The information superhighway has led pupils straight to the solution to part of their Higher maths investigation. Teachers warn that publishing such details electronically will put pupils with access to the Internet at an unfair advantage.
The Scottish Examination Board, however, says the information will be of little use as candidates must show how they worked out the answers. The investigation accounts for 10 per cent of the total marks.
More than 20,000 pupils who will take the test later this year will be given 10 days to research their answers and are free to discuss them with teachers and parents.
It is thought that the answers may may have been sent out by a student tutor as a joke.
Peter Kimber, depute chief executive of the SEB, said: “The information is useless unless you understand what you are doing. It doesn’t really matter whether you get the right answer or not. What we are testing is the methods the candidate uses to reach the solution.”
But Fred Forrester, depute general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, said: “If you have the correct answer you may be able to reconstruct the working. There is always going to be the doubt that a candidate may have had access to the Internet and it may have been helpful.
