The Student Room Group

AQA response to A-level Chemistry Paper 2 reported leak

Hi guys,

There have been numerous reports that the 2nd paper for AQA A-level Chemistry had been leaked ahead of time. In response to this AQA have released the following statement:

“We’re very disappointed to hear that some students may have seen our A-level Chemistry paper 2 before the exam. Our exams integrity team is investigating and will take any action necessary, including working with the police.

“We realise students might be concerned, but we’d like to reassure them that there are lots of things we can do to make sure no-one has an unfair advantage - which could include monitoring for any students with suspicious performance on this paper.”


I thought this would be worthwhile creating a new thread on just so students who are concerned about the events today could see AQA's comments above.

If there are any new developments on this we will update this thread.

EH

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and they couldn't have said this last week when they found out😭
They say theres lots of things they can do, but realistically, what can they do?
whats the most likely thing that they will do to counteract this?
I'm a little concerned about "monitoring for any students with suspicious performance on this paper" because this paper went MUCH better than my paper 1 and I don't reckon I'm gonna have a performance that good on my paper 3 either which is going to make me look a little strange. Anyone else feeling similar?
Original post by Evil Homer
which could include monitoring for any students with suspicious performance on this paper.”


Im sorry but if thats their solution thats ridiculous, what does that even mean?! I know that would make me panic so much + kinda anxious , even to the point of making my paper 3 answers 'less like the markscheme' eg waffling more, rather then having the specific marking point ive learned from doing past papers, which is ofc silly.
Genuinely so frustrated for you AQA ppl (I do edexcel) Hopefully they'll come up with a reasonable solution, i dont get why they didnt use their contingency paper if ppl told them in advance it had been leaked.
When you think about it, its not even really possible for resits to happen. They would have to create an entire new paper in this short time which corresponds to the advance info, AND the main thing is printing all those papers out usually occurs way before the actual exam (according to one of my teachers) since theres soooo many to print out. It will be very difficult to print out a new paper in time for the contingency day which is 29th June (9 days), and they cant set the exam after that since people will be going on holiday etc
Original post by kndqwbdadlawjdb
I'm a little concerned about "monitoring for any students with suspicious performance on this paper" because this paper went MUCH better than my paper 1 and I don't reckon I'm gonna have a performance that good on my paper 3 either which is going to make me look a little strange. Anyone else feeling similar?

don't think they will be disqualifying people on that basis alone as that's not sufficient evidence but I think I read somewhere about taking out the suspicious marks from the grade distribution thing so grade boundaries arent impacted by cheating. I'd post a source but I can't remember where I read it so please take this with a pinch of salt :smile:

Original post by Rara345
Im sorry but if thats their solution thats ridiculous, what does that even mean?! I know that would make me panic so much + kinda anxious , even to the point of making my paper 3 answers 'less like the markscheme' eg waffling more, rather then having the specific marking point ive learned from doing past papers, which is ofc silly.
Genuinely so frustrated for you AQA ppl (I do edexcel) Hopefully they'll come up with a reasonable solution, i dont get why they didnt use their contingency paper if ppl told them in advance it had been leaked.
(edited 1 year ago)
I’m an Edexcel student myself, but I’m nonetheless appalled at the fact this has even happened.

To those of you who sat the exam without cheating, you have everything to be proud of. You’ve worked exceptionally hard and I damn well hope you get the high grades you deserve. Congratulations.

Remember paper 3 is still a great opportunity for you guys to excel further and you shouldn’t be put off whatsoever by the cheating on paper 2.

In the meantime, I recommend taking a little while to relax and distract yourselves with something non-study related. You’ve earned yourselves a break.

I wish all of you the best of luck for your remaining exams and hope you continue to keep up the good work.

To those who did not do the decent thing and sit the exam without cheating, I cannot think of any words that suitably convey the magnitude of your stupidity.
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by kndqwbdadlawjdb
I'm a little concerned about "monitoring for any students with suspicious performance on this paper" because this paper went MUCH better than my paper 1 and I don't reckon I'm gonna have a performance that good on my paper 3 either which is going to make me look a little strange. Anyone else feeling similar?

Thats what i was thinking like how can u guess who cheated and who didn’t 😭
Has paper 3 also been leaked 😕
Original post by Scook7711
Has paper 3 also been leaked 😕


I advise that if it has, NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING on this discussion.
Original post by TypicalNerd
I advise that if it has, NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING on this discussion.

I seriously dont get what’s happening this year with leaked papers. I swear maths got leaked aswell right?
Original post by faizahkhan
I seriously dont get what’s happening this year with leaked papers. I swear maths got leaked aswell right?

GCSE maths definitely did, but it just sounds like the exam boards are a little rusty and have made an abnormal number of blunders this year with regards to exams.
I dont think checking 'suspicious performance' is gonna help cause the paper was quite a bit easier than the first one
A little strange will be okay, I also prefer paper 2 and it definitely went much better than paper 1, if you went from 30 marks to 90 they would investigate but the investigation would obviously show that we didn’t cheat
Original post by nicolehamptonn
A little strange will be okay, I also prefer paper 2 and it definitely went much better than paper 1, if you went from 30 marks to 90 they would investigate but the investigation would obviously show that we didn’t cheat


there is some experience with edexcel in 2019 when the maths paper leaked and a couple of people were arrested. The reporting of that suggests they could identify geographic anomolies (no idea how) and candidate anomolies. I should think it perfectly possible to identify folk who did very very differently in paper two from papers 1 and 3 (eg an A in paper 2 and Cs or Ds in the other two papers to enable them to query the paper. So I agree with other comments that the best use of time is to focus on the last paper now and give yourselves credit for having come so far on a very tough journey!
Reply 17
Have you not got a levels to revise for not poking your nose in others business
Original post by Epovia
Have you not got a levels to revise for not poking your nose in others business


apologies - is that addressed to me?
how about everyone just gets full marks?

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