London, United Kingdom – Andrew Buck, a visionary graphic design teacher at Hastingsbury College of Business and Enterprise in Bedford, has collaborated with his students and smartphone app experts, who are also parents, at 4fx Design & Multimedia in Milton Keynes to create Exam Pal. On receiving clearance from Apple’s App Store, the app was launched on 11 November 2012 to help pupils in the UK, USA and international schools with exams. With the January and the 2013 summer exams complete Exam Pal is once again in the thoughts of students as they enter another year of the examination cycle. With a fresh look and iOS 7 update the App is being downloaded by students trying to overcome exam stress and achieve their potential as well as supportive parents.
“Secondary schools give pupils a paper copy of their exam timetables just weeks prior to their examinations which are scheduled throughout the year. It contains vital information such as the exam paper details, entry levels, date, time, duration, venue, candidate and seat numbers. Needless to say, the schedules often become damaged or lost. Some UK GCSE students can have up to 16 exams this Summer!”
“Even though examination boards tend to arrange the exam timetables several months in advance, most candidates tend to use their personal timetables issued by the school before they start revision. Valuable time for revision planning is lost with students often using incorrect revision methods or simply wanting to know how and when to start revising.”
“I had an idea to solve this problem, which I shared with Julie King and Chris Coomber from 4fx. I applied my fifteen years of working as a school teacher and examinations officer to create Exam Pal along advice from my students for Android and iPhones – most teenagers carry them. It provides personalised exam schedules months in advance, time management tools, revision techniques and advice to help them organise themselves and reduce anxiety,” explained Andrew.
Exam Pal provides the type of workflow tools that many adults use in the workplace. Lessons, homework and exams, including mocks, are colour-coded within the timetable. There is also a daily countdown function and alert feature so examination dates can’t creep up on candidates.
“At 1.99 we think this will be a big hit with parents who can keep an eye on things by linking their online diaries into their children’s Exam Pal app,” said Chris at 4fx, who led the development team.
Pupils can plan their revision into their personal timetables and use Andrew’s revision tips and advice to help cope with the pressure. Exam Pal also provides guidance on examination grammar and vocabulary, with access to past papers to help optimise the students’ results.
“The support provided doesn’t stop the day you complete your last exam. It stores the user’s exam results ready to print out when applying for jobs, university and college placements. I personally think this is a simple but effective milestone because, let’s be honest, how many people lose their school exam results paperwork?” concluded Julie King, director at 4fx.
Exam Pal is a feature-rich, innovative application that is committed to raising the awareness of examination preparation and success. It provides a support system for all students taking exams and includes free revision tips and templates via the website exampal.co.uk.
As reviewed by The Times Education Supplement March 22nd 2013.”A Resources Special: Revision – A lifeline in testing times”
As reviewed by the Daily App Show US on November 2012
As reviewed by Kate Russell at BBC Click April 11th 2013
Exam PAL is ideal for:
Students:
* Personalise the App with your Name, school/college, candidate/exam number, school/college number
* Create a school/college timetable that displays your next lesson. I week or 2 week timetables available
* Set and schedule homework and events at a simple push of a button, no long winded details or complicated scheduling
* Create a personal syncing icalendar with easy to view icons and options
* Create a student exam timetable (months in advance of your school/college releasing exam dates) based on your subjects examination dates as scheduled by awarding bodies AQA, Edexcel, OCR, CCEA, WJEC, SQA, College Board, ATS, Cambridge IE, ACT and International Baccalaureate (IBO), NZQA
* Add exams manually for occasions such as mock exams, oral tests or even a driving test
* Keep track of your past exam results and data at all levels (GCSE , iGCSE, GCE (AS) , Diploma, National Qualification, GNVQ, VCE (A2) , ELC , AEA , FSMQ , STEP levels, SAT, SAT Subjects, OET, IMAT, PSAT, ACT, CLEP, NMSQT, AP, IBAC and NCEA
* Add details into your exam such as subject colour coding, notes, venues, alerts, seating numbers and exam day countdown
Revision:
* Revision Tips pages include, before the exam, whilst in the exam, revision techniques, top ten revision tips, managing stress, time management, links to past papers, planning your revision and so much more
* Provides a weekly and monthly revision planner template
* Your exam queries/fears answered, compiled from 15 years of examination experience
Parents:
* Enables you to share your examination thoughts and results with your parents, friends and contacts
* Sync your devices to allow parents to share homework/assignment dates and deadlines, exam dates and results
* Share your thoughts with us through social media such as Facebook and Twitter
* Setting key alerts mean you will never miss an event, homework or exam with our push notification centre
Schools:
* Exam Pal is a member of Apple’s Volume Purchase Programme – helping schools purchase the app at a discounted cost. 50% reduction for apps purchased in bulk via our website exampal.co.uk
* Access exam dates months in advance to help students and teachers plan revision
* Access to key revision tips and guides
* Become one of the many schools replacing schools planners with Exam Pal. Planners are often lost but students rarely lose their mobile devices
* Exam Pal supports schools by providing links to User Videos, user guides, assembly materials and more
IMPORTANT!
Due to the variations in ALL exams and specifications this information may not be completely definitive. If you have any queries regarding your examinations in your school/college, ask the person responsible for administrating the Examination process or your teacher/tutor. The ‘Exam PAL’ Application Developers accept no responsibility for exam times that have been changed or administered by the candidate’s school/college or Centre. Candidates are prompted to use this ‘Exam PAL’ Application in conjunction with their personal examination timetables issued by their school/college or Centre. Please read or Terms & Conditions carefully on the app and on our website at exampal.co.uk
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
* Requires iOS 4.3 or later
* This app is optimized for iPhone 5
* 3.9 MB
Pricing and Availability:
Exam Pal 1.2 is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category.
Exam Pal 1.2
Purchase and Download
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Located in London, United Kingdom, 4fx Design and Multimedia has a fresh and vibrant approach to business and a solid knowledge of the graphic design and technology industry, Milton Keynes based 4fx provide innovative and effective graphic design, website design and build and marketing solutions for print, web and mobile phones. Whether you are a start-up business or an established international company, 4fx have the designers to develop your business cost effectively and so create the right impression for you in your marketplace. Copyright (C) 2013 4fx Design and Multimedia. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.