Students 'missed out' due to AQA

[Suspective]

My school uses AQA as its primary Exam Board, so its pretty worrying if they are making such large scale mistakes especially on A-Level exams.

Thirteen A-level students missed out on their first choice of university or course last September because of a marking error by exam board AQA.

An inquiry by the exams regulator, Ofqual, found 622 grades had to be changed as a result of the blunder.

In total, 146 A-level, 289 AS-level and 187 GCSE grades were changed after new on-screen marking systems meant some answers went unmarked.

AQA has said it regrets the errors and has moved to prevent future problems.

Around 1.5 million candidates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland sit AQA exams each year.

Risk assessment
The Ofqual report said: "AQA could have identified the failure earlier if more effective risk assessment and arrangements for handling and reporting problems concerning the onscreen marking of scripts had been in place."

It said the exam board "did not properly consider or monitor the risks" associated with extending the use of on-screen marking for separate answer booklets.

"Had more effective risk assessment taken place, AQA would have been more alert to the potential problems and had the opportunity to put in place suitable contingency arrangements to ensure marks were accurate before publication," it concluded.

Chief executive of Ofqual Isabel Nisbet said: "The failings by AQA identified by this inquiry are very disappointing, especially as they led to some candidates missing out on their first choice of university or course.

"Factors that contributed to the marking error included limited piloting of the new on-screen marking system, a lack of effective risk assessments and deficiencies in the role and training of examiners on the new system."


AQA has conducted and published its own internal inquiry into the errors.

The board said it had taken steps to learn from the mistakes made and had implemented an action plan to prevent such errors occuring again.

AQA's chief cxecutive, Andrew Hall, said: "We deeply regret the original marking issue and are determined to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

"We know where we went wrong, and have taken all necessary steps to put it right."

[Janet Snakehole]

What? That is ridiculous. I mean, everyones entitled to making mistakes but that's unbelievable. Especially when it could mess up someones future.

[lawrawrrr]

My AS English paper was undermarked - I managed to get a C for the subject I want to do at uni, so...

I hate AQA - j/s.

[Conservative,]

AQA...I'm doing my science modules with them -.- They under marked my first biology exam ;/

At least my school mainly uses EdExcel *phew*

[Suspective]

If I was one of the students involved, I would be pursuing a legal claim towards them for compensation. They must be gutted, that they missed out on a university place just because AQA can't mark and then moderate their exams properly.

I can't stand AQA and practically all my exams are with them a part from English which is WJEC.

[Jordy]

Thirteen people affected is hardly many. Exam papers can never be perfectly marked whether it's by computers or people, some error is inevitable so I don't see a big fuss tbh.

[Recursion]

Agreed with the above, if I'd missed out on my firm University choice because of AQA I'd be persuing it legally right now.


On another note...

AQA...I'm doing my science modules with them -.- They under marked my first biology exam ;/

At least my school mainly uses EdExcel *phew*

LOL Edexcel ftl.

If I was one of the students involved, I would be pursuing a legal claim towards them for compensation. They must be gutted, that they missed out on a university place just because AQA can't mark and then moderate their exams properly.

I can't stand AQA and practically all my exams are with them a part from English which is WJEC.

Oh lord, our school dropped WJEC and went back to OCR for English, WJEC were complete numpties.

[Technologic]

The whole year had to have AS biology remarked..... everyone went up by at least 5 UMS. AQA is an absolute joke

[Nuxty]

This is where I say I love you Edexcel! On a serious note, it is wrong. If your going to put a system into place then you need to ensure that it functions properly and that everything works accordinly before putting it into practice? But then again, this is AQA we're talking about isn't it....

[Blue]

Hey, don't blame AQA, blame the teachers who end up marking them.