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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Maths AS exam 'unfortunate error' in last weeks exam

44 replies

mumoverseas · 04/06/2011 10:03

DS1 sat the exam last week and afterwards said that there was a question that no one could do. We've now seen this link:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13627415
Seemingly there was an error on the paper and they are considering what to do.
Our concern is DS needs to get an A to get his place at Uni as do several of his peers. Anyone else affected by this or any experience of something like this happening previously?

My thinking is it is not just about the 8 marks for that question. DS says quite a few of them spent a lot longer on that question attempting to do it and therefore a lot less time on other questions. How on earth do they deal with this?

OP posts:

ajandjjmum · 04/06/2011 14:29

Was it an AS question then? At least that gives the lower year the change to re-take, so the problem would really be for the upper year.

DS was offered a place at Warwick with AABB - infact at all five of his choices - no doubt it is covered off in predictions and references.

Doesn't stop the worry if you DC is involved though!

Yellowstone · 04/06/2011 14:46

The paper was an option for A2 as well as AS. I think offers for maths at Warwick are now up at about AAA plus Step. Warwick is crazily hard to get into for maths, I think tougher than anywhere else.

EvilTwins · 04/06/2011 15:10

Thought those of you who are worried would be interested in the email I had from our school exams officer (I'm head of VI form, so emailed him when I'd seen this thread - thanks mumoverseas - I'd not seen the article before you started this). He said:

"I believe there are 2 solutions, either OCR reduces the overall paper mark by 8 marks (in effect removes the question) or they give everyone the 8 marks for that question...shall await the boards decision "

So it shouldn't actually make a difference - OCR will adjust the marking/grade boundaries to take this into account.

Original poster

mumoverseas · 04/06/2011 15:31

ajandj yes, for A2 as well so no chance for DS and his peers to re-sit.

Eviltwins thanks for that, the problem however is, it isnt' really just about the 8 marks as the confusion it has caused the students could have affected their whole exam, ie wasted time on that one question, less time on other questions and general confusion/worry.

Will be interesting what DS's school comes back with when they return next week.

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KatieMiddleton · 04/06/2011 15:44

Sorry I do think you are over-reacting particularly about university places being lost when nothing has happened yet. Every student gets prepped for exams and if it's AS2 they've all been taking exams annually for at least the last three years and every single pupil will have been drilled with "If it's too hard leave it and come back to it later. Do not waste your time".

The boundary adjustments will be made and all will be well.

Yellowstone · 04/06/2011 16:07

mumoverseas the uni your DS has firmed is our local one and does quite a bit with our school. My niece has firmed it too and has just wangled a change of course. They seem very approachable. In fact our lovely neighbour is a tutor, though not in your DS's dept. DS1 (Y12) and DD3 (Y13) both have friends affected. Both say go for a pre-emptive strike, it can only help and can't do any harm and may re-assure your DS who now presumably has to not let the maths paper distract him from his other exams.

I'd worry like you if it was one of my DC but I also can't see that there will turn out to be a problem. Good luck to your DS for the next couple of weeks, he's coming to a lovely part of the world.

Original poster

mumoverseas · 04/06/2011 16:12

Katie so you wouldn't be concerned if it was your DS? I'm sorry but I do find that hard to believe. According to DS, a lot of students were quite concerned and upset afterwards that they couldn't do one of the questions and at that time of course they didn't realise there was an error in the paper. 8 marks could be the difference between the A that many students need and a B.

yellowstone you are my new best friend

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EvilTwins · 04/06/2011 16:23

mumoverseas - "8 marks could be the difference between the A that many students need and a B."

Can I refer you back to my previous post -
"I believe there are 2 solutions, either OCR reduces the overall paper mark by 8 marks (in effect removes the question) or they give everyone the 8 marks for that question"

I know you're worried, but I'm tending to agree with Katie - no point overdramatising it. And I'm speaking as someone who has a whole classload of students to worry over.

SarkyLady · 04/06/2011 16:25

Advice from an ex admissions tutor:

If your child's mark on this paper is out of step with their other papers and results in them missing their uni offer then (i) apply for a remark and (ii) contact your first choice uni as soon as the results are out with a full description if what happened.

The key thing that the unis will be interested in is how their mark on this paper compares with their other papers. I've had students ask for special consideration because of some incident in a particular exam but most times their mark on this paper is no worse than their others. These cases don't tend to get special treatment.

