Having not done an exam since long before the mobile era this "problem" seems rather artificial to me. Could mobile phones just not be confiscated until after the exam like calculators / dictionaries etc were, "back in the day" ?
I'll preface this by saying that there must be a better way to do things, and here is a long post, but here we go...
This is based on many years at my university, with 5.5 of those years being my undergrad, full of experiences of sitting exams (and changing policies regarding how exams are run).
Of course, mobile phones cannot be used at all during an exam. The official policy is that mobile phones can be carried with someone into the exam hall, but they must be switched completely off and left beneath the student's seat. A few years back, it was clarified that they must be completely off, not turned on silent. They also said mobile phone detectors were present in a few exam halls - I do not know what a mobile phone detector is or how it works.
A few problems with a couple of approaches to mobile phones:
- Ban all mobile phones (i.e. don't take them in at all). Not feasible, since almost everyone uses and relies on mobiles.
- If they were all temporarily confiscated, the problem is then matching a mobile to its owner after the exam. Some exam halls seat anywhere between 500 - 900 students at once; even if all invigilators present had a box and the mobiles were distributed to them, that's still a lot of mobiles!
I guess one alternative is to use a ticket-claim system, but that would take a very long time for the invigilators to process (requires everyone to turn up much earlier for the exam).
In any case, there are certain things to dislike about the examinations department and their staff, but entrusting them with one's mobile (whilst they - in policy - discharge their liability for the loss or destruction of any belongings) is crossing a line for many students (and potentially presents liability potential for those staff which they are not willing to "insure" themselves against). Not to mention the possibility of staff mishandling mobiles whilst the exam is on, potentially implicating students wrongfully, or resulting in invasion of privacy.
Leaving a mobile within the sight of a student discharges all staff's liability with respect to that mobile and puts all associated responsibilities (for theft and misconduct prevention) completely on the student.
- Leave all mobiles in bags. The initial problem with this is that for some exam halls, bags were left in an area which was out of sight of students. Indeed, bag theft was not uncommon. Bags are typically now left inside against one wall of the exam hall, but then there is a risk of theft after all students are dismissed and rush for their bags.
- If a mobile causes a disturbance or "comes to life", if it is situated underneath a student's desk it becomes immediately easy to isolate that student and charge them with misconduct. A lot of time would be wasted if a mobile rings inside a bag and the mobile needs to be matched with its owner (well, not a lot of time, but some people would feel reserved in having someone snoop around in their phone).
Approved calculators are a problem of their own. In some cases, no calculators are allowed and must either be not brought into the exam hall, or left underneath the seat untouched. (Any non-essential item that is not to be used during an exam, with the possible exception of a water bottle, must be left on the floor untouched). In other cases, a calculator is allowed but it must fit a certain specification. For example, some courses only allow a basic calculator (not scientific); many engineering courses only allow calculators without graphing abilities (as well as a swathe of other functionalities never known possible since the days of the abacus/slide rule/log tables). And so on.
Of course, there are a multitude of calculator models out there, and exam invigilators (for a start, are usually non-technical) cannot by themselves verify that a calculator is allowed for a particular course's exam. The new way of getting around this is that calculators must be presented to the faculty
before an exam. Here, the calculator is checked for its features and if it is allowed in an exam, it is affixed with a special sticker (the stickers are difficult to forge and are serial numbered) saying that it is an "approved calculator". During an exam, invigilators therefore only have to check for the sticker to know that a student's calculator is valid (so no sticker = invalid calculator).
At least for most engineering and IT courses, the only dictionaries allowed are bilingual dictionaries. Special permission is required and dictionaries must be reported to invigilators before the exam begins (the invigilator nominally checks the dictionary for any markings or suspicious material).
