Ofqual report shows errors in exam papers has tripled this year

Ofqual’s 2016 summer exams report shows the number of reported exam paper errors rose from 11 in 2015 to 37 this year.

The biggest rise was in category 2 errors, which rose from three to 18 over the year. These are mistakes which cause “unintentional difficulties for students when they are responding to a question/task”.

Category 1 errors rose from six to 16. This category is the most serious and make a meaningful response from pupils “impossible”.

The exam board with the most reported errors was AQA, recording just four in 2015 but rising to 19 in 2016.

A spokesperson for AQA said: “When [errors] do occur, we always make sure that students don’t lose out – but one error is still one too many, so we’ve carried out a detailed investigation and we’re improving our checks as a result.”

Ofqual is seeking assurance from all boards they had identified the causes and taken steps to reduce their occurrence. They also plan to bring the exam boards together ahead of summer 2017 to make sure they adopt a common and consistent approach to notifying Ofqual of errors.