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Students left laughing as correct answers to multiple choice exam are printed in bold

Exam organiser takes full responsibility for ‘foul-up’


A third year Biochemistry exam was cancelled due to a glaring mistake on the question paper.

Students opened their multiple-choice exam to find that the correct answers for every question had been printed in bold.

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The paper in question

Students who were meant to be sitting the exam told The Bristol Tab that "within seconds" of being told to open their papers, the entire room was laughing.

Invigilators were left in a momentary state of confusion until they realised what was going on.

Professor Mike Jones, the unit director, quickly called off the test.

He later sent an email to the year group in which he said: "I would like to apologise for the foul-up in this morning's MCQ exam.

"The fault is mine – I was responsible for final formatting for the paper and should have noticed that the correct stems were still highlighted before I gave the go-ahead for printing.

"I'm grateful that many of you have taken [the] embarrassing foul-up on my part in good humour but am also aware that many of you will be upset and / or annoyed that this has happened.

"I can only apologise again and assure you that we will make every effort to ensure that no one is disadvantaged by my error."

The exam will be re-scheduled in January.