Bolshevik robots, riot cops and fail Caesars – a history of Australia’s epic year 12 exam blunders

Remember how a 30m-tall battle robot joined the Russian Revolution in 1917? That was a history exam lowlight – but it’s far from the only fiasco to send year 12s into meltdown.

Bolshevik robot bungles, fail Caesars, tech glitches, riot responses and elaborate hoaxes.

Exams are the most stressful moment in a teenager’s short life, but these epic and extremely ill-timed exam bungles made it an even more anxiety-ridden experience.

Here’s a look back at the inexplicable exam errors that deserve a grade of F – for fiasco.

Storming the Winter Palace

Who could forget the 30m tall comrade robot who helped the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace in 1917?

The dramatic event came at the crescendo of the 1917 October Revolution, but was reimagined in the 2012 VCE History Revolutions exam to include a giant robot.

The image below was apparently sourced from the internet and included in the exam – it was a doctored version of a famous Russian artwork that added the giant robot at top left.

Nearly 6000 students sat the exam, leading to one of many apologies from the Victorian exam authority, the VCAA.

A year earlier, VCAA had apologised to Melbourne writer Helen Razer for a clumsy copy of her column in the 2011 VCE English exam, used without publishing rights or attribution.

The lazy imitation even used Ms Razer’s first name for the plagiarism — calling the author ‘Helen Day’.

The Supreme Automaton of the Proletariat storming the Winter Palace in 1917, as per the 2012 VCE exam’s version of history. Picture: Smithsonian

Biology hoax

A “well-crafted” hoax letter imitating SACE, the South Australian exam body, caused a stir when it claimed thousands of students would have to resit their exams.

The letter, using a SACE Board letterhead, claimed there was a “significant breach in the integrity” of the 2017 SACE Biology exam sat by 3645 students, and they would have to resit it.

SACE responded urgently, but not before a social media storm had erupted.

Tech glitch locks out thousands

Three years later, SACE had a real exam error, when the 2020 SACE psychology exam was abandoned midway through due to a “technical failure”.

Close to 3000 students sitting the exam online experienced the crash, with students bursting into tears. 

They were ultimately let off the hook with a derived score used instead of the exam.

Riot response

Though not ATAR related, the chaos of thousands of students sitting their selective school entrance exams triggered a riot response in May this year.

Parents and students in Randwick, Canterbury and Sydney Olympic Park caused chaos in May this year.

Police were deployed and exams were rescheduled for 20,000 students, prompting a sweeping review by authorities. 

Police were called to Canterbury Park racecourse to control a crowd of 2600 after children were trying to get in and out of exams earlier this year, with some parents reported to be “out of control”.

Cheat sheet leak

A series of embarrassing failures by Victoria’s exam authority culminated in the 2024 VCE cheat sheet scandal, which resulted in heads rolling and students reeling. 

The VCAA accidentally leaked its own exam papers on its website, with the cheat sheet fiasco affecting 65 out of 74 common exams sat by thousands of students.

The Herald Sun broke the initial story, later revealing the FUBAR cost taxpayers $800,000.

A damning review of the VCAA was released this year, finding a “culture of fear” plagued the organisation.

Tens of thousands of students were affected by the 2024 debacle. Picture: Jason Edwards

Fail Caesar

The biggest blunder of 2025 – and perhaps one of the most spectacular in this list – was the Queensland 2025 QCAA ancient history exam.

Nine schools taught at least 140 students the wrong topic, and the shocking mistake was only exposed days before they were meant to sit the exam.

The topic for ancient history in 2024 was Caesar Augustus – but it was changed to Julius Caesar for the class of 2025. Somehow, these students spent an entire year learning the wrong topic.

The blunder made international headlines, but it was felt most acutely by the students sitting it.

One of whom spoke out, fearing his dreams of becoming a doctor had been ruined by Caesar. Hopefully, for him, all roads lead to ... a medical degree.

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Originally published as Bolshevik robots, riot cops and fail Caesars – a history of Australia’s epic year 12 exam blunders