Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

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

Original poster

Wrong GCSE Paper!!!

110 replies

TheOnlyMrsW · 20/05/2022 12:42

Hi, hoping someone will be able to help. DD16 went into school for her first Maths paper this morning, instead of being in the main exam hall she's in a small room to the side with half a dozen other kids. No idea how they've managed it but her and the children in their room have been given the wrong paper - they got the AQA paper instead of EdExcel (the main hall students got the right one).

Phoned school a little while ago and they're apparently trying to work out what happens now..........but what can they possibly do? They obviously can't give them the correct paper at a later date as everyone else has already seen it and they may get details of the questions, will EdExcel have to send a completely different paper, or them just take the grade off the other 2 papers and skip this one?

There's very few gaps in the timetable now until the last week of exams, but what if they don't all have the same day "spare"? Out of all the exams this paper was the one she was dreading the most and now to have this to deal with is crappy 😥

OP posts:
Ladyoftheprom · 20/05/2022 14:17

Will they not use her tag from her previous exam? That would make more sense

Original poster
TheOnlyMrsW · 20/05/2022 14:18

Thanks again @actiongirl1978 for the clarifications, fingers crossed it works out but it's going to be a VERY long wait for results day!

OP posts:
AskingforaBaskin · 20/05/2022 14:18

TheOnlyMrsW · 20/05/2022 14:10

@AskingforaBaskin they've already been told they can't sit the paper everyone else did as they know some of the questions, the only other option is that the exam board send a new paper out but not sure if that's feasible...........will update when school get back to us.

DD seems ok with it at the moment but I'm a flipping wreck!

Yes that's what happened to us. It was a whole new paper.

If it's any consolation 15 years on and I didn't even remember it until I saw your post.

Original poster
TheOnlyMrsW · 20/05/2022 14:20

@Ladyoftheprom I did think this might be part of any special consideration that school put forward but DD has helpfully confirmed that the December mock was a mixture of calculator and non-calculator questions and the April one was all calculator so not sure how much evidence they would provide!!!

OP posts:
Hallyup89 · 20/05/2022 14:26

How didn't any of them notice it was the wrong exam board?!

The only option now is for them to have their grade calculated from the other papers, using the extenuating circumstances clause, or they'll presumably be given the opportunity to resit it during the next lot of exams. Obviously, neither is ideal.

actiongirl1978 · 20/05/2022 14:31

The special consideration portal is very brief. You identify the pupil, outline the problem, identify a category -eg bereavement, broken limb, wrong paper given - and then press send.
The school will hear nothing else about it after that.

However if you Google JCQ ICE and look at the guidelines for Sunmer 2022 it may give you some idea of the approach for this year. Particularly reference to aerogat grades.

OnceuponaRainbow18 · 20/05/2022 14:34

Sounds like such bad luck: also why are they getting exams for two separate examining boards!

Original poster
TheOnlyMrsW · 20/05/2022 14:35

@Hallyup89 when they've been through exam practise it's been drilled into them to check their papers before starting - but only that the subject, level and date are correct. There wouldn't be any reason to check the exam board part as you'd think that the invigilators would have the right papers to hand out............the invigilator tried the same argument until they were told off by the school's own exams officer.

I think it's highly likely now that DD will check the exam board as well 😀

OP posts:
BackInBlackAgain · 20/05/2022 14:38

This happened to my DS. He was supposed to sit an exam at a higher level but for some reason the staff sent him to the wrong room and he sat a foundation paper. Spoke to the school and there was nothing more they could really do, so let it go..... until they sent me a bill for the higher exam that he didnt sit..

Oblomov22 · 20/05/2022 14:40

What a major fuck up by the EO. Totally unprofessional.

Alsoplayspiccolo · 20/05/2022 14:53

Schools have been told they can’t use mocks, or, presumably, anything else, in the case of a missed exam.
Hopefullu, it will be as simple as taking a final grade from the remaining 2 papers; not sure what would happen if one of those is missed due to, eg illness, now.

actiongirl1978 · 20/05/2022 15:00

@Oblomov22 absolutely but i would say as an EO that the period from 8.30-9 is HELL some mornings. If you are a lone EO with 8 different rooms, and a team of invigilators and readers and lsas etc sometimes mistakes do get made.

Also it's possible that the EO is new and doesn't have the experience of many years mess ups like some of us do!

