Window seat

My Nokia Step Counter told me that during exam invigilation today, I took 3,589 steps over a period of 33 minutes covering a distance of 2.65km and burning 146kCal. The exam was an hour and a half and I was pretty much constantly on the move, but as proper invigilation technique is to walk slowly and purposefully, the counter didn't register most of the steps.

To complement the walk, a good invigilator also requires a signature stance. My primary stance has my right thumb and index finger positioned under my chin with my left hand supporting my right elbow. This gives the appearance of an intelligent professional who is concentrating fully on the task at hand of spotting cheats. My secondary stance has both hands in front of me with the thumb, index-finger and middle finger of my right hand positioned over my wedding ring (which can be given a twiddle for added affect). This also gives the impression of a superior being who is not to be messed with.

Advanced techniques include walking backwards and side-stepping between rows to catch out any cheaters who think you have disappeared up the aisle. When my cheat-radar is alerted, the first warning to the student is to catch their attention from a distance, point my index-finger and middle finger at my eyes, point the same two fingers at their eyes, and finally point at their paper. This usually does the trick (especially the distance aspect) but if they continue to cheat, I will see that the student is moved to a more isolated area of the hall. (This will be delegated to another teacher to further impose my authority on the situation.)

Pictured above is Adnan, who stayed to the bitter end of my ESP exam slowly coming to terms with the simple logic that if you don't bother turning up to class very often, the exams generally prove pretty tough.