Exclusive: GDL-ers were told to remain in their seats while the problem was resolved
A BPP Law School exam was delayed by over an hour because there weren’t enough question papers to go around.
The criminal law assessment, sat by some of BPP’s Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) students on Monday, was due to start at 10:30am. However, Legal Cheek can reveal that the exam didn’t get underway until just after 11:30am, more than one hour later, due to a shortage of exam question papers.
One BPP student who sat the exam at London’s ExCeL Centre said students had to remain in their seats throughout. They were told the assessment would “be starting in the next few minutes”, so could not go for a walk or look at their revision notes. Speaking to Legal Cheek, the student said:
It would have been better if we had simply been told that our exam was going to be delayed by an hour and allowed to leave the exam hall, get food/drinks and stretch our legs without being told to get back to our seats.
According to another GDL student, this process of staff reassuring students the exam was about to get underway occurred every “5-10 minutes for the following hour without any disclosure of the reason for the delay.” The exam eventually started at 11:35am.
Quick to apologise for the delay, BPP fired off an email to students who attended the exam, which is screenshotted below. Stressing that the law school is taking the matter “very seriously”, the email reveals that the incident has been referred to BPP’s “external examiners”. The apology does not mention the cause of the delay.
When we got in touch with BPP, a spokesperson issued this comment:
The criminal law exam at ExCeL was delayed for 65 minutes yesterday before going ahead for the normal three hours. We would like to thank all of our students who experienced difficulties for their patience and they have received our apologies.
Continuing, it said:
There was an error in the allocation of papers between the various centres in London; an error taking into account the number of sitters in week one and the ongoing deferral numbers. It shouldn’t have happened. The external examination board will deal with the conduct of assessment issue and we deal fairly with all students in these circumstances to ensure the cohort isn’t disadvantaged. BPP would like to again apologise for any inconvenience caused yesterday.
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