Mt Albert Grammar students prepare for the start of their English exam yesterday. Photo / Greg Bowker
Two completely different answers to the same calculus question will both be marked as correct after an error was printed in the formula sheet supplied to senior students sitting an exam yesterday.
It was one of two errors identified to date in this year's NCEA exams.
In the
Level 3 Calculus exam, brackets were inadvertently missing in the supplied simpson's and trapezium rules.
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority said students who correctly used the information from the question and applied the formula given on the sheet would be given credit.
Students who realised the brackets were missing and applied the correct formula would also get the tick.
A spokeswoman said the two answers would be "completely different" and students would have to show their workings.
The other error was printed in a Level 3 Biology exam, held on Monday.
The question related to the pattern of movement of crab larvae and was accompanied by a graph that indicated the time between tides was about 12 hours - not the real life 12.4 hours.
NZQA said it was not expected to have a "significant impact" on students' answers and markers would be made aware of the problem before answers were checked.
By yesterday morning, 43 exam papers had been sat.
NZQA deputy chief executive qualifications Bali Haque said exam papers were checked multiple times but occasionally errors appeared.
"We want to be clear that where an error occurs in an exam paper, candidates will not be disadvantaged," he said.
Secondary Principals Association president Peter Gall said he was confident the system was of high quality.
"Any error is regrettable," said Mr Gall. "In terms of the scale of things, we are talking a very low rate."
Last year, two errors were identified for NZQA entire NCEA exam season, while there were three in both 2006 and 2005.
In 2006, a Level 2 Maths exam sat by 30,600 students contained a graph in which the x and y axes were accidentally swapped.
TODAY
* Morning: Level 1 German, Level 2 English, Level 3 German, Scholarship Chinese
* Afternoon: Level 1 Human biology, Level 2 German, Level 3 English