Also, you can train the invigilators over and over but sometimes they don't use their initiative or do what you have trained them to do.

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2022 15:11

Ladyoftheprom · 20/05/2022 14:17

Will they not use her tag from her previous exam? That would make more sense

There are no TAGs. That was a covid thing only.

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2022 15:13

There is a national shortage of invigilators and the government were warned that there would be more incidents like this as a result.

Of course the govt did nothing to help.

myrtilles · 20/05/2022 15:24

The EO should of course have kept the spare AQA papers back to avoid the chance of them being given out in error. However the invigilator should also have checked they were giving out the correct paper. The student would also have been asked in the instructions before the exam to check they had the correct paper. Therefore any 11 parents reading this should remind their kids to check the exam board, subject and that they have the correct tier (ie foundation or higher) before they start.
I feel so sorry for the OPs child and others affected and hope a solution can be found.

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 20/05/2022 15:32

@noblegiraffe related to this but how different are exam boards for maths? Surely maths is maths (I feel like I am quoting The Incredibles 2 movie) Ds sat his today but they use OCR. Is it the breakdown of topics?

Johnnysgirl · 20/05/2022 15:42

How's Dd holding up, op?

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2022 15:43

Maths is generally maths (the papers are slightly different in how they approach things) but the main difference this year would be that students have prepared for specific topics based on the advanced info giving out by the exam boards and these will be different for each board. So she might have been expecting to be tested on circle theorems and got a question on histograms instead.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 20/05/2022 15:44

I'm not convinced on the EO refusing to accept responsibility.

The packets should have been stored in the secure room and only removed in the presence of the EO as 'two pairs of eyes' at all times, whether still sealed or opened. This suggests that EO allowed an invigilator to either enter the secure storage unsupervised or that they were left out and picked up by somebody who had been told 'they're on the desk' or something along those lines, which is also a breach of ICE.

AgeingDoc · 20/05/2022 15:48

I don't know how different they are these days OnTheBenchOfDoom but back in my youth (a long time ago!) there were significant differences. I discovered this when I moved house and went to a new school for A levels and they had done a different O level syllabus. I was shocked my new classmates hadn't covered any calculus and couldn't solve quadratic equations but they were equally surprised that I didn't know what a Venn Diagram was and hadn't done any statistics to speak of.
Of course there was no National Curriculum then, so I expect exam boards had more freedom to set their own syllabi. I would expect more conformity across boards now but I am just guessing.

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2022 15:51

All exam boards now follow the same syllabus for maths GCSE, and A-level maths!

Shinyandnew1 · 20/05/2022 15:56

How did maths exams from a completely different exam board end up in a school not taking maths with them?!

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 20/05/2022 15:57

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2022 15:51

All exam boards now follow the same syllabus for maths GCSE, and A-level maths!

That is what I thought which is why I wondered if there were differences in the percentage of the topic covered like 50% algebra or whatever. Both my sons love maths. Ds said this was the easiest paper he has ever sat today.

myrtilles · 20/05/2022 15:57

NeverDropYourMooncup · 20/05/2022 15:44

I'm not convinced on the EO refusing to accept responsibility.

The packets should have been stored in the secure room and only removed in the presence of the EO as 'two pairs of eyes' at all times, whether still sealed or opened. This suggests that EO allowed an invigilator to either enter the secure storage unsupervised or that they were left out and picked up by somebody who had been told 'they're on the desk' or something along those lines, which is also a breach of ICE.

Surely the way it happened would have been due to the AQA student sitting in the same room as some Edexcel students and there being two envelopes of papers in the room one containing AQA and one containing Edexcel. Maybe one invigilator took out the AQA paper and left the spares on the desk which were picked up by another invigilator giving out papers by mistake.

tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz · 20/05/2022 16:01

Exams officer/invigilator here fairly new to role but ...

It seems highly unlikely a school would have x 2 different boards for the same tier or that this would have got past the exams officer and lead invigilator first thing. Paper outer packaging can't be opened until 1 hour before start time but there is a window in the envelope to allow a check (called "second pair of eyes") to stop something like this happening.

That said if it's happened As stated by a pp I'd agree thus feels like something you'd apply for special consideration for and. Imagine all involved will be moving heaven and earth to sort this.

But yes I can imagine she's stressing, poor kid. I'm so proud of how well our lot are doing so far, they've all got their heads down and cracked on after a spectacularly shit few years, education wise