Exam board slapped with £175k fine over botched Shakespeare GCSE question mixing up characters
Over 14,000 pupils sat the paper, which mistakenly classed the Romeo and Juliet character Tybalt as a Montague, not a Capulet
AN exam board has been fined £175,000 for a botched GCSE question on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The question on Juliet’s cousin Tybalt mixed up their Capulets clan with rivals the Montagues.
Pupils were asked how the Bard showed “the ways in which Tybalt’s hatred of the Capulets influences the outcome of the play”.
But as a Capulet, he hated the Montagues.
Watchdog Ofqual said it left last year’s OCR Literature paper not “fit for purpose”.
It said it caused “serious impact” on public confidence as it was the first year of supposedly tougher GCSEs.
Some 14,261 pupils sat the paper, with up to 2,500 trying the bungled optional question.
OCR said: “We’d like to apologise again. We’ve revised our system of checks.”
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