Stephen McGinty: We all must face the music in exams

'CANDIDATE. You have 90 minutes to complete the following test. Your time starts now." It is precisely 9am in the boardroom of The Scotsman's Glasgow office. Arranged before me are the following items: one A4 lined notebook; one ballpoint pen; one wristwatch; and, for good luck, one cuddly penguin complete with bow tie and blue beenie hat recently liberated from the desk of our medical correspondent.

There is complete silence in the room except for the loud, ominous ticking of a Smith's Quartz wall clock with a white face, black numerals and a red second hand that moves with the relentless pace of a shark rapaciously munching through time.

It is now 9:15am and I can feel the agitation grow. Fifteen minutes? No, it has to be five minutes that have passed. That's 1/8th of the time gone and I've barely started. I'm going to fail. C'mon, pull yourself together. 9:18am. It can't have taken three minutes. OK. Let's look at the paper, or papers to be exact, which this week reported on the exceptional case of a sixth-form girl at The Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh who was allowed to take an iPod into her Higher exams after claiming she can only concentrate while listening to her favourite music.

When the request to use her iPod was first made the school said "no". The girl's parents then approached the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) examination board who also said "no". Then, according to reports, the parents threatened legal action against the SQA on the grounds that their daughter had a disability and, under the Equalities Act, was entitled to use the iPod.

The SQA then, well, completely agreed, as their statement, which I reproduce in full, made clear.

l SQA iPod exam statement:

"Without confirming the identity of the candidate or the school, we can say that a candidate has been permitted to make use of an iPod during examinations and that this was due to the fact that the candidate has a disability (Asperger's Syndrome/Attention Deficit Disorder) and therefore is covered by the Equalities Act which requires SQA to consider the implementation of reasonable adjustments to arrangements during the candidate's assessments.

"When the nature of the candidate's disability was brought to our attention, and evidence was presented which showed that the candidate would potentially be disadvantaged if they were not able to listen to music during the examination, we were asked for permission to make a 'special assessment arrangement' to allow them to do so.

"The decision was not taken lightly and sets no precedents.We receive many requests for 'special assessment arrangements' to be made every year and each is treated on its individual merits.

"For obvious reasons MP3 players and other such devices are specifically banned from the examination hall. In this case the iPod is new and the music is loaded by the school and given to the candidate in the exam hall. It is removed when each is over."

As a consequence of the SQA's ruling, the pupil brought a brand new, unopened iPod into school which was then loaded by a teacher with, one imagines, a specific playlist as chosen by the pupil.

It was then handed to her and she sat her exams in a separate room so as not to distract her fellow pupils by repeatedly singing into her pen during the English exam.

l Discuss:

Well, let's look at the positive side first. This girl clearly belongs to a family where she is dearly loved. Her parents, anxious to ensure that she receives the best possible education, have invested thousands of pounds each year for her to attend one of the finest private schools in Scotland.

If you had the money, and the bullish temperament, would you not threaten legal action to ensure your daughter had the option to listen to Rihanna's S&M as an aid to the conjugation of French verbs?

Think about it. Examination grades are the key to colleges and university which are the keys to a future career and hopefully a happier, more successful life. If you could give your daughter a better chance, or, as they view it, move her up on to the same playing field as everyone else, wouldn't you? And if not, why not?

Now, I appreciate that there are people uncomfortable with silence and the white noise that can build up in their heads. There are people who find it difficult to work in silence. Stephen King bangs out novels to the endless beat of rock music, while surgeons mend heart valves to the sweet pulse of Debussy.

I understand how, for some, the soothing balm of sweet sounds eases them into a zone of concentration, though it has only ever been a distraction to me. But the fact remains there are times in life when we are called upon to perform acts unaided by our creature comforts, and school examinations are surely one of them.

So, take the argument for the defence, scrunch it up into a little ball and throw it into the bin, as that is where it belongs.So, should the SQA have forced the staff of The Mary Erskine School to act as record store staff? No.

Let's look at one little line in the SQA's statement: "The candidate would potentially be disadvantaged if they were not able to listen to music during the examination." They may insist that no precedent has been set, but what is to prevent a parent arguing that their son who struggles to concentrate works at his optimum level while watching television out of the corner of his eye? The SQA have already accepted that if you can demonstrate that your child has ADD or Asperger's Syndrome and would be "potentially disadvantaged if they were not able to watch television during the examination" then, according to the SQA, he should be entitled to watch television.

Don't get me wrong, I am not unsympathetic to the horrors of exam stress having endured 48 hours of existential despair during my Higher prelims (from which I emerged with 19 per cent in the Maths exam), but exams are a key part of life. You are expected to turn up on time and perform a task to the best of your ability, regardless of how you feel and without aid of comfort blankets, hand holding or the greatest hits of Lady Gaga.

Your parents may be rich and powerful and determined, but this does not mean you will be able to listen to an iPod at work if company rules prohibit their use. The game of life has rules and you might as well start abiding by them.

Or, perhaps that is the wrong attitude, one fostered within state schools and that this pupil and her parents have the correct attitude that those with wealth and power who fight and make a fuss will frequently get what they want, in which case has she not earned the right to listen to the Black Eyed Peas while puzzling out quadratic equations?

The case also raises questions such as what happens if the iPod seized up or malfunctioned during the exam or if she specially requested U2's One but got Johnny Cash's cover version instead? Suddenly all sorts of factors are hurled into the mix. Break a pencil and you hold up your hand while the invigilator fetches a new one; how are they going to solve the problem of the sudden requirement for a rare remix?

For the parents and pupil, August and the exam results will determine if they passed, but for the SQA I think they have clearly failed. Me? Well, it's 10:28, and despite writing to a deadline every day it is still not pleasant to write longhand to the doom-laden ticking of a clock, but before I depart to type this up I'll leave you with one final thought: whoever thought Mary Erskine would become the School of Rock?