NUS is watching the situation closely, and will be working with Ofqual, the exams regulator, to ensure that the situation is dealt with as fairly as possible.
We will also be feeding into Ofqual's recently announced inquiry into the errors that took place to work out what needs to be done to prevent any recurrence of such avoidable errors.
- The vast majority of candidates have not been affected by the faulty exam papers. A list of the exam papers affected by errors can be found on the Ofqual website.
- Please also note that different exam boards often all provide exams for the same subjects – so double-check the name of your exam board when checking the exam paper details.
- If you have taken one of the papers highlighted above, please do not worry – the exam board in question is currently looking into how this can be most appropriately addressed. In some cases, the question may be discounted in marking the paper, or some other system will be developed so as to deal with the error in the fairest way possible.
- Once you have marks on the respective results day you will, as always, have an opportunity to request for a copy of your exam paper and/ or for the paper to be remarked. You can do this, as usual, by contacting the examinations coordinator at your school, college or exam centre.
- If, once you have received your results, and/ or received a copy of the transcript, and/ or requested for the paper to be re-marked, you still feel that the mistakes in the paper unduly disadvantaged you, you can investigate the option of taking a re-sit. NUS is calling for the exam boards concerned to provide you with the opportunity to re-sit the paper, free of charge.
- We recognise that some of you with conditional university offers will have concerns about the effect of the exam papers in question may have on you receiving the results you need in order to take up your first-choice university place. Ofqual, the examinations regulator, will hold discussions with UCAS, UUK and NUS about how applications from candidates who have taken the affected papers can be managed to mitigate any risk of candidates missing out on a university place because of a miswritten exam paper.
- Ofqual, the examinations regulator, have announced that they will be undertaking a review of how these mistakes this year happened, such that they are not repeated this year. NUS will be working with Ofqual to support this process. If you would like to feed into this process, please contact Toni Pearce, NUS Vice President (Further Education), and we will liaise with them.