By REBECCA WALSH education reporter
A second mistake in the School Certificate maths exam has accidentally placed Wanganui in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The Qualifications Authority says it is a geographical error, not a mathematical one, but it will accept two answers for the multiple-choice question.
The discovery follows yesterday's embarrassing revelation that all the multi-choice answers were wrong in question 19, on quadratic functions.
Qualifications Authority spokesman Bill Lennox said the mistakes would not disadvantage students. For the quadratic function question, all answers would be marked correct, making it possible for students to score 100 per cent in maths.
The authority was puzzled how the error got through its checks.
"Our concern is it was looked at by four people and none of them showed any concern about it."
Question 30, a multiple-choice question about longitude and latitude, had been found to include what he called a "geographical inaccuracy."
The question said Madrid in Spain and Wanganui were on opposite sides of the earth. It gave the coordinates for Madrid as 40 degrees north, five degrees east, which puts the Spanish capital in the Mediterranean Sea, just off Minorca.
Students were then asked the longitude and latitude of Wanganui. The answer the examiner intended was C, 40 degrees south and 175 degrees west, but the correct geographical coordinates for Madrid are 40 degrees north and five degrees west.
And the correct figures for Wanganui are 40 degrees south and 175 degrees east, answer A.
Mr Lennox said students who lived in Wanganui and knew the correct coordinates might have been confused. "It does not invalidate the question, but we are giving the benefit of the doubt to those using their general knowledge rather than their mathematics skills."
Markers would accept the right mathematical answer, based on the exam paper, and the right geographical answer.
He said the authority was disappointed that the paper was not 100 per cent precise but question 30 would not interfere with a test of mathematics - "It is not in the same category as question 19."
Wanganui Collegiate head Jonathan Hensman said he had not received any feedback but he doubted whether many students would know the right coordinates for Wanganui.
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