A BLUNDER by an examination board saw A-level history students at Downend School having university offers withdrawn.
The mistake by Cambridge OCR led to students wrongly being given an ‘X’ grade, which is usually only given to candidates who have missed part of an exam, despite the board also giving them correct marks for all individual parts of the course.
The school became aware of the problem before results day. It immediately contacted OCR, and was “assured” the error would be rectified in time – but the incorrect grades had already been sent by the board to universities, and were not corrected.
After “continuous contact” between the school and board, the correct grades were issued late in the evening of results day, but students had to contact their preferred universities and appeal the rejections in the meantime.
One said: “It was a complete shock to find out I’d been rejected from both universities who had made offers, along with most of the people in my class, and then to find out it was because of an administrative error.
“Hopefully things will all be resolved, but it was quite a dampener on what should have been a day of celebration.”
A Cambridge OCR spokesperson said it is working with the school to resolve the issue, adding: “Our focus is on helping the students affected.”