Abitur Biology exam breaks down and 3,000 students now have a choice

The original article requires translation.

2,990 of the around 9,900 high school graduates in Hamburg were affected. School children and parents reported to NDR 90.3 that after about half of the five-hour exam it became clear that there were errors in the biology exam. As the school authorities announced on Tuesday, there were faulty graphics in the tasks that are said to have arisen when converting "Word" into "pdf" files. "We very much regret that there have been serious mistakes here," said authority spokesman Peter Albrecht.

Exam was extended

In order to accommodate the students, the authorities said they had made it possible to extend working hours by 30 minutes while the exam was still taking place. Alternatively, it was offered to break off the exam and to write a new one later.

The adjustment of what is actually the centrally prescribed assessment standard should now be carried out by the individual schools themselves. The teachers should include the respective exam situations. Individual schools are said to have reported considerable irritation from their students, while others reported a calm and calm examination process.

Decision by Friday

"We regret the mistakes and we will check how this can be avoided in the future," said the spokesman for the school board. The repeat appointment should take place in three weeks. The decision whether they want to repeat the examination or prefer a milder assessment of the submitted tasks must be made by the high school graduates by Friday.