Students sit their exam at their normal place of work, or other suitable location, under the invigilation of their supervisor (or someone appointed by their supervisor).

We appreciate that this involves inconvenience for the supervisor/invigilator and would like to thank supervisors/invigilators in advance for their time and co-operation.

Students should not arrange holidays to coincide with the date of the Examination Day. In exceptional circumstances, students can request to sit their exam on one of the other Examination Days shown on our Dates page.

A few weeks before the date of the Exam Day, students will be sent an email asking them to submit an online form to let us know which client group they wish to be examined on (paediatric, adult or ALD) and to confirm the name and email address of their supervisor. If you do not receive our email by two weeks prior to your Exam Day, please check your email spam folder. A link to the online form will also appear at the top of the home page of our website.

The supervisor will also be given the opportunity to appoint an invigilator if they do not want to invigilate the exam themselves. The invigilator can be anyone that the supervisor regards as suitable and does not need to be a trained clinician. For instance, the invigilator could be an administrator, secretary or assistant.

We do not acknowledge receipt of the above information. If we don’t receive it, we will contact you. So if you don’t hear from us, it means we have received the information requested.

Exams can be taken at any time that is convenient to the student and supervisor/invigilator on the Exam Day.

The supervisor/invigilator is responsible for ensuring that the exam is taken under normal exam conditions, e.g.

  • The exam is held in a suitable location where candidates will not be disturbed during the exam.
  • The exam duration time is adhered to.
  • The candidate does not have access to the exam paper before or after the exam.
  • The candidate completes the exam paper alone, without access to notes or reference materials and without conferring.

The exam is two hours long. We allow extra time for such things as dyslexia and rely on the manager’s/supervisor’s discretion to decide how much extra time is appropriate. The amount of extra time and the reason for it should be written on the paper.

The exam is based on the theoretical information taught during the Theoretical Week and management issues specific to your chosen client group. You will not be asked questions specific to the client groups you haven’t chosen. (Please note that we have discontinued the video exam.)

We do not provide past exam papers but sample questions can be viewed here.

The exam paper will be emailed as a pdf document to the supervisor (or the invigilator appointed by the supervisor) by 9.00 am (your local time if outside the UK) on the Exam Day. If not received, supervisors/invigilators should check their spam folders. If still not received, supervisors/invigilators should contact us by email or via our contact form and include a ‘phone number in their message..

The supervisor/invigilator should print the exam paper prior to the start of the exam.

It is intended that candidates fill in the answers on the exam paper by hand. If candidates wish to type their answers, they must clearly indicate which question each answer refers to, print off their answers and attach them securely to the exam paper by staple or treasury tag.

As soon as the exam has finished, the candidate must hand the completed exam paper to the supervisor/invigilator who must sign it to confirm that the exam was conducted under exam conditions as described above. If  extra time was allowed for such things as dyslexia, the amount of extra time and the reason for it should be written on the paper.

All digital or paper copies of the exam paper MUST be deleted or destroyed after the exam, including the email that the exam paper was attached to.

The supervisor/invigilator (NOT the student) should send us the completed exam paper as soon as possible after the end of the exam. Ideally it should be sent with the case study but can be sent separately. Please do NOT send the exam paper in any form of plastic wallet or folder. Just secure the pages together with a staple or treasury tag. Please do not send loose sheets of paper as these can get lost.

The address to send the exam paper (and case study) to is Dysphagia Course Limited, Oak House, Canal Side, Moore, Warrington, WA4 5QT, UK

We will confirm receipt of the exam paper by email to the student.

Exam papers and case studies will be marked by the Tutors first. A sample is then passed to the External Examiner for checking. Only after the sample has been double-checked by the External Examiner will results by issued to students by email.

We cannot give a specific date by when results will be issued. It usually takes at least two months to issue results.

Students who fail their exams may re-sit them on the next Examination Day providing it is within 2 years of attending the Theoretical Week.

If you need clarification on any of the above, please contact us.