30th July 2012 12:35
By Blue Tutors
Exam Board Admits Major Grade Errors
OCR has admitted more than 250 pupils will have their grades raised owing to errors in the addition of sub-totals on their exam papers. 4 examiners have been sacked and 78 have been warned regarding their performance.
It remains uncertain whether any university applications were affected by the incorrect grades.
The exam board says that grades awarded in 15 A-levels, 28 AS-levels and 34 GCSE short courses will now be changed - mostly raising them by one grade.
But there are five candidates who are to have their exam results improved by two grades.
There are another 137 cases in which parts of exams taken last year are to have their grades increased - with this being taken into account for the final grades to be awarded for qualifications later this summer.
At A-level, the mistakes were in subjects including PE, history and psychology.
For AS-level, grade changes were in subjects including religious studies, law, performing arts, history and music.
At GCSE, errors were in religious studies, history, English, Spanish and Turkish.
The schools affected appear to be predominantly in England.
The exam board says the mistakes have emerged after a full investigation of last year's papers - and that measures are now in place to prevent such errors.
BBC News report 10/07/2012