Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

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

A-level AQA Chemistry exam paper leaked?!

38 replies

NoNoNoooo · 20/06/2022 13:59

Dd has sat a Chemistry A-level paper this morning and tells me the whole paper had been leaked and some of her friends were able to buy it on Snapchat 😮

She didn’t see the leak and was due an A* but this makes a mockery of the whole exam system. How the hell does this happen? My other dc (GCSEs, different school) tells me that exam papers are left in a room unattended.

Has this really happened or is this just dramatic teenage exaggeration?

If it has, then surely they now also need to take mock/predicted grades into account.

OP posts:
actiongirl1978 · 20/06/2022 14:04

I suspect teenage exaggeration.

I'm an EO and we treat the papers like the crown jewels. From courier, into our secure room and only come out again an hour before the exam.

Original poster
NoNoNoooo · 20/06/2022 14:08

Yep I have marked papers myself in the past (and have only ever seen the papers during/after the exam). Security is paramount. This is why I’m so shocked.

If this has actually happened, I imagine the leak occurred after exam papers had been delivered to schools.

OP posts:
Tumbleton · 20/06/2022 14:16

The rumours about this all seem to be second hand / hearsay so far.

One "whistleblower" on Twitter claims that they saw an advert for the leaked paper on 13 June, and that they sent a direct message to AQA to alert them. The WB has shared a couple of screenshots of this conversation, including the date (13 June) and photos of what appears to be this morning's paper.

It's worth noting that the WB has a brand new account and that the first time they shared anything about this on Twitter was after this morning's exam.

Either the WB faked the screenshots using photos taken this morning. Or the paper was leaked.

If the paper was leaked a whole 7 days before the exam, why did nobody mention it online during those 7 days?

Tumbleton · 20/06/2022 14:25

The Twitter account @NoNoNoooo(which was the only person first hand claiming to have seen the leaked paper before the exam) has now been deleted.

Carrieonmywaywardsun · 20/06/2022 14:42

Exam papers are leaked quite often, most years there's a leak but usually it's not an official paper and rather a past paper. If a leak is confirmed they may change grade boundaries but if it's fake/ only a few students have seen it/they can't confirm or deny it it'll be left. One possible paper leak won't make that much of an impact and if a few students do better on it than other papers it won't do any harm

BloodyHellKen · 20/06/2022 15:00

I hear you' pain @NoNoNoooo as we are currently going through A levels and GCSE's.

A few weeks ago the first GCSE maths paper was allegedly leaked and our daughter was very upset. The more I looked into it online, the more I suspected it was some bull-shitter making the whole thing up on Reddit because, well some people are just C you next Tuesdays and like to get a reaction.

This 'leak' could probably well turn out to be the same sort of thing.

Onewildandpreciouslife · 20/06/2022 16:08

Has anyone heard any more on this? DD has just told me the same thing and is emailing the school. To say it's not helping prep for the rest of the week is an under-statement…

Soozbo · 20/06/2022 16:37

My son also very upset. Says paper went really well and now he's found people had it in advance. He says he knows 5 people who said they had it!
I am also worrying that AQA A level & GCSE papers seem to have included questions on topics either not in the advance info or even, (chemistry again) according to the teacher, not on the syllabus anymore! What is going on?

Tumbleton · 20/06/2022 17:05

From AQA (via Twitter):

"Our Exams Integrity team is investigating these reports and they’ll take any action necessary, including working with the police. Leaks are very rare but, when they happen, we take action to ensure no-one has an unfair advantage - so no need to worry about grade boundaries."

Schoolperson · 20/06/2022 17:29

@BloodyHellKen im a student who has been sitting the gcse papers this year and i am in many of the discord servers where this stuff is discussed, the maths leak was 100% real, but it was only a picture of the last question. it got posted at 11PM the night before the exam on a gcse maths youtubers discord with the person saying "GL!" sarcastically because the question was so hard, someone saw the question in the morning and was curious on how to solve it so they asked people in a much larger server at 6AM (they had no idea it was a leak) and a few people saw it and commented on how hard the question was, and then the exam happened, people saw that an image from the exam was posted in the morning and then everyone on twitter and reddit started going crazy, barely anyone had the paper and it wont affect the grade boundaries in any way

6 days ago someone in a far less popular discord server im in posted an image of a stolen a level chemistry package, and they were offering to sell it, and its the same image that has been spreading around a lot. loads of people have confirmed the leak is real so yeah just informing you about this stuff sorry this is really long i dont know how this website works

wantmorenow · 20/06/2022 17:36

Word in my school from staff is it's real.

noblegiraffe · 20/06/2022 18:03

If it has, then surely they now also need to take mock/predicted grades into account.

When the Edexcel Maths paper leaked a couple of years ago, they were able to track down who leaked it and a couple of people were arrested.

Think they analyse the results for kids getting unusual marks on the leaked paper and look for geographical clusters, that sort of thing.

They do not, however, use mock/predicted grades.

BotCrossHuns · 20/06/2022 18:42

Soozbo · 20/06/2022 16:37

My son also very upset. Says paper went really well and now he's found people had it in advance. He says he knows 5 people who said they had it!
I am also worrying that AQA A level & GCSE papers seem to have included questions on topics either not in the advance info or even, (chemistry again) according to the teacher, not on the syllabus anymore! What is going on?

I'd be a bit skeptical of this, though - why would those 5 people actually admit to having it and cheating? More likely they might be winding their friends up - even if there was some cheating/leaks going on. I doubt the people who had seen any leaks would tell anyone

Piggywaspushed · 20/06/2022 19:12

AQA have not denied it.

BabbleBee · 20/06/2022 19:45

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?

Original poster
NoNoNoooo · 20/06/2022 20:37

Has this ever happened before, where an entire paper has been leaked?

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 🙄

@SoozboShe’s also said quite a few of her AQA exams have not followed the advance info and there were quite a few surprises.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 20/06/2022 20:50

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

BabbleBee · 20/06/2022 20:51

Wasn’t there a GCSE maths paper leaked too?

noblegiraffe · 20/06/2022 20:54

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

sdo · 20/06/2022 21:11

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'.

Tumbleton · 20/06/2022 21:13

sdo · 20/06/2022 21:11

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'.

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

sdo · 20/06/2022 21:16

Tumbleton · 20/06/2022 21:13

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

Show quote history

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.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 20/06/2022 21:35

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.

Original poster
NoNoNoooo · 20/06/2022 21:45

noblegiraffe · 20/06/2022 20:50

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

Thanks for that. The article states “shortly before” but the Chemisty paper was leaked 1 WHOLE f#%*ing week before - how does this even begin to be acceptable? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Luckily for DD, she isn’t doing Chemisty at uni so doesn’t really need the A* in this, but that’s not the point. There will be plenty of people who do!

OP posts:
Tumbleton · 20/06/2022 22:42

sdo · 20/06/2022 21:16

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.

Show quote history

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?
Swipe left for the next trending thread