Frustration at challenging riddle is trending on Twitter as online petition calls on exam board to change grading on ‘impossible’ test

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A challenging GCSE maths question has left students so confused and angry that they are calling on the exam board to lower its grade boundaries.

The conundrum, set by Edexcel, involves a girl called Hannah, her bag of sweets and a perplexing equation:

How to solve the maths GCSE question about Hannah's sweets that went viral Read more

There are n sweets in a bag. Six of the sweets are orange. The rest of the sweets are yellow. Hannah takes a random sweet from the bag. She eats the sweet. Hannah then takes at random another sweet from the bag. She eats the sweet. The probability that Hannah eats two orange sweets is 1/3. Show that n²-n-90=0.

Some pupils were so stumped they vented their frustration on Twitter.

Jessie ✌️ (@X_Jessie_OX) I hope i never get another question on sweets in a maths paper again! #EdexcelMaths

annnss (@ani_mills) Hannah has 6 yellow sweets, prove that this is n2-n-90=0. You wottttttt, where did that even come from?!! #EdexcelMaths

An online petition has been set up calling on the exam board to lower the grade boundaries.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Petition set up on change.org calling for grade boundaries to be lowered following challenging GCSE maths exam. Photograph: Change.org

The student behind the petition explained why the boundaries should be lowered.

Thousands of young people who sat the exam today found the paper disastrously hard and especially unfair considering how reasonable papers were during the previous years. This isn’t due to lack of effort but due to the extent of sheer difficulty in the paper. Fair enough, the first half was all right, however, [from] there on it goes quite downhill, proving impossible even for the most able students.

#EdexcelMaths has started trending on Twitter as students and others expressed their dislike for poor Hannah and her sweets with increasing hilarity.

holly (@ahhholly) me on hannah's sweets question #EdexcelMaths pic.twitter.com/lY9MjH3Tft

Niamh Hinchcliffe (@Niamheenoodles) Prove that n2-n-90=0 #EdexcelMaths pic.twitter.com/DvaXr9oFSL

Cameron (@CamMcGowan10) Hannah ate all the sweets, find how N2-N-90=0 #EdexcelMaths http://t.co/rrlScUVt39

Jigglypuff (@Kellinpenquinn) Why Hannah why do you have to have them sweets #EdexcelMaths pic.twitter.com/JPWhbQ6kuM

Others took exception to the entire second half of the exam paper.



Stuart Leslie (@StuartpjLeslie5) The #EdexcelMaths c2 and GCSE exams hardest things to ever hit the human race pic.twitter.com/pM0nrjtRS6

Chad (@Jxgielka) First half of the paper compared to the second half #EdexcelMaths pic.twitter.com/ljqhwgaPWS

Some were not fazed by the question in the slightest.

Rose (@RoseJanexx) The answer for the Hannah's sweets question #EdexcelMaths pic.twitter.com/7oBQFApIdp

Pearson, owner of Edexcel, said its marking and grading process reflects the difficulty of the exam question. A spokesman said: