The State Examinations Commission has admitted that a question on the Leaving Cert higher-level chemistry paper had not been covered in the syllabus.
Students who answered the question will not be disadvantaged in any way, the commissions said. The admission is embarrassing for the commission which has also been criticised for mistakes and/or misprints on maths, biology and Irish papers.
The question is worth a maximum of 18 points out of a potential 400 in the exam.
Students who answered the question will be marked out of 382 (400-18) and given a percentage score on this basis. More than 6,400 students took the exam.
In a statement last night the commission said: "Following representations, it has been established that part of question 2, part (e), of yesterday's higher-level paper in the Leaving Certificate chemistry examination as set was, through error, not within the ambit of the published syllabus of the subject. This is regretted."
The commission operates on the principle that candidates cannot be disadvantaged over an issue outside their control, it said. "The marking scheme for this subject will be developed by the chief examiner and team of examiners and will be adapted to ensure that any candidate who attempted this question is not disadvantaged."
The statement continued: "The marking scheme will, as usual, be published along with those in all other subjects in advance of the viewing of scripts later in the year. In that way examination candidates who view their scripts will have the opportunity to see, at first hand, how the finalised marking scheme applied in their own case. Candidates have the option of appealing their results."
