By Ashley Young And Lucy Caulkett-
A leak to an A-level maths exam sat by pupils today is being investigated by Edxcell, after two questions embarrassingly appeared on The Student Room website which featured tweets of the question. It is currently unknown who leaked the question, but believed to have been done by either a dodgy examiner or an associate who had access to the questions.
Pearson, the firm which operates the board is investigating the disgraceful leak after blacked out images of two exam questions from Edexcel’s maths paper 3 appeared on Twitter last night. The embarrassing leak raises questions to the integrity of the system which is supposed to give all students an equal chance in exams.
Tweets accompanying the images of the questions went an extra step to offering the whole paper for sale for £70 . In a statement Pearson said: “We are aware that an individual circulated blacked out images of two exam questions on social media ahead of today’s A-level maths exam.
“We are investigating the source of this. All students should be reassured we have well-established processes in place to ensure no-one will be advantaged or disadvantaged, and this paper will not have to be resat.” Increasing concern about fake exams leaks circulating on social media, the aim being to con pupils of cash has also raised concerns about efforts from unscrupulous individuals to compromise the integrity of exams.
A-level maths papers were also leaked in 2017 and 2018: in April, Pearson announced that it had made progress in their investigations into both cases. The investigation comes in the wake of thousands of pupils who sat A-level maths papers on Wednesday and a week earlier, who have signed an online petition calling for “extremely difficult and unreasonable” papers to be marked with special consideration.
Almost 11,000 pupils have signed Hannah Smith’s Change.org petition regarding Edexcel’s Pure Mathematics A Level, which calls for the exam to be marked fairly “in order to give us a chance at our future”. A further petition against the exams on Change.org by Kamil Zelechowski gained almost 3,000 signatures. The petition says students’ hopes of gaining university places had been “shattered”.
On Tuesday it was forced to defend a GCSE maths question that involved working out the number of calories in a breakfast, after coming in for criticism on social media.
It also admitted to using a GCSE maths question that is almost identical to one from an AQA revision textbook.
And thousands of pupils who sat A-level maths papers on 5 and 12 June have signed an online petition calling for “extremely difficult and unreasonable” papers to be marked with special consideration.
Almost 11,000 pupils have signed Hannah Smith’s Change.org petition regarding Edexcel’s Pure Mathematics A Level, which calls for the exam to be marked fairly “in order to give us a chance at our future”.
A further petition against the exams on Change.org by Kamil Zelechowski gained almost 3,000 signatures. The petition says students’ hopes of gaining university places had been “shattered”.
Some pupils felt the experience had a detrimental impact on their mental health. Twitter user Lucy, who sat the paper, said: “As the number of students suffering from mental health issues is increasing, why would you make the exams so hard?”
In a statement Pearson said: “Candidates should be reassured that the paper reflects the spec, and that we set the grade boundaries for each exam paper each year.
“This ensures a fair system, so that students of the same ability will be awarded the same grade in different years, even if there are differences in the demand of papers. We wish the very best of luck to all students taking their remaining exams.”