30th May 2017 1:00
By Blue Tutors
The GCSE literature exam administered by leading exam board OCR, was taken by 14,000 confused teenagers this week. In a question about the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, students were asked “How does Shakespeare present the ways in which Tybalt’s hatred of the Capulets influences the outcome of the play?”, despite Tybalt himself being a Capulet.
The question was one of two that students had to choose from to answer for a total of 40 marks. Having mixed up the Montagues and Capulets, students found it hard to know how to answer the question, and teachers argue that the whole question should be discounted. Others say that this would then disadvantage those students who made their best efforts to answer the question anyway. Either way, the effect on stress and confidence levels for all students, even those who chose not to answer that question is hard to adjust for. With high stakes like admission to sixth form and even university admissions requirements, students were understandably stressed and upset about the situation, with some leaving the exam hall in tears.
That such an obvious error made its way into the exam hall puts serious doubt on the rigour of the exam writing and checking process and leaves schools and families with very little faith that the situation will be rectified appropriately at the marking stage. Schools are rightfully angry, given the thousands of pounds paid to the exam board each year in return for such poor quality assurance. Ofqual have said they will be closely monitoring the investigation into how the mistake happened, and OCR have made a statement saying that they are aware of the error and “assure everyone that no student will be disadvantaged” because of it.