It seems to be the trend in the layout of the Matsec exam papers to mislead our students when they are under pressure.

As rightly pointed out by Maryanne Cremona (The Sunday Times, May 20) in the Chemistry A-level Matsec paper it seems that the aim of the examiner was not to test students on their knowledgde of the subject, but to see how to catch them unawares.

The same thing happened in the Matsec O-level paper Business Studies Paper 1, for which students sat on April 26. Page 3 was nearly half blank and question number 7 was placed on the last page, when it could have easily fitted on Page 3 with space to spare.

Obviously under examination pressure, students could easily fail to notice that another question was printed on the back page when there was a large part of the previous page left blank. What a shrewd way to deprive our students of valuable marks in their exams!