Exam boards failing

[Xelt]

In the UK there are multipel Exam boards, OCR, AQA, and others I can't remember the name of cause I don't use them.
It's recently been the exam period, and two exams have been wrong. As in, the exam has had parts that are impossible.

One by OCR (Maths exam) and one by AQA (Business Exam, which I sat!)

Pupils taking an AS-level exam have been given a question that could not be answered - the second such problem this summer.


The latest unanswerable question was in a business studies paper set by the AQA exam board.

The AQA exam board said it was "very sorry about the error in the paper".

"However, we do have a robust process for ensuring that none of our students will be disadvantaged as a result our mistake," said a statement from the exam board.


The exam paper did not include the information needed to make the calculation to answer the question - which was about the profits of a chocolate company.



Last week it emerged students taking an AS-level maths paper set by the OCR exam board had also been set an unanswerable question.

Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13669252

 

[Irridium]

So what was the question?

 

[Catchy Slogan]

Well, at least it will stop people complaining that exams are too easy nowadays.

And my exam boards were AQA and Edexcel.

 

[Musiclly enhanced]

omg I just sat an exam today so now i know if i get something wrong and it seems impossible, its all the exam boards fault

 

[Jodah]

So what was the question?

^ this. How am I supposed to accept the challenge of this "unanswerable question" without knowing the question?

 

[Wes1180]

So what was the question?

^ this. How am I supposed to accept the challenge of this "unanswerable question" without knowing the question?

It had something to do with calculating the profits of a chocalte company, so I'm guessing that the missing info was their income or expenses or something.

Seriously companies that are making tests should not make mistakes like that. (as in test the tests)

 

[Xelt]

So what was the question?

^ this. How am I supposed to accept the challenge of this "unanswerable question" without knowing the question?

So what was the question?

It was a question about profit of a business, but it did not provide a price or cost per unit, just the amount sold if I'm recalling correctly, was a few weeks ago.

I hope these were suitably long exams so that these didn't effect the kid's grades that much.

It was 1 hour and 30 minutes, so, 90 minutes total for 80 marks.

 

[Woodsey]

Thank fuck it wasn't on any of mine!

 

[SckizoBoy]

All I can remember about my exams was spraying (my) blood all over the exam paper. I almost forgot which one it was, it was so long ago... *sigh* I'm getting old.

OT: This problem isn't particularly new, it's just been easier to spot. One of the questions from before my time was impossible to answer, except that no-one knew until well afterwards (because it was a complex-number second order differential equation that basically stumped most students before they finished reading it, the resident maths whiz left the exam, pored over it for about six weeks - to the detriment of his physics exams - before concluding that it couldn't be answered).

 

[Total LOLige]

the questions are impossible because some teachers don't teach a certain topic because it never comes up on the exam, but then when it does your screwed

 

[Xelt]

the questions are impossible because some teachers don't teach a certain topic because it never comes up on the exam, but then when it does your screwed

Or in this case because the information wasn't provided.

 

[Zac Smith]

the questions are impossible because some teachers don't teach a certain topic because it never comes up on the exam, but then when it does your screwed

That doesn't make the question impossible though, any good student will take away what they learn it the lesson and build on it outside of school. Simply relying on what the teacher says will mean you miss out on higher marks

 

[gussy1z]

I haven't had any problems with this myself. Considering the mount of exams that are written by these exam boards im supprised this doesn't happen more often. For the most part these exam boards are pretty good.

 

[hawkeye52]

I also had two exams last January for A2 Law and Psychology both of which were marked poorly for many students (not me though). My Law paper went up by 2 marks and my Psychology by 5 (thats nearly a whole grade boundry).

For some students though they were getting E's on the original then remarked and got B's

 

[Grogman]

Thank god this hasn't happened on any of my GCSEs. Yet.

 

[Lukeje]

I still don't see why this would cause a problem for the students. A major part of exam technique is moving on when a question seems unanswerable (whether from a lack of knowledge or a mistake in the question).

 

[FallenRainbows]

Exams are just memmory tests anyway. Such bullshit. That's why I wing my exams. Like a boss.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

If only such a scenario was possible for my exams, I might have a bit of hope in the summer