How to become an exam invigilator and how much you’re paid

Do you need to earn some extra money, but only have limited time available? Then why not look at how to become an exam invigilator? Find out what’s involved, how much you can earn and where to start looking.

My experience as an exam invigilator

Over the last few years I’ve reviewed quite a few ways on how to make money on the side, and today is the turn of exam invigilating.

Now, before you assume that it just involves walking up and down the hall all day, there’s plenty more to do than that. Obviously, it’s not the same as performing open heart surgery, but it’s not as simple as most people would think.

How do you become an invigilator?

I would love to say by hard work and dedication, but when has that ever happened?

No, there are a few ways to become an invigilator.

1. Get your child into a school and wait for an email request. Schools tend to ask parents first.
2. Get to know parents or teachers from a school. They can let you know when a position is available.
3. Check the job sites.

Option three tends to be the least likely, as schools will do this as a last resort – mainly because it costs more. I live in Kent and have seen jobs listed on Kent-Teach. I’ve also seen an advert on Facebook Jobs for a school in Sussex.

Is it difficult to apply?

This depends on the school, but most don’t need you to provide a CV. You will need to fill in an application form though, completing your past work experience, qualifications and the kind of skills you can bring to the role.

What makes a good exam invigilator?

Exam invigilators need a particular set of skills (not the Liam Neeson type). Recommended skills are:

• good organisational skills
• good communication skills
• good with IT
• able to work in a team
• able to follow rules and regulations

Although these are all necessary, apart from sending copies of documents by email and filling out time sheets, there’s generally very little IT involved.

If you are accepted for the job, you must have a DBS check (in all fairness, that requires filling out forms on the computer too). The cost is around £47, but most good schools should pay this for you. If you plan to keep working, you will have to renew the check. This costs £13 per year, but you usually have to cover the fee.

How much do invigilators get paid?

This will vary between regions, but I’m paid £11.88 per hour. This was a bit more than the National Minimum Wage and took into account holiday pay. If this were a full-time salary, it would be £24,710.

How many hours do you work?

This depends on the school and the number of invigilators available. Some days I can work from 08:40 and not finish until 17:30, whilst other days I could just do three hours in the morning. Some of my colleagues were happy to come in for just an hour, but I didn’t see the point.

You may pick up extra hours if somebody calls in sick. The school will send out an email or text and the first person to reply gets the job.

Most work comes between mid-May and mid-June when the bulk of A-levels and GCSEs are taken. You can even work further into the summer if there are resits to take. A lot of schools do mocks and IT exams, so you can also work between November and January.

So, what does invigilating involve?

Your main role is to ensure that everybody stays quiet during the exam and that nobody is cheating. Most exams range from one hour to two and a half hours, and you’ll spend most of it walking up and down the hall or sitting on a stool. Usually, there’s one invigilator to 30 students.

Other jobs may involve preparing and labelling desks, setting out identity cards and equipment, writing the exam information on the whiteboard and handing out/collecting papers. Some children use a laptop to write their answers, so you have to help them plug their computers in and print out their responses. There should be a guide to this; most pupils know how to do it.

In some cases, you may be required to act as a prompt. Some children lose concentration during exams, so they need somebody to keep telling them to stay focused. This just involves checking they are paying attention and tapping the desk if you haven’t seen them write for a while.

You may also be an invigilator during language exams, where you will sit in a single room with a teacher and student.

In rarer cases, you may need to read out the questions to children, whilst others need you to write the answers… but don’t worry, you’re not marked on spelling or grammar.

Any downsides?

I thought invigilating was going to be quite a cushy number, but it’s actually tougher than it looks.

First, there’s the boredom. You can do up to three exams in a day, which is quite a long time to watch students writing in complete silence. Some people like the quiet time, but me, not so much. I would love to sit there reading a book or my phone, but I’m not allowed.

It can also be quite tiring as you spend a lot of the day on your feet – even if I choose to sit on a stool, it can become quite uncomfortable after 15 minutes.

And if it was only your feet you had to worry about when invigilating. As I mentioned above, some students need prompting, so you need to keep an eye on them. Plus, other children are given extra time to finish their exams. So, you may have 100 children stop at eleven and still be left with 20. They can finish at various times and you have to write down the exact time each one ends. You’re also taking some students to print out their answers, so it becomes quite hectic.

Oh, and you have to write down every time somebody goes to the toilet. I find that if one person goes, it will be followed by ten others.

But it’s not just the exams to worry about, it’s the preparation too. Setting up the names can be quite a hassle. This might not sound tough, but sorting out the labels can take quite some time. Some exams have 200+ pupils and many of them won’t sit in alphabetical order, so you can spend a lot of time checking that they are in the right order. And it needs to be done quickly before the next exam is due to start.

And let’s not play down that the job also comes with quite a bit of responsibility. If a child is being disruptive, it’s down to you whether they should be removed from the room, which usually means they end up failing their exam. It’s obviously their fault if they’re causing a lot of noise, but it’s still not a nice thing to do.

How tough this is depends on the kids and the school. Most are fairly good, but that’s not always the case. And to make matters worse, there’s not always a teacher to help you.

Is it worth doing?

I’m in two minds about this. It’s a source of extra income and you can forget about the work when you get home in the evening. Plus, you get to meet some interesting people and, as a parent, it’s good for me to get to know some of my kids’ teachers. It’s also an essential job to do.

But there’s no getting away from the fact that it can be quite dull to do and it’s not particularly well-paid. When I think I can earn almost as much from online surveys from my sofa and watch TV at the same time, invigilating doesn’t look so tempting.

However, I’m still going to stick with it… I’m just not sure for how long.

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