Liz McDonough, former coach and physical education teacher in the Arlington school system, finds ways to keep herself busy during the exam.

“I sometimes get a kick out of looking at an extra copy of the exam,” McDonough says, though she says she never looks at the students’ responses.

And then there are the actual incidents, the exam horror stories, that necessitate proctor intervention.

Hutchinson recalls escorting a student to the hospital after he collapsed “about 20 minutes into the exam.”

The exam was given to the student at University Health Services when he recovered. It was administered by a proctor who is stationed there during all exams in case of an emergency.

While rare, these situations require substantial advance planning. Not only is there a proctor camped out at UHS, but the protectors are instructed to read emergency protocols at the beginning of every exam.

Oliver hesitates in reciting all these contingency plans.

“Sometimes I get embarrassed to say ‘you will be held incommunicado,’” he says.

That the sequestering of an ill—or ill-prepared—student seems far-fetched may be a testament to the efficiency of the exam administration.

As McDonough explains, “It is our job to make the exam setting as uneventful as possible.”