Another A-Level Maths paper leaked just before exam

Many students may have enjoyed an unfair advantage in their A-levels last month, as it was revealed a Maths paper was leaked online some time before the exam. A serious investigation has been launched after it was revealed that a pdf copy of the full exam had been circulating the internet, and offered up for sale on certain websites.

The exam board responsible for the paper was Edexcel, a company owned by Pearson, who put out the statement that they didn`t believe the paper had been viewed by many students, and that the images were only `circulated in a very limited way` prior to the exam.

`Having visited a small group of centres within scope of the investigation, we have identified one centre in serious breach of correct practice,` Pearson said in a tweet.

`All students should be reassured we have well-established processes in place to ensure no one will be advantaged or disadvantaged, and this paper will not have to be re sat.`

There are reports that only a small portion of the paper actually appeared online, with many claiming that only two question were readily made available, apparently in a twitter post (now obviously deleted) which offered the whole paper for a fee of £70. I have to admit, if I had been able to obtain a copy of an exam paper which I believed to be crucial to my future, I would almost certainly have paid the asking price, and considered it to have been money well spent!

This is actually not the first time that Pearson has found one of its exams leaked to the internet: only last year another A-Level maths paper was offered for sale online. The exams watchdog Ofqual was forced to intervene when the paper was offered up for £200 on student forums, with the nefarious vendor offering the first question up for no charge in order to prove the genuine article was available.

Back in 2017 Pearson was once again forced to admit its security had been breached, having to amend two questions in its further pure maths and statistics exams, after it was alerted to the fact that students had somehow gained access to them. The company admitted to a `limited breach of security,` but judging by the repeat of cases since then, it would seem the breach has not been plugged.

Cases such as these, theft of copyright company material, are certainly a criminal offence, and have been reported to the Crown Prosecution service; but to date it seems no individuals have been brought to prosecution. It is possible Pearson`s database was hacked into from the outside, but it seems to me more likely an employee working at the company `acquired` the exams, with the intention of selling them online. With thousands of students across the country worried about their performance, it is all too easy to imagine many of them would be willing to purchase the illicit copies of the paper. Unlike dealing with stolen `physical` goods, the digital exam file could be sent with perfect ease to anyone who had paid the fee, simply by sending it as an email attachment.

Pearson have said they have plans in place to prevent further instances of data theft - in April they announced they will pilot a scheme where exam papers will be microchipped, allowing the time, date and location of each bundle to be tracked. Since criminals will be dealing with digital copies of the exams though, I fail to see how securing the paper versions will prevent them being leaked online.

Many students are understandably dismayed about the recent leak, fearing that their grades will suffer, as boundary marks may be affected by more students achieving higher marks than expected. Hundreds of students have already signed a petition calling for the exam board to make allowances for the leak when the grade boundaries are set, but Pearson have yet to respond to their pleas.