The eighth question was placed in a very misleading position in the Chemistry 'A' Level exam paper II for the May session 2007.

Whereas in Section A the questions were placed one after the other without leaving any space on any particular page between one question and an-other, Section B was not laid out in the same way. The seventh question in Section B took less than half the page; the rest of the page was left blank with no indication that there was another question on the next page.

One might argue that the seventh question was placed on "Page 5 of 6". But this did not necessarily mean that there was a question on the last page marked "Page 6 of 6". Also, Section B was not laid out on a fresh page but it started with the fifth question with only six lines at the bottom of "Page 3 of 6".

Under examination conditions, there was too much space beneath Question 7 for the student to notice that another question was on the next page.

Secondly, are we testing students to read between the lines or to try to figure out misleading paper layouts, or are we testing them on their knowledge of a subject?

Examination papers should be paged with a readable, unequivocal layout, like papers of foreign examination boards.