Exam board apology after students' papers were wrongly marked

SOME HAD BEEN GIVEN LOWER GRADES DUE TO 'HUMAN ERROR'

- By LOUIS CORBETT

AN exam board has been criticised over its accuracy and fairness after a Nottinghamshire college found that a number of its students' papers were incorrectly marked.

Vision West Nottinghamshire College (West College Notts), in Mansfield, raised concerns after several students failed to achieve the minimum GCSE English target grade in 2025.

Teachers were "shocked" by the results and requested a marking review of 41 papers, which led to 22 students receiving higher grades, including two who moved from a grade 3, a fail, to a grade 5, which is considered a pass.

The college met with representatives from Pearson, the examination board, and found that it was down to "human error," and was offered an apology.

Pearson was requested to carry out a review of the marking at West College Notts as 1,400 GCSE English exams were submitted in 2025.

The exam board denied that there was a pattern, yet the college was left concerned this could be a wider issue, leading them to contact the examination regulator, Ofqual, and Mansfield MP Steve Yemm (Lab), who raised the issue in parliament this week.