VCE student says a girl in his exam started screaming and freaking out when a cockroach fell from the ceiling

Year 12s have reported a wide range of bizarre mishaps during their exams, including power outages, fire alarms and cockroaches falling from the ceiling.

Power blackouts, fire alarms, cockroach attacks and fainting have helped make the 2023 VCE exam period eventful for thousands of students.

Each year around 200 unforeseen events disrupt exams around the state, and this year was no different.

While some events will lead to students applying for derived scores for specific exams, others had no choice but to put up with extreme distractions.

Students reported “spooky” wind noises, examiners spilling coffee on exam papers and teachers walking around barefoot in the exam rooms.

About 200 unforeseen events disrupt VCE exams every year.

Online chat forums also detail “people singing YMCA about halfway through”, “guys starting burping competitions” and “supervisors’ phones going off”.

“For my exam there was cockroaches falling from the roof of the gym and a girl started screaming and running around as she freaked out,” one student said.

Another said: “Some person pulled the fire alarm during instructions (outside the room) and that caused us needing to evacuate. The alarm was ringing and the supervisor said we may need to evacuate soon, which then the alarm notified everyone to evacuate. We were a bit late to start it but half of the students were celebrating that they got extra time/hopefully derived scores.”

There were reports of examiners spilling coffee on exam papers and teachers walking around barefoot in the exam rooms.

One student was reportedly injured when a large branch hit a window and knocked a sheet of glass on him and another said they were distracted by a crane falling down on a nearby building site.

Another student had a ceiling panel fall on them, knocking them out cold.

One account details a girl fainting. “She just lay there and we got an extra 10 minutes,” a fellow student said. “She apparently just went home afterwards. She lay still for so long tho”.

Another student responded that “we need more people to faint”.

Other issues reported by students include emergency toilet dashes, supervisors mucking up the timing and power outages.

“Power out for the first 20 minutes or so. Started late also. Finished early and she wouldn’t let us leave,” one student said.

“My examiner thought the exam ended at 12 so at 11:55 she said we had 5 more minutes left in the exam, everyone just started freaking out and we were sort of panic yelling at her, she realised her mistake and told us a few jokes to calm down lol,” one student wrote.

A few commented on the wind.

“Cause of the wind, and the crappy sports centre our exam was held in, it made the most god awful, horrendous, buzzing vibrating sounds (almost like a buzz saw) throughout the entire exam, it was so damn loud as well but we couldn’t do anything about it,” one said.

“We got about 3 minutes more reading time because we started early and it was really windy and the roof was making really loud noises. Also I think a bird was walking on the roof at one point and that was loud too,” another said.

A spokesman for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority said there were

“established processes and policies to manage unexpected issues that impact the administration of VCE examinations”.

These include calculating derived scores.

Students have seven days to lodge irregularity applications in instances where principals believe students were materially adversely affected by unforeseen events. Students have three days to advise their school of such an event. Applications from students and their parents are not considered.

The exam is still marked and the student receives whatever score is highest between their derived mark and their actual mark.

The exam period will continue until November 15.