The two complaints (The Sunday Times, May 20) on the A-level Chemistry Paper II examination may have given the impression that candidates were disadvantaged because of the layout of the paper and because the booklet they were given did not have a copy of the Periodic Table.

Regarding layout, it must be pointed out that students who sit for the A-level Chemistry examination are well aware of the structure of Paper II since it is clearly indicated in the syllabus and in the examination papers of the past 25 years or so.

For information, Paper II consists of two sections, each with four questions printed on six pages. Candidates are expected to answer two questions from each section and any other question. Each page is indicated as 'Page 1 of 6', 'Page 2 of 6', and so on until 'Page 6 of 6'; the last two pages are blank. This year, the space at the bottom of Page 5 was not enough to take the whole of question 8, so this question was set on Page 6.

Regarding the Periodic Table, candidates were not required to demonstrate their knowledge of the Periodic Table in any of the questions in Paper II. All the necessary data for working out the questions were given in the paper, as usual.

Questions requiring some knowledge of the Periodic Table were set in Paper I, and no copy of the table was given, as specified in the syllabus.