A HISTORY exam gaffe has left VCE organisers red-faced after a giant robot was depicted helping socialist revolutionaries almost 100 years ago.

The doctored artwork was wrongly printed in the exam for History: Revolutions which students sat this afternoon.

Instead of a cloud, a towering robot is pictured helping the fight in the Nikolai Kochergin artwork Storming the Winter Palace on 25th October 1917.

A Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority spokesman said the modified image was sourced from the internet.

''The image had been altered but will not impact on students answers in the examination,'' he said.

''The VCAA will monitor students’ answers to ensure that any student who may have been distracted by the image will not be disadvantaged.''

The error has already created a stir on social media.

''Hahaha... good one #VCAA. I always did say history was the most exciting subject,’’ one user tweeted.

It’s not the only error to tarnish end-of-year exams.

Last year a typo in the year 12 English exam questions slipped through the keeper while students at a private school in Melbourne's southeast were unable to complete their test because they were taught the wrong text.

Originally published as Error discovered in history VCE exam