MackerelOfFact · 04/06/2011 16:27

I'm not personally affected by this, but I think it's an utter disgrace that people say 'ooh, exams must be getting easier' every single year, yet the people who sat these exams eons ago and are setting the questions for exams today don't even notice when a huge mistake like this is made on a paper. It's disgusting really.

One of my AS exams was the year Edexcel messed up the marking (god knows how). Everything was remarked and everyone in my class got higher marks, but stayed within the same grade boundary so the board could say that the results were unaffected by the error. It was an utter farce.

SarkyLady · 04/06/2011 16:28

And fwiw I agree the eviltwins. IME the exam boards tend to deal with situations like this pretty fairly. It is very much in their interests to do thus or they will be faced with loads of complaints and remark requests.

KatieMiddleton · 04/06/2011 16:43

Would I be worried if it was my DS? Not in this case where we a) know it was a mistake on the paper, not something missed off the syllabus b) know the examination board will take steps to resolve it automatically c) the grade banding process evens out any blips in the papers any way.

If the process didn't kick in then I would be frantic but there's no point worrying about something that probably won't happen. I'd try to move on but make sure I knew what to do if it didn't get sorted automatically. Particularly if more exams are coming up.

I know this is easier said than done but fretting has no positive benefits. Coming on here to find out more information and get support is really sensible and positive and will hopefully make you feel a bit better. I think that's what we're all trying to do, me included.

Original poster

mumoverseas · 04/06/2011 17:31

Thanks everyone for all your comments, good to see what peoples views are.

eviltwins I was under the impression that OCR had already stated that the would not reduce the overall marks by 8, I'm sure they said they would be attempting to mark the paper for the benefit of those that attempted the question. I obviously have no experience of this but cannot understand how they can do this.

Hopefully everyone affected will have a better idea of what will happen when back to school next week

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webwiz · 04/06/2011 17:51

DD2 took this paper as well and it wasn't as simple as just one question being wrong - the mark allocation for one of the questions was wrong ie normally two iterations would be a 10 mark answer not 5 as in this case, there was no space in the answer book to properly fit the answers so that wasted time trying to squash in diagrams, and the general style of the questions were completely different from all the existing past papers, she felt it was a bit of a dogs dinner even without the error. Just before the exam she could get full marks on a past paper with 45 minutes to spare and she got nowhere near to finishing this one.

DD2 can fortunately get a low grade on this paper and still meet her university offer but some of her friends were hoping to get some marks safely in the bank before going into Core 4. Hopefully Core 4 has been checked extra thoroughly

Original poster

mumoverseas · 04/06/2011 17:55

webwhiz in a way its a relief to know it wasn't just DS not understanding it. Feel very helpless being so far away and not 'being there' for him.

Not wishing to sound like a teenager, but 'I don't get it'. Surely the papers and checked and double-checked before exams. How can this happen?

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webwiz · 04/06/2011 18:05

I think the main reason the question caused such a problem was that it was a proof. So if you knew you were using the right method you'd have another go at trying to get to the (incorrect) answer on the paper rather than moving on or being unaware of the error.

The only solution I can think of is that OCR are overgenerous with the grade boundaries. DD2 was quite disappointed as this was her first exam and she was hoping to get off to a good start rather than not having a clue how she has actually done.

noblegiraffe · 04/06/2011 19:46

Schools have to predict a grade on each module for each student and send these off to the exam board, so I expect that whatever measure they'll take, they'll check against the predicted grades to make sure that the actual results are as close to the predicted results as they usually are.

This won't help individuals who completely fell apart, but it will ensure that the whole cohort aren't unduly disadvantaged.

sugartongue · 07/06/2011 15:22

The exam board once lost a friend's exam paper, one of three I believe, the action they took was to award her a mark based on the average of the other two papers. They might take some kind of similar action here. Could benefit some students and massively disadvantage others!

Original poster

mumoverseas · 09/06/2011 16:43

Being covered on skynews now. Apparently three exams had errors (maths, biology and one other, think might be RE) apparently in the biology paper there were four wrong answers!

They are saying that students will be treated fairly (whatever that means) and if there are appeals after results day, those that are applying for Uni will have their appeals dealt with urgently!

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