A-level AQA Chemistry exam paper leaked?!

I am surprised by the number of people that have posted that they doubt that this could happen. My son went to an elite private school in London for his A levels in 2015/16. A student in his chemistry class said he had heard that A level exams were leaked in advance, and his teacher replied something along the lines of "If you look hard enough, you can find them", but that he encouraged all his students to pass by studying hard. My son has always been scrupulously honest, but on account of hearing that, he went online and searched for and found a paper that was purportedly the exam for that year. He doubted that the paper could be the real one, so he studied hard anyway, but when he went into the exam, he said it was definitely the exact same copy as the paper he had seen previously online. (To put this in context, my son achieved A*s in his 13 GCSEs as well as his 4 A levels, and went on to get a 1st class Honours degree from Cambridge. He did not gain any advantage from having seen that paper, he simply can affirm that it actually happened.) The exam board held an investigation that year as well, and nothing came of it. They have probably "held" investigations every year since. To all of you naysayers out there saying it isn't possible that the exams are leaked, you are just plain wrong. It is infuriating that the exam boards allow this to happen. And infuriating that people who don't know any better claim (wrongly) that it just can't happen.

anyone have any update on what's happening. DN is very upset

Can't believe this. My son thought that paper went really well!! I will be so upset for him if they discount the exam. How on earth can this happen?

what actually happens to the grades in this situation?

My DD mentioned something to me last week about rumours a chemistry A level paper had been leaked though she'd not seen it. (she's doing GCSEs this year so wouldn't have affected her)

Someone somewhere is going to be in a great deal of trouble.

They got counted out on receipt to make certain they're all there, so that shouldn't be a problem.

@NeverDropYourMooncup and @xyzandabc
What would happen on the day of the exam if an exam centre discovers that a whole packet of papers is missing (as will have happened here if the photos that have been shared online were taken on 13 June)?
Would there be enough question papers for the number of candidates?

I signed for chemistry on Friday morning.

I've also seen some screenshots from TSR which appear to be from yesterday: one user asked for help working out the answers to some (handwritten) questions which look familiar to anyone who took this morning's paper.

Dd first told me some of her friends had seen it, now backtracked and saying it was actually people discussing it online who had seen it beforehand. She’s not snitching 🙄

If she knows people who saw the paper beforehand she should be doing th right thing and passing the names on to AQA She's not in the prumary school playground any more

Sorry but that is not true. I take receipt of all of our papers and put them in to the secure storage. We've had all papers 1-2 weeks in advance including AQA. Only exception has been A level maths (Edexcel in our case) which do only come the day before.

One of the boards, and I can't remember which one, was doing a trial this year with only delivering papers much nearer exam day to a limited number of test centres. Was it AQA and your centre was involved in this trial? That might explain it if your papers have only been arriving last minute, but it's definitely not the case everywhere

@NoNoNoooo - my son has a conditional offer to study Chemistry, so there's a certain amount riding on this grade.

I have advised him to try to focus on the three remaining exams that he has this week. Next up is Edexcel Maths tomorrow...

I've seen one tiktok video; were you able to verify the date it was posted? I also saw a screenshot from Snapchat, but obviously the date on that can be altered.

I'm hoping that the explanation is that someone got hold of a paper immediately after the exam, photographed it and shared it online, and then one or more people messed about with the photos, adding earlier dates to make it look like it was leaked.

Looking at the other explanation (that it was leaked a week ago): I have a couple of questions about this, which exams officers might be able to answer.

1. Are papers delivered to exam centres a week in advance? I thought it was usually a couple of days.
2. One of the photos shows an opened packet. If the centre discovered a packet had been tampered with, they would need to report this, so AQA will be aware. If the entire packet went missing, wouldn't that exam centre have noticed this morning that they didn't have enough exam papers? Or do they get whole packets of excess papers delivered that they don't need?

That's weird. AQA have been only delivering a maximum of 48 hours before the exam because of the risk of leaks.

Makes for some interesting expressions on the EO's face when they still haven't arrived at 3.45pm the night before. Or they're still trying to get AQA to release the pdfs for e-readers/Access Arrangements at 9.05am on the day.

I did not see the paper last week sadly, but I saw the tweet that got deleted as mentioned above.
Furthermore, I found a tiktok which had been posted multiple days ago with blurry, but distinct screenshots of the paper.

When you saw the leaked paper last week did you inform AQA? What was their response?

I am a student who sat this today - can confirm for the avoidance of all doubt from adults not in the know.
Yes, the papers leaked over the past week were 100% what came up today
Yes, we are annoyed.
No, this is not 'teenage drama'.

The last question on Edexcel Paper 1 (the "impossible" circles one) was leaked on Discord the night before.

Wasn’t there a GCSE maths paper leaked too?

Yes, an Edexcel A-level maths paper was leaked in 2019 www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-48646188

DD sat the exam too. Apparently Google search data shows spikes last week in specific terms linked to the paper today. I don’t know if it’s true or where she heard it, has anyone had the same?

AQA have not denied it.