3rd July 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Students across the UK have been voicing their concerns following the leaked A Level Maths paper on Friday 14th of June. Reported on the BBC, the exam was the third maths paper sat by students this June, set by examining board Edexcel, and it follows complaints regarding the first two papers including requiring knowledge not in the syllabus and repetition of an exam question from 2014.
Edexcel say that the exam was opened by an individual at an exam centre early on Friday morning, and the details were then shared on social media. They claim that only a small number of individuals had access to the exam and then only shortly before the start time so it is not a major issue. However, many people are not convinced by this argument.
Affected students claim that the first posts on social media were around 12 hours before the exam, and there is no way to tell how many students had access to the questions, potentially thousands. This gave cheaters more than enough time to go through each question beforehand and gain a huge advantage.
Obviously the vast majority of students did not see the exam before they sat it, and their main worry is that grade boundaries will be raised leading to the results being skewed. They spoke of the unfairness of working so hard and staying up late the night before to revise, yet left feeling that their hard work was in vain.
Edexcel say that they have a system to deal with situations such as this, and that they will hold the individual concerned responsible for the leak. None of the possible solutions appeal to students who worked hard for the exam; lowering grade boundaries help everyone including the cheaters, discounting the exam altogether or giving students their predicted grade is unfair on those who did well in the exam or worked extra hard after their prediction to improve.
Whatever the solution, students are asking for Edexcel to be held accountable for this leak, and for similar issues over the last few years. It is seen as their responsibility to prevent a problem like this, and ensure that exam centres cannot behave in a reproachable way.