In a matter of hours the hashtag '#Edexcelmaths' was trending on Twitter; outraged GCSE maths students took to Twitter to vent their anger at the "impossible" question on their GCSE maths paper. 

Only hours later, national newspapers and national TV news were running similar reports along the lines of: 

"Student protest against 'unfair' GCSE maths question" - The Guardian Online

"GCSE maths students vent fury over exam question about sweets they claim was 'too hard'" - The Mirror Online

"Hannah's sweets solution: the GCSE question that stumped Britain's students" - The Independent Online

"Hannah's sweets: the solution to THAT super-hard GCSE maths question" - The Student Room 

The reality? This question was difficult. However, it was fully within the Edexcel GCSE Specification, and approved by Ofqual (who routinely reject exam questions deemed to be outside of an exam board's specification).

Overall the 'difficult' part of this question was just three (3) marks out of a 100 mark paper. 

Controversially this has inspired an online petition asking Edexcel to lower the grade boundaries for this exam, as students were faced by an 'impossible' question. What is truly worrying is that these students clearly do not understand the exam system! 

Exam boards mark all papers before they set any boundaries; statistical analysis is then used to deem what becomes an A* through to F  using a system called the uniform mark scale (UMS). It is ultimately UMS points that decide a candidate's overall grade. 

In reality what this means is that on a paper where, on average' students have performed more poorly less raw marks (marks from the paper) are still worth the top grade - this is 'lower' grade boundaries that people want. By contrast on an easier paper, candidates will have to score more marks to achieve the highest UMS points. 

This petition to request that Edexcel lowers its grade boundaries will have no affect. If all candidates have truly performed poorly then the UMS grade boundaries will reflect this. Candidates seem to be using this one question as a scape goat for their worries about their maths GCSE. If people deserve, and work at, an A* then they will achieve one. 

Therefore it is critical that students are taught how the Uniform Marking Scale works, so that they understand how their results are calculated. People are now worrying unnecessarily. 

If students had been taught about the UMS system before their GCSEs, all this anxiousness and worry could have been prevented. 

We are calling the Department for Education to make it mandatory that students, before sitting GCSE exams, must be informed of the Uniform Marking Scale, and how it makes exams as fair as possible.