Exam board make really Bard bungle
AN EXAM board will be fined £175,000 for a glaring error in a GCSE paper on Romeo and Juliet.
It left thousands of pupils stumped by an unanswerable question about Shakespeare’s play.
The English literature GCSE paper set by the OCR board confused the two warring families – the Capulets and the Montagues – in the romantic tragedy.
The board, one of the country’s largest, said the 2,735 candidates students who attempted the question would be judged on their other answers.
But exam regulator Ofqual levied a £175,000 fine and said the slip hurt public confidence.
An OCR spokeswoman apologised and said it had revised its check system.