Exam boards have been criticised by the head of Ofqual for oversights in their exams, where pupils were tested on topics they had been told were off the exam or submitted papers containing errors.
Examination board AQA has apologised twice during this year’s GCSE and A-level exam period following complaints that a 30-mark question in its A-level law exam had not been included as part of the advance notice of exam topics given to pupils this year to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
On Friday, the board apologized to law students for the “confusion and stress” caused after questions about harassment were included in the document despite not appearing on the list of topics students were told in advance they should review.
AQA had told candidates that “higher-marking questions” (those carrying more marks) would be based on the listed topics given to candidates before their exam.
He apologised last week after his GCSE physics exam included a question on a topic that had been left out of the briefing.
Another exam board, Edexcel, was forced to apologise for a mistake in its GCSE geography paper that labelled Gabon as the Democratic Republic of Congo on a map of Africa.
Jo Saxton, chief regulator at Ofqual, told the Confederation of School Trusts’ annual conference on Friday that “the support package put in place for students for this year’s summer series, all aimed at making the path back to pre-pandemic arrangements as smooth as possible” had hit some “real bumps in the road”.
She added: “I fully understand the distress that mistakes in prior information and in exams can cause.”
Dr Saxton added that students had “welcomed” the exam aids and formula sheets, which she said had “taken the stress off their shoulders”.
Students have been given advance information on the topics covered in their exams along with formula sheets in some subjects to help them adapt to the impact of the pandemic on their learning this year.
But he added: “They love the idea of having information up front, but the reality is that in many cases, navigating through it is just another thing to think about.”
Dr Saxton said the 2022 results would be the “highest-graded” set of exams on record, but that results would be lower than in 2021, when teacher-assessed grades were awarded for GCSEs and A-levels.
An AQA spokesperson said: “One of the aims of advance information is to ensure that it does not restrict teaching and learning, so we were unable to list all the topics in the exam.
“While we advised students to review all topics and include the focus of one of the two 30-mark questions, we appreciate that many students expected us to include the focus of both questions, especially in light of the guidance we provided prior to publishing the advance information.
“We did not want to cause confusion or stress to students and we regret having done so. The fairest way to deal with this is for us to look at students’ performance on this exam after it has been graded and take the necessary steps to protect them.”
