Pedian Qualifications Authority

The Pedian Qualifications Authority (PQA) is an organisation that awards exam-based qualifications in Pedia. Its exams are notably taken by nearly every school leaver and college student in the country. Many people hate it for changing its exam specifications every two years, employing markers who award the wrong grades, and organising the notoriously stressful PRATs tests for primary school pupils; these were abolished after protests were held all over Pedia in May 2015.
== School leavers' exams ==
The PQA's school leavers' exams are typically taken by Pedian students in their sixth year of high school (age 17-18). They are designed to be rather rigorous and are often reformed to serve this purpose; the last reform occurred in 2016.
Students sit the exams throughout June, and results are received on the third Thursday of August. Exams are graded A, B, C, D or F under the current system, with grade C or above considered a pass. An E grade was also available until 2008, when it was scrapped to raise standards and due to it not being widely viewed as worth more than an F by universities and colleges.
=== School leavers' exam subjects ===
For the PQA's school leavers' exams, students take six compulsory subjects (Mathematics, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Physical Education) as well as up to four additional subjects of their choice. All the available subjects are listed below:
*Art
*Biology
*Business Studies
*Chemistry
*Design and Technology
*English
*French
*Geography
*German
*History
*Home Economics
*ICT
*Mathematics
*Music
*Pedian
*Perfoming Arts
*Physical Education
*Physics
*Religious Studies
*Spanish
=== Exam paper errors ===
Since the most recent reform of the PQA's school leavers' exams in 2016, many papers have contained typos and poorly worded questions, leading furious students to start online petitions for the PQA to lower the grade boundaries as a result of these errors. Every petition so far has not been successful.
==== Errors in 2017 ====
*On a Mathematics paper, 'hippopotamus' was mistakenly printed instead of 'hypotenuse' - the error became a short-lived internet meme.
*A Biology paper was criticised by students and teachers for containing eight typos. In one question the chemical formula for glucose was also incorrectly given as CH2O.
*All the questions in a section of an English paper were unanswerable due to the wrong reading text being printed in it. The following week students took a revised version of the exam, which included the relevant text.
*A Physics paper became controversial amongst students and teachers for being too difficult. Some questions were vague and several typos were seen.
*Every copy of a Religious Studies paper had several pages missing.
Category:Miscellaneous