Given incorrect GCSE AQA BIOLOGY exam paper

It doesn’t seem to sink in for some students. Invigilating a t level accountancy exam last week and three students asked me for a calculator…

Oh I know....I'm sure they just tune out everything we say! I tend to be in small rooms where I can make eye contact with each of them when I ask if they have all checked it's the right paper which does make it easier! Would be great if they turned up with the right equipment too...yes you DO need a ruler and a pencil!!

Although a request to parents/teachers - invigilators can't tell your kids what to do if they need to change an answer that's a tick box or similar (been asked twice in 2 exams)....with my examiner hat on just tell them to make it REALLY CLEAR which answer they want! If there's any confusion with crossings out just write "the answer is B" or whatever so we know what they want marked. We want to give them marks - make it easy for us to do that!

And I’m constantly amazed that no matter how many times we remind them to fill in their candidate number and centre number, I still have to tell quite a few of them when I go around 5 minutes before the end of the exam checking those that have closed their paper and are “finished”.

Just to agree with people who have commented on other subjects. I am a science teacher of nearly 30 years and it absolutely IS NOT easier to get a 5 on higher than foundation.

A student who works really hard to learn facts but finds science and literacy tough could understand the paper well enough to get a 5 on foundation but end up slipping off the bottom on higher and get a U.
The exam boards have systems in place to deal with a student doing 1 of their papers at the wrong level and I am sure it will be sorted with no detriment to your son.

How can it be impossible? Humans beings put the papers on the desks, it's obvious that someone might make a mistake and the person checking might not realize but for the student also not to check and notice does make it unlikely but clearly it happened so not impossible at all

Its concerning that as an exams officer you don't recognize the possibility of mistakes

This is part of the invigilator rubric …”please check you have been given the correct paper for the day, date, time, subject and TiER”…

The pupils are usually asked to check they have the right paper too. They usually have some sort of briefing where they're reminded what paper they need and what to take in the exam etc.

My son missed his first paper in chemistry due to illness.
Edexcel igcse

They simply took the average from the other two papers.
This may be the process they will use, I appreciate it’s a different board.

I really hope this is the case!

My son was given the choice of H or F for physics, he chose F as he felt he hadn't covered enough content for the H. If it is the case that a 5 would be easier to get on the H, that’s frustrating.

We do iGCSE maybe that’s why?

Then you weren't invigilating AQA biology or combined science.

I don't know how other boards do it, but there were 4 AQA biology papers yesterday, and the combined science papers were different to the triple (and all 4 papers are sat on my desk right now).

Absolutely was at the school I work in. I invigilated that paper yesterday. Our combined and triples sat the same paper, but the triples will sit a second paper.

I invigilate edexcel and foundation and higher papers for combed science have the same duration so extra time should have been given.
if this is the same for aqa then he should have had his extra time as both tiers are 1 hour 15 I think.

Hawthorn: both combined papers are the same length, and the same number of marks. Combined higher isn't longer than the foundation paper - although it might take longer to work through, with sentences rather than fill in the gaps style questions.
All combined papers are 1hr 15 (plus 19 mins extra time, I'm guessing in your case)

What a shame, hope this all works out.

I’d be checking this with the school as if it’s combined then he now has to do the higher papers for physics and chemistry.

This isn't true. A child cannot be entered for mixed papers. A child who was entered for one tier and accidentally given the incorrect paper once does not have to sit more incorrect papers later on! That would be mental.

OP, it sounds like the school are doing everything they can. The exam board will be used to this happening and he will be given a fair grade in the end.

My subject is MFL which also has H and F papers and it is definitely easier to get a 5 on F than H. Yes, the mark required for a 5 is lower but the paper is so much harder. No way would I enter a 4/5 grade student for H.

If the above is true for science GCSE (it isn't true for maths either as I understand it) then the exam should be looked at closely.

But when there's 180 kids in a room sitting a mixture of papers the wrong paper very can occasionally be laid out. Happened once where I work with Foundation Maths. You'd hope the child notices they have the wrong paper when the announcement is made to check etc but this one slipped through the net.

Nothing to do with the preprinted register, just the wrong paper on the desk.

It absolutely isn't the same paper for combined and triple.
Combined is a 1h15 paper. Triple was a 1h45 paper, and examines more content.

This is a problem if he is doing combined science as he can’t sit higher for Biology then foundation for chemistry and physics. If it is separate science then this is not an issue unless there is more than one biology exam, such as paper 1 and paper 2, he has to do the same tier for both papers.
I’d be checking this with the school as if it’s combined then he now has to do the higher papers for physics and chemistry. If it is separate then he has to sit higher for paper 2.

That was the same paper whether combined science or triple.

As an exam officer this is impossible. He must've been entered for the higher paper in error. We get sent separate pre printed attendance registers for both higher and foundation papers so there's no way he could've just been give the wrong paper.