Exam board 'sorry' for audio mix-up in French and Spanish A-levels

An examination board has apologised to A-level students and their teachers after a mix-up in recordings made it difficult for candidates to answer questions in Spanish and French exams taken this month.

Students sitting the Eduqas French modern foreign languages exams on Monday complained that recordings were out of order, making it more difficult to answer with confidence. The exam accounted for 50% of the final mark of the A-level paper.

Students were quick to register their anger and confusion on social media after sitting the exam, with some calling it “impossible” and “diabolical”.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who completely guessed every answer for question 4,” tweeted one.

Eduqas – an arm of the Welsh examination board WJEC – issued an apology but said that any students who felt they were affected would have to apply for “special consideration” to adjust their marks.

The problem arose with the paper’s rubric instructing students to listen to the second part of a recording in order to answer a particular questions. But the board said candidates also needed to re-listen to an earlier part of the recording in order to answer parts of the question.

“We appreciate that this error may have affected candidates in yesterday’s examination. A special consideration can be made on behalf of those candidates,” said Elaine Carlile, director of assessment delivery at Eduqas.

The board also admitted that a similar issue was noted in a Spanish A-level exam last week.

“Our examiners and the awarding committee members will be made aware of the situation,” it said. “Candidate responses will be considered carefully during the marking and awarding processes to ensure that no candidate is disadvantaged.”

The mix-up is only likely to affect a small number of candidates with Eduqas being the arm of the WJEC board approved to offer exams in England rather than in Wales. Across the UK as a whole only 6,700 candidates were registered to sit A-level Spanish this year, while just under 8,000 were to sit French.