Sitting exams for most pupils and students is a fairly stressful experience, even under the best circumstances when they are fully prepared and everything goes swimmingly. In a great many cases, however, even when students have prepared to the best of their ability, things don't always go according to plan. Sometimes this is due to circumstances that are wholly beyond the control of the students taking the exam, yet these circumstances can have dire consequences for students, often resulting in poor results or even failure. In these cases, Match Solicitors may be able to help.
Not achieving the right results in an exam can have huge and detrimental effects for any student. It can mean not gaining the place at university that you've been working towards for years, or of course it can mean not gaining the qualification on which your entire career depends. It's no exaggeration to say that a poor examination performance can have consequences that affect the rest of your life. So, when those results have been affected by circumstances beyond your control, it's important that you realise that you are well within your rights to launch a legal challenge known as an Academic Appeal.
A wide range of extraneous circumstances
There are a wide range of extraneous circumstances that students have successfully challenged in Academic Appeals. Often these circumstances include everyday situations that ordinarily, students might not even question, or might accept as just bad luck or something that must be accepted. However, anything that is outside the control of the student can in fact be challenged. Examples of circumstances students have successfully challenged in the past include:
- poor time allocation: there have been cases where exams have been poorly organised and there have been mistakes, for instance, in the handing out of exam papers that have eaten into the students' allocated time.
- disruptions during exams: it sometimes happens that there is unforeseen noise from nearby building works, either inside the institution or off premises. This may not be the fault of the institution, but neither is it the fault of the student taking the exam and it simply isn't fair that they should suffer as a result.
- unforeseen technical difficulties: this can be something as unpredictable as a fire alarm being activated or even a wall clock stopping - anything that can be seen to have affected a student's performance is a possible legitimate reason for launching an Academic Appeal.
At an Academic Appeal, your case will be put to an appeal panel (for which Match can help you prepare), after which a decision will be made as to whether to amend the mark or grade you were given, or even to give you another opportunity to take the exam.
If you have experienced something of this nature and you believe your exam performance was negatively affected, then you could have a good case for an appeal. At Match Solicitors, we help countless students every year to have their cases heard and in many instances, their poor results reviewed or overturned. To discuss your individual case in detail, speak to one of our team of education specialists today.
