Wherefore art thou, examiner?
Pupils’ fury at GCSE Shakespeare error
AN exam board has apologised after getting Romeo and Juliet’s famous warring families mixed up in a GcSE English Literature paper.
thousands of teenagers were baffled when asked to explore tybalt’s hatred for the capulets in the Shakespeare tragedy about two star-crossed lovers.
tybalt is Juliet’s short-tempered first cousin, Romeo’s rival and a capulet himself.
the question in the GcSE paper – sat by 14,000 pupils in 150 schools across the country yesterday – should have told pupils to examine his attitudes towards the montagues – Romeo’s family.
Exam board OcR is investigating the mix-up and insisted that students will not be disadvantaged. But headteachers have reacted angrily, insisting that exam papers must be checked properly.
in the paper yesterday, teenagers could answer a question about Juliet’s reaction to Romeo’s love or alternatively examine tybalt’s feelings.
this question read: ‘How does Shakespeare present the ways in which tybalt’s hatred of the capulets influences the outcome of the play? Refer to this extract from act 1 Scene 5 and elsewhere in the play.’
Student Sophie Elder, 16, from Derbyshire, told the BBc’s education website: ‘i got to the question, i read it, and read it again and thought that doesn’t make sense. it’s so distracting.’
Richard cairns, headmaster of Brighton college, where 190 pupils sat the exam, said: ‘it beggars belief that these things are not checked properly.’
an OcR spokesman said: ‘ We’re aware of an error in today’s OcR GcSE English Literature paper. We apologise and will put things right when the exam is marked and graded so no student need worry about being disadvantaged. We are investigating...’
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the association of School and college Leaders, said: ‘We call on the awarding body to take appropriate action to make sure that candidates are not in any way disadvantaged.’
and England’s exams regulator Ofqual said it would be ‘scrutinising how OcR intends to identify and minimise the impact on these students’.
‘Beggars belief it wasn’t checked’