Much more worrying is that the real magazine article also expands that the student must “use commercial software”. Commercial relates to buying and selling and as such would preclude any submissions using open source. What a nonsense.

Hopefully the Edexcel markers can use discretion.

I remember one question asked for three advantages of using a floppy disk over a CD. One of the answers they did NOT accept was that the floppy was less liable to damage by scratching. By mate offered to conduct a test by using the sharp end of his compass on both and seeing which was better off afterwards. They had a point that floppy disks are pretty vulnerable but still, poor quality questions were rife.