Exam board AQA has insisted the correct guidance was issued after scored of distressed pupils said they had been issued with the 'wrong' information provided in advance of their GCSE biology exam.
Separate advice was issued for each of the biology papers (a single biology exam and two combined papers) highlighting topics that would or would not be covered. However, students claimed they had been given the wrong information by AQA, the country's largest exam board. In fact the exam board said the students appeared to have accidentally used the advance information for a different science qualification.
In response to one question online the board said: "It looks like you might have been using the advance information for a different biology paper from the one you sat."
Twitter user Andy Duff wrote: "Could someone find out why @AQA set out guidelines for Mondays GCSE biology paper and then got pupils to sit one unrelated to what they said. Leaving many in tears and potentially ruining their future after they already suffered the worst education in history."
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Ree tweeted: "Are you gonna give us a reasoning as to why the exam aids for the exam were not accurate at all. We were told cancer and antibiotics weren't going to be on there but they were. And they were worth more marks on than the required practical which was a major focus please explain."
Another pupil said: "Tell us there will be no questions on cancer to have to answer questions on cancer #shocking."
However, one Twitter user said the information provided was correct. Cath Williams wrote: "I'm a science teacher and the Advanced Information for the 4 different papers was accurate as far as I can see analysing the papers.
"I teach 4 different Yr 11 groups that cover the 4 papers and they were all different in content so had to follow the advanced information carefully."
Not shy, not me! said: "I sat AQA triple biology higher and would also like to say my advanced information was completely correct. no topics were on there which were not mentioned, I feel like AQA are right and the students got the wrong advanced info."
Replying to some of the complaints online, AQA wrote: "The advance information was accurate, but it looks like you might have been using the advance information for a different biology paper from the one you sat. We’d recommend speaking to your school to make sure you sat the right paper."
An AQA spokesperson said: “The advance information for biology was all accurate. The issue seems to be that some students had unfortunately been using the advance information for a different science qualification in their revision.
“We know this is a difficult time for students so we’ve added some extra guidance on our website to help them make sure they’re using the right documents.”
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