This petition was submitted during the 2015–2017 Conservative government
Rejected petition Stop making GCSE, AS level and A-level exams that purposefully mislead students
Every year an increasing number of questions on exams are written with the intent to mislead by; asking confusing questions; writing half a question on one page and the rest on another; asking questions that do not appear on the syllabus and by asking students to do lots of work for very few marks
More details
Misleading students shouldn't be a valid goal for exam boards as it is not a true test of knowledge, under time pressure it is easy to make simple mistakes and with the added pressure of having to watch out for exam boards trying to catch you out, many students run out of time re-reading questions. Measures can and should be set in place by the government to make sure questions are relevant to the syllabus and not as difficult to understand. Who is benefitting from the difficulty of these exams?
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.
We cannot accept your petition because the UK Government or Parliament is not responsible for the issue you raise. Exam boards are responsible for the questions they set. Exam boards are regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), which regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England.
You can make a complaint to Ofqual about the organisations it regulates. Further information about how to complain is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofqual/about/complaints-procedure.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.