Picture this: you’re in an English Language A Level exam scribbling line after line about some poet or other. You take a deep breath, turn the page and guess whose face is staring back at you?


BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH.

The British actor was the subject of a question in yesterday’s AQA exam and – it’s fair to say – students were delighted to see him…

MY A LEVEL ENGLISH EXAM WAS ON BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH I NO JOKE WROTE ABOUT SHERLOCK IN MY EXAM IT WAS SO GREAT IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER — martini freeman ⚡️ (@buff4production) June 15, 2016

thanks to aqa for providing a motivational photo of benedict cumberbatch in that English language exam — Phoebe (@phobay123) June 15, 2016

Words can't describe how happy I was when I opened my English Language exam and saw Benedict Cumberbatch's face staring back at me — Ciaran (@Voldemoan) June 15, 2016

The question featured Benedict Cumberbatch’s biography and asked students to compare it with a much older text. An AQA spokesperson confirmed to RadioTimes.com: “We always try to make our exams engaging and relevant for students by including questions like this. It sounds like Benedict was really well-received, which is great to see.”

He certainly was, although some pupils appear to now know more about Mr Cumberbatch than English Language:

In the last year I've learnt more about Benedict Cumberbatch than I have A2 English Language — Cai Johnson (@CaiRJohnson) June 15, 2016

Learnt more about benedict cumberbatch today than I've ever learnt in English language #ENGB3 — Alice (@itsAlicex) June 15, 2016

HIs star sign is Cancer, in case you were wondering…

Interviewer: so you have an english language a-level? What did you learn?

Me: Benedict Cumberbatch's zodiac sign is cancer

#ENGB3 — harriet (@harrietkwood) June 15, 2016

May have potentially failed English Language but at least know Benedict Cumberbatch's zodiac sign — d (@deannabarberx) June 15, 2016

And of course there were those who struggled with the challenge of spelling out C-U-M-B-E-R-B-A-T-C-H over and over.

Can't believe I spelt Benedict Cumberbatch's name 'Cumberpatch' all the way through that English Language exam ? — Delene (@delene_adams) June 15, 2016


Fingers crossed Benedict Cumberbatch can add ‘helping English students achieve A* grades’ to his growing list of achievements.