Shocked O Level examinees
It was the last day of O Level exams of my daughter. We the parents were waiting anxiously outside the exam hall. We expected a happy face coming out of the venue as she was confident of her last day subject, which was accounting.
We saw the students coming out with very perplexed and sad faces, some of them crying. Not understanding what was actually happening, we got a little worried. Our daughter was still to come out of the hall. A discussion among the students already out of the hall indicated that something went terribly wrong with the exam, or rather the question paper. Finally, I saw my daughter's face and drew my husband's attention to her crying.
To our utter dismay, we learnt that the format and mark structure of the accounting paper was completely different from what was expected by the students!
Upon queries from different school authorities, we learnt that according to Edexcel syllabus and mark structure the format of the accounting paper till the year 2008 stands as below:
Section A - 2 questions carried 24 marks each--24 x 2 = 48
Section B - 4 questions carried 13 marks each--13 x 4 = 52
Total marks : 48 + 52 = 100 marks. Duration 3 hours.
But the exam was taken on 200 marks with the same 3-hour duration! The students were faced with a great challenge and were shocked.
In May 2008 the question paper was prepared with 6 problems.
In Section A, each problem carried 48 marks and in Section B each carried 26 marks--48 x 2 = 96 and 26 x 4 = 104.
Why was this so? Why were the schools and institutions not informed of any change? How could this change take place without any prior notice?
Further information reveals that one of the renowned schools has taken up the matter with the overseas authorities. It is our legal right as school authorities, teachers and parents to seek redress to this kind of unfair imposition of rules, that too without giving any information beforehand.
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