TEENAGER Charlene Haycock has dropped two AS-levels after discovering her exam timetable involved sitting seven papers in three subjects on one day.

“It was absolutely ludicrous,” said the 17-year-old at Lutterworth school, Leicestershire. “If I had had just two subjects on one day, it would have been a lot of work, but I would have been able to cope. But three is mindblowing - I couldn’t begin to think about it.”

Her plight highlights the problem facing thousands of pupils as schools brace themselves for a second year of exam clashes.

The timetabling problems are the result of trying to squeeze more than 2,000 AS, A-level, GCSE and vocational exams into 60 slots over the next six weeks. Students at one school will sit exams until 9pm to allow time for all the papers.

After the Government’s inquiry into the chaos of last year, exam boards brought in changes such as grouping together papers in the same subject.

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority chairman Sir William Stubbs said he was confident this year’s exam season would not be a repeat of last year’s fiasco. But he did admit that the exam boards were struggling to find markers.

Once again pupils face overnight stays at teachers’ homes, being “quarantined” so they cannot cheat, and evening exams.

Charlene was told she would have to sit the exams over two days, with an overnight stay at a teacher’s house but that did not appeal. “I would worry that I was in the way, and wouldn’t be able to relax,” she said. Now instead of chemistry, physics, history and accounts, Charlene will sit just the latter two.

“I’m not sure who to be upset with: whether it’s my fault for choosing unusual subjects - which it shouldn’t be - or the exam boards for not getting it right,” she said.

Heads across the country are reporting similar problems. Colchester sixth form college has 300 clashes and 16 potential overnight stays - all except four pupils have opted for evening exams, finishing around 6.15pm.

Phil Harland, vice-principal of Luton sixth-form college, has chosen to avoid overnight supervision by offering three daily sittings, finishing at 9pm. At Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I college, Leicester, 400 students were quarantined for three hours last year after almost 100 clashes. This year there will be 200 quarantined.

David Pearmain, head of Kenton school in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said the mixture of academic and vocational qualifications had increased difficulties. He said: “Some GNVQ part-courses have been timetabled at the same time as English and maths GCSE exams. It’s clearly bad planning. The one thing you don’t do is timetable anything to coincide with English or maths GCSE.”

John Milner, of the Joint Council for General Qualifications, the umbrella body for exam boards, said: “Exams have to begin as late as possible, to allow maximum time for teaching. We also need sufficient time to mark scripts. These are the two points of pressure.”

Sir William told MPs this week that AS results would be sent out earlier to reduce the scramble for university places. He also said that grades were rising because the modular system made learning more effective.

News, 9; Opinion, 23