High number of impossible exam questions this year

[Firehorse]

The first one that came to light was the OCR AS Maths paper which had an impossible 8 mark question. Today I heard one of the papers I took (AS AQA Geography - June Papers) also had an incorrect question.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13710868


England's exams watchdog is investigating a total of six mistakes in exams taken by tens of thousands of students.

The latest are in a geography AS-level paper and a business studies GCSE.

Ofqual has said the series of errors in this year's public exams are "disappointing and unacceptable".

It has ordered urgent extra checks by exam bodies amid complaints from students and teachers.

The National Union of Students is calling for an urgent inquiry.

More than 90,000 teenagers took the papers concerned.

The six exam papers being investigated by Ofqual cover A-level, AS-level and GCSEs taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A seventh has been identified by the Northern Ireland exam board and regulator.

Ofqual says five are AS-levels (which can count towards an A-level) and one is a GCSE.

On Thursday afternoon, this was confirmed as being the CCEA business studies GCSE, taken by 3,400 students in Northern Ireland and 500 in England.

I haven't looked into what other exam boards are doing for the mistakes in their papers, but thankfully the paper I took with the mistake in is being compensated for http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA_GEOG2_ERROR.PDF
The mistake on the geography paper: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/09_06_11_gcse_error.pdf

Did you take any of the papers with errors in?

[buttons]

i didn't do it but the higher maths in scotland (think that's equivalent to alevels) had a 10 marker, 9 marker and an 8 marker apparently

[Mathew]

Nope, I don't think I sat any with the mistakes. I was just saying to my Dad the other day that it's odd how they've all come up this year, whereas in past years there's just been the odd one, or none at all.. :P

[Inseriousity.]

proof that exams aren't getting easier. imagine spending so long trying to answer it! :P

[cocaine]

haha, these things must be proof read surely?

[Shar]

haha, these things must be proof read surely?

They should be, but obviously they're not doing their jobs properly or something..

[Recursion]

Problem is, each and every exam is a test run and realistically, at A Level at least, the grades are given out depending on how each and every candidate did in the exam, if the question was bad like these it would be bought up in the examiner's report and grades given out accordingly.

Although... for Ofqual to get involved, they must have been stupidly difficult questions and it just goes to show the exam boards need to buck their ideas up before the next exam season.

[Firehorse]

Although... for Ofqual to get involved, they must have been stupidly difficult questions and it just goes to show the exam boards need to buck their ideas up before the next exam season.

Ikr... My IT exam had a question that wasn't technically even related to the subject!

[The Don]

It's unfair though because some people may have spent a long time trying to work out the answers to the impossible questions thus having to rush the rest of the paper.

[Mr-Trainor]

On Thursday afternoon, this was confirmed as being the CCEA business studies GCSE, taken by 3,400 students in Northern Ireland and 500 in England.

That's the paper I took then but they told us of the mistake before the exam started. One if the questions had 'stakeholders' instead of 'shareholders'.