It was every young student's worst nightmare come true — a train fault on the first day of PSLE.

The earliest alerts on the delays started at 5:53am on Thursday (Sep. 28), a little less than 20 minutes after the first train begins operations on a weekday.

Given that the first papers, English Language Paper 1 and Foundation English Paper 1 would start at 8:15am, an additional 30 minutes of travelling time is a significant (and scary) delay for students travelling to their schools in the East.

[EWL]:Due to track point fault,pls expect 30mins delay train travel time btwn TanahMerah & PasirRis.(Not linked to new signalling project).

— SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) September 27, 2017

The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced on Thursday morning that students affected by the delay were instructed to inform their schools as soon as possible, and still report to their examination halls before the paper ends.

Their statement also assured students that they won't require an excuse letter, and will also be given the full duration to complete their exam.

National exam candidates who are affected by the train service delay can refer to SEAB website for instructions: https://t.co/Ao6eNN46Gt

— MOE Singapore (@MOEsg) September 27, 2017

No one reported late because of train delays

Thankfully (and miraculously), these measures weren't needed on Thursday, as no schools reported any student coming in late due to the train delays as of 8.30am, according to the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board via TODAY.

Nonetheless, the displeasure was obvious:

Singapore train delays amirit pic.twitter.com/QM2cWT3Ks5

— 🅱️aper (@PaperSynth) September 27, 2017

Commenters also noted the fact that this situation would only aggravate the stress the students must be feeling:

Although some constructively suggested possible solutions:

Though it's more likely that the following might happen:

In any case, we haven't heard this from the kids themselves, but let's hope that they were able to handle their first day of exams and ace them anyway.

For the coming days though, we foresee the deployment of a lot of divine intervention seekers — just in case.

Top image adapted via TODAY, Spectralink_'s Twitter and MOE's Facebook post.