Fine over exam that mixed up Montagues and Capulets

 An exam board is to be fined a record £175,000 after mixing up the Montagues and the Capulets in a GCSE paper. A question about Romeo and Juliet in an OCR English literature paper confused the two families.

The mistake rendered the question incomprehensible, and meant that the exam paper was “not fit for purpose”, according to the exam regulator Ofqual.

Yesterday, Ofqual announced that it intends to impose a financial penalty of £175,000 on OCR, which is the largest fine it has ever issued.

The error was in a question that read: “How does Shakespeare present the ways in which Tybalt’s hatred of the Capulets influences the outcome of the play?” But Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and a Capulet himself, so the question should have referred to his hatred of the Montagues.

The question was one of two Romeo and Juliet questions in last May’s paper, with candidates required to pick one to answer. A total of 14,261 students sat the exam and of these 4,000 to 5,000 students answered questions on the play – split half and half between the two questions.

The mistake was made during the setting of the paper and was not picked up during checks. An OCR spokesman apologised, adding that it has revised its check system with the aim of “improving the quality of our question papers”.

The exam watchdog said the board’s failings in this case are likely to have a “serious adverse impact on public confidence in qualifications”, particularly because the error happened during the first year that new GCSES were being examined.

Ofqual said students would not be marked down as a result of the error.