Exam boards apologise for more errors

The exam watchdog Ofqual has warned exam boards against any more mistakes after significant errors were found in three papers sat by students this week.

OCR said the exam board was “deeply unhappy” after errors were found in its Latin GCSE paper and its A-level physics paper.

The Latin GCSE paper, taken by 8,000 pupils in 540 schools, contained three erroneous questions that were worth 14 out of 50 marks.

The A-level physics paper, sat by 8,000 pupils in 661 schools, used the wrong measurements in one of the questions.

OCR spokesman Bene’t Steinberg told Channel 4 News the board is “very angry at the errors, and is conducting an investigation.”

“We think it is unacceptable, and anyone found to be at fault will lose their job,” he added.

He also insisted that the four errors covered a tiny proportion of the 16,000 questions issued every year.

AQA also said it was “very sorry” for causing distress to some of the 32,000 students who sat a GCSE maths paper that contained some questions from an exam from the previous term.

Ofqual’s war on error
• Students sitting an AQA AS-level geography exam on 24 May were given the wrong information in a question worth four marks which asked them to label the fastest part of a river.
• Sixth-formers taking an AS-level AQA computing paper on Tuesday were faced with an arrow in a diagram that was shorter than it should have been.
• A multiple choice question featuring four wrong answers in an Edexcel AS-level biology paper sat by 17,000 students.
• Students sitting an AQA AS-level business paper were faced with a question, worth a maximum of three marks, that did not include the information needed to come up with an answer.
• A maths AS-level paper, set by the OCR exam board, and taken by 6,790 pupils, also contained an unanswerable question. The question, which was worth eight marks – 11 per cent of the paper – was impossible to solve as it was incomplete.
• There was also a mistake in a GCSE business studies paper set by CCEA, the exam board in Northern Ireland.

The National Union of Students said it had written to Education Secretary Michael Gove demanding an urgent investigation.

Ofqual said it was seeking answers as to why errors are still occurring despite receiving assurances from exam boards last week that additional checks had been carried out.

“These latest incidents are unwelcome and unacceptable. The awarding organisations are investigating and we expect more information shortly,” it said in a statement.

Ofqual are already investigating six errors this summer, five from AS-level papers, and one from a GCSE exam.

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