Two emperors, two memos and the colossal mistake that upended Queensland’s exam season

It’s Monday, the first day of external exams for Year 12 students in Queensland, when a message is sent to parents at one of Brisbane’s most in-demand and prestigious state high schools.

It says two classes of ancient history students at Brisbane State High School, a 3500-student school which admits one-third of its cohort via selective entry, were taught the wrong topic.

They studied the Roman emperor Augustus instead of his great-uncle Julius Caesar.

The exam is on Wednesday afternoon, and the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) cannot write a new exam about Augustus, so students have two days to cram – between sitting their English test on Tuesday morning – and an application for special consideration will be made.

By Tuesday morning, news of the exam bungle at State High made the headlines, and this masthead asked the assessment authority if there were any other instances of students being taught the wrong topic for an external exam this year.

At 9.54am, the QCAA responded and ensured there were “no other instances”. But it soon became clear this was not an isolated incident.

After checking with the 172 Queensland schools which offered ancient history, by Wednesday morning QCAA found nine schools, including state, independent and Catholic fell victim to the stuff-up, affecting 140 students.

Six of the nine schools have more than 1000 students enrolled, and two have more than 800.

Families at Yeronga State High School found out Tuesday afternoon, just 24 hours before the test, their ancient history students learnt the wrong topic.

“With multiple schools being impacted, I don’t think this is only schools at fault,” one parent said.

“There is clearly some poor communicating going on.”

The debacle has raised questions about how the mistake could have been missed at so many schools until just days before the crucial Year 12 test, worth 25 per cent of the subject’s final result.

And it came amid revelations a parent warned the education department’s Metropolitan South region of the exact issue at Rochedale State High School two months ago.

A parent told this masthead Rochedale students learned Augustus for several weeks before switching to Julius Caesar in August, and he complained the school did not transparently explain or own up to the mistake.

“The students felt like they wasted several weeks learning the wrong material,” he said.

Unhappy with the school’s response, he emailed the Metropolitan South regional director on August 23.

The regional acting director of education services replied on October 17, encouraging the parent to discuss his concerns further with the school principal.

Despite the issue being uncovered at Rochedale State High School two months ago, and flagged with departmental officials, it appears there were no attempts to investigate the cause of the mix-up and ensure other schools had not also taught the wrong topic.

The education minister’s office confirmed the parent’s concerns were not escalated beyond the education department’s Metropolitan South regional office.

An education department spokeswoman said external exam processes at all schools would be included in the examination of the ancient history incident.

How did so many schools get it wrong?

The mix-up appears to be at least partly sparked by the QCAA’s decision to change the external exam topic in the final year of the 2019 syllabus from Augustus to Julius Caesar, after Augustus was the selected topic for several years.

The ancient history syllabus 2019 states QCAA will nominate one topic for the external assessment, known as unit four, at least 12 months in advance, which could be Thutmose III, Rameses II, Themistokles, Alkibiades, Scipio Africanus, Julius Caesar or Augustus.

Augustus, topic 12, was the topic for the Year 12 ancient history external exam every year from 2020 to 2024 under the QCAA’s general senior syllabus 2019.

However, in 2025, the external assessment topic changed to Julius Caesar, topic 11, still from the 2019 syllabus.

The Julius Caesar topic choice was listed in QCAA memos published on August 30, 2023 and April 17, 2024, both of which are still available online.

While ancient history changed the external exam topic this year, the modern history external assessment topic remained the same in 2024 and 2025 under the 2019 syllabus – “Australian engagement with Asia since 1945 (World War II in the Pacific ends). Aspect of the topic: Australia and the Vietnam War.”

Next year, the 2025 syllabus will kick in for Year 12, and the ancient history external exam will test students on topic two: Julius Caesar or Cleopatra.

QCAA acting chief executive officer Claude Jones said schools were notified of the topic for the ancient history external exam more than 12 months in advance, via memos, syllabus resources, e-newsletters and at webinars and face-to-face workshops for heads of department and subject teachers.

History education lecturer Alison Bedford said teachers on the Queensland History Teachers’ Association and other history teaching social media pages have been sharing resources and discussing approaches to the new external assessment focus on Julius Caesar.

What happens now?

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said he did not support forcing 140 students, who were taught the incorrect topic, to sit the ancient history test on Wednesday afternoon.

“I would not expect any student to do an exam after they’ve received lectures or information about something that they’ve had two days’ notice for,” he said.

All schools involved will submit an “illness and misadventure application” so that special consideration could be applied when their students’ results were finalised.

This will involve providing leniency for affected students, and calculating a result for the test based on their past individual and cohort exam results if they perform poorly in Wednesday afternoon’s test.

If the students perform better on exams than the result calculated by the QCAA, they will be allowed to take the higher result.

Langbroek told Parliament on Wednesday afternoon the QCAA had advised there was “leniency for students to sit the test out”.

Asked about a parent from Rochedale State High School emailing the department in August at a press conference in Milton on Wednesday morning, Langbroek said he would investigate.

“A complaint like that, [of] which we receive hundreds or thousands over the month about different issues in schools … it’s important to go and speak to principals and go and speak to the relevant authorities,” he said.

Langbroek said the department was investigating whether QCAA had sufficiently warned schools of the curriculum change.

Jones, from the QCAA, said the body would implement further strategies to stop the mistake happening again.

“This includes making the exam topic more prominent on the QCAA and myQCE websites, listing it in the exam timetable published in May, and seeking confirmation that schools are teaching the correct topic,” he said.

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