An exam board which confused GCSE students by getting a question about one of the most famous plays in the world wrong has been fined £175,000.

Thousands of English Literature students were left to face an unanswerable question on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in May last year.

A question in an OCR English literature GCSE paper, confused the two warring families - the Capulets and the Montagues - in the famous tragedy about two star-crossed lovers.

Candidates were asked: "How does Shakespeare present the ways in which Tybalt's hatred of the Capulets influences the outcome of the play?"

But Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and a Capulet, so the question should have referred to his hatred of the Montagues.

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At the time Brighton College headteacher Richard Cairns, headmaster of Brighton College said: "It beggars belief that these things are not checked properly."

And Chesterton Community College in Cambridge's headteacher Lucy Scott told the Cambridge News : "Anybody who has read Romeo and Juliet will know that Tybalt is a Capulet. He doesn't hate the Capulets, he hates the Monatgues."

Speaking of her students she added: "They are 16. They've been in education since the age of four, and this is the culmination of their education.

"If we can't get a question right, I think that's appalling."

England's exams regulator Ofqual has now announced it intends to impose a hefty financial penalty of £175,000 on OCR, saying that the error in the question meant that the content of the exam paper was "not fit for purpose".

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An OCR spokeswoman said that the exam board would like to apologise to students, teachers and parents again, adding that it has revised its check system with the aim of "improving the quality of our question papers".

A total of 14,261 students sat the exam paper and of these 4,000 to 5,000 students answered questions on the play - split half and half between the two questions, according to Ofqual's investigation.

The mistake was made during the setting of the paper and was not picked up during checks.

The watchdog concludes that "by reason of the error affecting question 4, OCR failed to ensure the content of the paper 2 assessment it set for GCSE English literature in 2017 was fit for purpose".

It said the board's failings in this case are likely to have a "serious adverse impact on public confidence in qualifications", particularly because the error happened during the first year that new GCSEs were being examined.

Ofqual also said that while OCR had acted to mitigate the situation, 2,735 candidates had been awarded a result which had been calculated based on their performance in other GCSE English literature questions because they had performed less well in relation to the Romeo and Juliet questions.

And 2,919 students who answered a Romeo and Juliet question were given the examiner's mark because this was higher than a calculated mark would have been.

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An OCR spokeswoman said: "We would like to apologise again to students, teachers and parents for the error last year which led to regulatory action. We want to reduce the chance of errors like this happening in the future.

"We have revised our system of checks, based on extensive research, with the aim of improving the quality of our question papers."

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The board has until July 16 to make representations on Ofqual's decision to fine, and then a final decision will be made.

It is understood OCR will not contest the fine.