Help – Mitigating circumstance – SBL

Hi

I sat the SBL exam today. This comprised of 5 questions. Whilst just starting to write my response to question 4b, I was presented with an error message to say my character limit had been reached i.e I could not write anything more in the word processor submission box. I don’t recall any information in the exam instructs to suggest there was a word/character limit. Nor is there a word or character count that I’d expect to be shown if there was a limit, to allow students to ensure they don’t exceed this. Normally you could just click to the next question and get a new answer submission box, but within SBL it’s all on one submission box.

I raised my hand and queried this with the invigilator team who admitted they’d never seen this before. Upon conferring with their colleagues whilst they advised me to wait, they came back and said there was nothing they could do. I had lost 15-20 minutes while waiting for an answer. I asked if this time could be added back to the exam as I had been unable to continue whilst waiting.

I then had to write my written response into excel to ensure it was captured. This completely ruined my format and likely means I will get no professional marks, that is even if my response in excel is seen and marked – which I hope it will be.

I then only had 2 mins to complete the final question given I had lost 15-20 minutes earlier on and inevitably didn’t answer this with any real attempt. I have never heard of a word or character limit before in an exam and am wondering if I could raise a mitigating circumstance.

Thanks.