the next. Anything on the walls that could help (a poster, a word list, a multiplication table) is covered or taken down. There has to be a clock every candidate can see, showing the actual time rather than a countdown. A board at the front shows the centre number, the subject and paper number, and the start and finish times.
Phones, watches of any kind and other electronic devices aren’t allowed in. Candidates can bring a clear pencil case and water in a clear bottle with the label taken off. Before a paper packet is opened, you and a colleague check the date, time, subject and tier together.
Then the candidates come in. You make sure each one is who they say they are, using your centre’s method, and send them to their seats from the seating plan. This is their last chance to hand in a phone, even one that’s switched off. You read out the instructions (JCQ provides the wording), tell candidates about any corrections to the paper and about the emergency procedure, write up the start and finish times, and tell them they may begin.
During the paper you walk the room quietly. Go round the outside, then through the middle, and vary the route so nobody can predict it. Don’t lean over anyone, and stand where you can see every candidate. If a hand goes up, go over, crouch down so you’re not talking over the room, and listen. You can help with practical things like extra paper, but never with the questions. If someone needs the toilet, an invigilator of the same gender goes with them, and you note when they left and came back.
At the end, candidates stop writing, put their pens down and stay seated in silence while you collect scripts in register order. Check there’s a script for everyone marked present. Scripts are confidential between the candidate and the awarding body, so nobody reads or copies them. Question papers stay in the room until all the candidates have gone.
What if something goes wrong in the exam?
Say you spot a phone under a desk halfway through. You go over quietly, take it away without fuss, note what happened and tell the exams officer. If you suspect someone is cheating, you don’t accuse anyone. You write down what you saw, keep an eye on the candidate and report it at the right moment.
A candidate who feels ill, or one who arrives very late, is handled under your centre’s procedures. A fire alarm means following the evacuation plan while keeping candidates supervised and not talking to each other.
Whatever happens, it goes in the incident log while it’s fresh. Keep a small notepad on you, because memory is a poor record a week later. And the rule experienced invigilators lean on most is this: if in doubt, ask your exams officer.
Oral exams have their own pitfalls. A nod or a smile at a good answer can count as unfair help, and a recording that cuts out can put a candidate’s mark at risk. If you’ll be helping with speaking tests, Facilitating Oral Examinations covers what’s different.
What does invigilator training cover?
The rules come from the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which publishes the Instructions for Conducting Examinations. Centres must train their invigilators in them. Nobody expects you to memorise the whole document. Good training turns it into steps you can follow in the room.
It should take you through setting up the room, starting the exam properly, watching the room, handling irregularities, collecting scripts and keeping records. It should also cover access arrangements, such as extra time, a reader or a scribe, because before the start you need to know who has one and what it means.
Your exams officer will brief you on your centre’s own procedures: how you check identity, what happens with a sick candidate, where the evacuation route goes. Our Certificate in Invigilating Exams covers the JCQ side in six short modules, so you arrive at that briefing already knowing the basics.
Recruiting and training invigilators: a note for exams officers
If you’re the one doing the hiring, good invigilators are often already near the school: parents, retired staff, governors’ contacts, people who’ve done it elsewhere. A calm manner and care with detail matter more than any background.
Training is the bigger job. You have to train your invigilators, and a new team needs the basics before you can get to the things only you can tell them. If recruits do online JCQ invigilator training first, your own session can stick to your rooms, your access arrangements and your incident procedures. It’s an easy refresher for experienced invigilators too. You’ll find more for school staff on our teaching and learning page.
The Certificate in Invigilating Exams is a short online course for new and returning invigilators, and for the exams officers who train them. It takes the JCQ instructions step by step, from checking the room before anyone arrives to filling in the records afterwards, with practical advice on a late arrival, a phone or a candidate who’s unwell.