Jobsworth invigilators confiscated my pink calculator before an exam because it was the wrong make

Imagine if this happened to you

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A second year had her calculator confiscated moments before an exam because snooty invigilators told her it wasn’t on the “approved list”.

Environmental scientist Madeleine Bertie, 20, was about to start her Meteorology exam in Congregation Hall when she was approached by a prying invigilator.

Although she had used the same calculator on previous papers, they took it from her because it wasn’t approved — and left her to do the exam without a replacement.

Norfolk-born Madeleine said: “It wasn’t on the calculator approved list even though it’s a pink standard scientific Canon calculator.

“A Casio is the approved one but this was the first one I picked up in WHSmith.

“I used it in my exams last year — that’s why I didn’t check the list which was my mistake.”

The offending calculator

The ‘approved’ Casio calculator

Madeleine’s two hour exam was worth 67 per cent of her module and she was left to complete it without any calculator at all.

She said: “I asked if I could have a replacement and they said no and walked off.

“I did as much as I could working out-wise but obviously couldn’t do logarithms without a calculator.”

Madeleine tried to get help as soon as the exam finished.

She said: “I rang Environmental Hub trying to appeal who passed me on to the assessment people when I was literally crying down the phone straight after the exam.

“And they said it’s not on the approved list, so there’s nothing I can do about it.

“They said if I wanted to take the matter further to email the exams manager.

“So I sent an email straight away and cc-ed my advisor, my Meteorology lecturer and the Environmental Hub and haven’t heard anything back.”

Madeleine has booked to go on holiday to Thailand from mid-August, which is during the exam retake period.

She added: “It’s looking likely I might have to cancel it to retake the exam.”