One of England’s biggest exam boards has been urged to re-mark a question from its 2025 GCSE maths paper, after a complaint was upheld by exams regulator Ofqual.
The regulator found issues that “could result in teachers delivering incorrect information to students, creating disadvantage and inconsistency over time”.
However, while awarding body Cambridge OCR concedes in a letter to the complainant that there were “inconsistencies in our past materials”, it told Tes today that its marking scheme was based on “correct mathematics” and that it has “taken action” to ensure that the wording of any similar questions in the future is “completely clear”.
An online petition launched yesterday, which now has more than 1,000 signatures, details the complaint against OCR, while an accompanying blog post claims students have been “failed”.
Complaint over GCSE maths exams
In a letter to the complainant seen by Tes, dated 19 February, exams watchdog Ofqual says it has upheld a complaint against OCR.
The complainant – a maths teacher who spoke to Tes but asked to remain anonymous – had set out concerns about OCR’s investigation after highlighting issues with Question 6 in its foundation and higher-tier maths papers, which centred on the size of a fridge.
The teacher’s initial complaint to OCR over marking led to the same teacher then complaining to Ofqual about how their concerns had been handled by OCR.
Ofqual found three areas of “potential for non-compliance” in three separate criteria that the regulator expects to be met, including that “awarding organisations must provide written documents that set out clear criteria for differentiating learners’ attainment”.
Overall, Ofqual found: “The issues identified in the specification and mark schemes could result in teachers delivering incorrect information to students, creating disadvantage and inconsistency over time.”
Ofqual invited more evidence from OCR in order to inform its final determination, but the 19 February letter from the regulator states: “Having reviewed Cambridge OCR’s response, we have not found any evidence which would provide grounds for making further enquiries or amending our provisional decision, which remains unchanged.”
It advises that “Cambridge OCR has not met its obligations in meeting Ofqual’s rules”, and tells the complainant that “my decision is to uphold your complaint”.
OCR: Re-mark ‘not appropriate’
In a letter to the complainant dated 5 March, OCR apologises for “inconsistencies in our past materials”, but insists that there were “no errors” in Question 6 or its mark scheme.
OCR says in its letter that “a re-mark of this question would not be appropriate”.
The blog post accompanying the petition, in its interpretation of the Ofqual verdict, states that the regulator has found that OCR was “not wrong in some minor, technical, procedural sense” but “wrong in ways that go to the heart of what an exam board is supposed to do”.
The complainant says Cambridge OCR had a consistent method of marking questions in relation to “bounds” – in this case relating to the size of a fridge – but that this changed in 2025 with no prior mention to students.
According to the complainant’s blog, the fridge question was “one of the worst-performing” in the paper.
Today a spokesperson for Cambridge OCR told Tes: “The mark scheme for this question is based on the correct mathematics and consistent with comparable questions in past papers in 2024, 2019 and 2017.
“Our wording in some questions asking candidates to calculate ‘maximum/minimum possible values’ could be improved and we are grateful this has been raised.
“We have taken action to ensure the wording of any similar questions will be completely clear, as well as remaining mathematically accurate.”
The blog post on the petition – to which attention was drawn by London headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh on X yesterday – claims that there may be students resitting their GCSE this year who would not have needed to if they had received “the mark they were owed”.
An Ofqual spokesperson said: “We do not comment publicly on individual complaints.
“When Ofqual receives a complaint from a school or college, we investigate and notify the complainant of the outcome. Where appropriate, the relevant awarding organisation is also informed.”
In July 2025, when questioned by Tes, Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham stated that all exam paper errors are “unacceptable”.
Sir Ian was speaking after Tes revealed that OCR had apologised to all students and teachers affected by errors in its A-level physics papers. Subject experts said the papers contained too many mistakes and could have “serious detrimental effects” on students’ futures.
