The cafe's hard-earned Google rating has dropped from 5 to 3.5 stars, with students frustrated at the odd, "peak Melbourne" exam question. Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: During the exam, students were asked to analyse a scathing review of the Calmer Coffee cafe by a fictional man who also shares the same surname as the Aberfeldie cafe's manager. The fictional Jonty Jenkins took aim at the cafe’s “exhaustive list of frappes, soy and almond milks”, a “tablet-wielding” employee with a man bun, and its bland, burnt coffee. Referencing this section of the exam, Year 12 students have left blistering online reviews about the real cafe, saying "some ignoramus with a man bun served me the most disgusting coffee" and “absolutely no table service".

Ms Jenkins pleaded with students to stop leaving the reviews. "I'm shaking from head to foot," she said. "We are a small business and these reviews mean a lot." She said the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority should have done more research before referencing a cafe with a similar name in the exam, which was sat by more than 43,000 students. While the Calmer Cafe in Aberfeldie serves avocado on toast, Ms Jenkins wouldn’t describe it as hipster. “We are more vintage, retro,” she says.

And unlike the fictional cafe in the VCE exam, there are no employees with man buns. Ms Jenkins says Year 12 students should visit her cafe before posting negative reviews. Attempting to capitalise on its VCE fame, the cafe is now offering a free coffee to every Year 12 student who presents their student ID and mentions "that exam question". “Come in and see how nice our coffee is and our staff instead of going online and slamming us.” "I'm just grateful that I know our loyal customers know the reviews are not true," she said. A VCAA spokesman apologised for the inadvertent similarities in the business names that led to the prank negative reviews.

"The VCAA has been in contact with Calmer Cafe management and understands the posts have caused the business considerable effort and inconvenience," he said. He said the authority had checked and confirmed there was no registered business name Calmer Coffee prior to the exam. It has also offered to help the cafe remove the online posts. A question from this year's VCE English exam.

Loading English is the most popular VCE exam and considered one of the most nerve-racking, because it is the only compulsory subject and a prerequisite for many university courses. It kicks off the VCE exam period for many students and is divided into three sections – an analytical interpretation of a text, a comparative analysis of two texts and an analysis of how argument and language are used in an unseen text. Victorian Association for the Teaching of English president Emily Frawley said Section C did not offer students scope for much more than a tokenistic engagement with the world around them. While it was accessible to all students, it offered little depth for sophisticated, high level responses, she said.

“Stronger students may have picked up on the attack on consumerism and the hipster dig about the tablet-wielding employee with a man bun, as well as the cranes in the background of the cartoon signalling the author’s fear about development,” she said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video They might have also picked up the fountain pen that the old-fashioned author used, the dates above the heritage buildings in the shopping strip and the frowning elderly woman using the walker who perhaps symbolised a generation alienated by the flash new cafe. A big plate of brownies, baked by English teacher Katrina Ketsakidis, greeted Auburn High School students as they filed out of the exam room after the gruelling test. Year 12 student Jack Nolch said he would have preferred to analyse an issue that had more substance.

“I found it a little weird,” he said. “I wrote about how the cafe represented a progressive culture in a traditional town.” Year 12 students at Auburn High finish their VCE English exam on Wednesday. Credit:Joe Armao Ms Ketsakidis, who woke up at 4am to bake the chocolate slice for her hard-working students, said the exam was fair and accessible. “There is a lot of love, care and time that goes into this,” she said.

Loading “If the questions looks hard, work it, you you’ll always find a way in.” But she said unlike previous years, there was only one print text presented in Section C. In previous years, students have been given two texts to compare. “This may throw a few people,” she said. Her student Stidworthy Dube said he was relieved that the exam was over.

“It was quite daunting at first,” he said. He wrote about Euripides’ Medea, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus and David Malouf’s Ransom in Section A and B of the test and said he found the prompts relatively straightforward. His classmates Krystina and Keziah said they did 10 practice exams in preparation for the test, but still found it overwhelming. "We were prepared but the whole thing was unexpected," Keziah said. At Oakleigh Grammar, Tomas Smith was feeling relieved.

The 17-year-old had tried to prepare for every type of question by studying old exam papers and using flash cards and memory games. "The questions were not too tough; they were pretty fair,” he said. He wrote about Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, and chose a challenging question in the hope it would give him an edge over other students. Christina Gougoussis, 18, said she felt in shock that the exam was over. “You can’t do much more now and you’re just anticipating the results.” “I was pretty calm and collected. I felt like I studied pretty hard for English. I felt, if I study a lot, then surely I’ll get through any prompt I get.”