Edinburgh second years were given an exam with the answers written in the paper

A second year exam went catastrophically wrong this morning, as the answers for the multiple choice questions had been written in bold on the papers.

The 'Microorganisms, Immunity and Infection 2' exam had a multiple choice section worth 65 per cent, and an essay section worth 35 per cent.

As some of the papers had the correct answers written in bold on them, it meant this entire section has been discounted, and now the essay is worth a whopping 100 per cent of the mark.

Second year Harry Wilson who was sitting the exam told The Tab Edinburgh that it wasn't until near the end of the exam that the invigilators announced the mistake. Harry said: "At 11:07 with 23 minutes left on the exam, the lead invigilator said 'there is an announcement from your school. If you are working on the multiple choice section, stop now and only do your essay question. If you have finished your essay question you might as well leave.'"

The exam was held in the Pleasance Gym

Harry continued: "Everybody looked really confused as most of us would have finished and were checking answers. A lot of people stood up to leave. Outside there was a lot of quiet shock and which quickly turned to laughter as rumours spread of what had happened."

Another student added that she had to point out the bold answers beside the questions to the invigilators. They said: "I opened my paper and the first thing I noticed was that each question had one option in bold. I looked around to see if it was just my paper or it was a printing error but nobody around me had any options in bold. I then actually looked at the options in bold and they were all the correct answers.

"I then told one of the examiners, after making a mental note of answers to questions I didn’t know, and was told somebody else had already told them and they were calling someone. So I knew I wasn’t the only person that had the answers and just went about the rest of the exam.

"Twenty minutes from the end of the exam an invigilator announced that we were to ignore the multiple choice section and that if we had already finished it not to worry and if we had not finished the multiple choice to not continue doing so. At this point everyone was confused, looking around and the guy next to me looked quite angry. Loads of people then started to leave, presumably people that were just checking their multiple choice answers, so they could get out before the last 15 minutes. I also left and started talking to friends outside and it explained what had happened as none of them had the answer papers.

"If they turn around and say I cheated because they gave me the answers I’ll be fuming. So, what’s ended up happening is our whole exam is based on an essay that we had been given in the first week of term that most people had written and memorised in the past few days."

The course organiser sent out an email to all those who sat the exam, explaining the circumstances and apologising for what had happened.

They said: "We are aware that there was an issue with the Multiple Choice Section of your exam paper in the examination today. The Board of Examiners will be instructed to discount the MCQ section of the examination and your course mark will be calculated on your ICA marks and the Open Question from today's examination.

"The issue will be discussed at the Board of Examiners meeting. We apologise sincerely for any distressed caused and will be investigating the matter to ensure it does not happen again. Please contact the Course Organiser if you have any queries."

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