Exam scare pupils reprieved

Exam nightmares can be put right, says the exam board

"It happens every year and the students and their families are always beside themselves with worry."

So says exam board spokesperson Helen Hallett, who has been seeking to reassure sixth form students who have suffered the kind of experience usually confined to pre-exam nightmares.

A dozen pupils at Stockport Grammar School turned over one of their French literature A-level papers, only to discover that it was asking questions about a book they had never studied.

The class in the independent school had been taught the wrong set text - after staff at the school had continued teaching a previous year's syllabus.

"We've made every effort possible to ensure that the pupils' grades don't suffer - and the head teacher contacted parents to explain what had happened," said the school's marketing manager, Sue Miller.

And the exam board, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), confirmed that in such exceptional circumstances the students' grades will not be harmed by the mistake.

Estimated grades

"The message to students in such special circumstances is that it won't be the first time this has happened and that it can be dealt with in a way that won't disadvantage them," said Helen Hallett, assistant director of external relations.

The pupils at Stockport Grammar will not lose all the marks available for the paper which they could not take.

Instead the examining board will look at other exam papers taken in the subject and the estimates of what teachers expected from pupils and then award a grade accordingly.

"We can look at all the other evidence available - course work, mock exam papers, school exam forecasts and anything that would help to make an assessment," said Ms Hallett.

As well as studying the wrong text, she said that such special awards could be made in circumstances such as illness or bereavement.

Two years ago, another independent school, Bradford Grammar School, suffered a similar problem when an English literature A level class discovered in the exam room that they had been studying the wrong Shakespeare play for two years.