Students sitting important exams next month are being told they'll have to take the tests at 6 a.m. due to strict new conditions to combat international cheating.

The punishing start time is likely to affect pupils at Bermuda High School for Girls, Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy, thanks to the decision by England's biggest exam board, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance. The AQA is insisting that students on the Island taking its English language, English literature, business studies and science General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) papers do so at the same time as their counterparts in the UK.

Schools here have been told the new rules are due to modern technology and the increased risk of British students texting or emailing exam information to students in other countries.

Bermuda is four hours behind Britain, where morning exams start at the more reasonable time of 9 a.m. Students are allowed to leave after 30 minutes, meaning their first opportunity to help others cheat would be after 9.30 a.m. or 5.30 a.m. Bermuda time.

A Ministry of Education spokesman said getting students into school at that hour would pose a challenge and attempts were being made with AQA to negotiate a later start time.

"The Ministry is cognizant of the different time zones," he said. "Bermuda falls into a time that's very early. Make no mistake about it, they (AQA) set it and we are working with them in the hope that by the time the testing comes around we can have adjusted it."

BHS has already written to parents to say girls taking AQA exams have to be in school and under supervision by 5.30 a.m. to start the exam at 6 a.m.

Linda Parker, head of school at BHS, told The Royal Gazette the decision had caused a "major headache" and would mean students at the far ends of the Island having to set their alarms for 4.30 a.m.

"It is not in the best interests of the students," she said. "We are worried in that we are going to be putting a letter in with each exam to let the marker know that the students have been asked to get up at 4.30 a.m. in the morning.

"We are pretty certain it's going to have an effect on them. It's really not good but AQA is stating that if we do not comply with this then our students' exam results are forfeit so we don't have a choice."

She said notice of the start times had come so late that changing exam boards was not an option for this year. But the private school will be looking at other exam boards offering GCSEs in those subjects for 2009. Six exams at BHS — the first on May 20 — will start at 6 a.m. and almost 50 students will sit the English and science papers, with less taking business studies.

"We are going to give them some sugar at 5.30 a.m. and endeavour to wake them up," said Mrs. Parker. "We have had some parents that have offered to organise juice and a muffin. The thing is the children are going to be nervous before they go in there; to add this to it, it's not ideal, by any stretch."

Mrs. Parker said some parents had queried why the UK couldn't adopt later starting times to accommodate the Island. "It might be a hundred (students) in Bermuda and hundreds of thousands in the UK," she said. "We are just guests taking these exams from another country."

She added that though she understood AQA's stance she thought the prospect of international cheating was unlikely. Large numbers of students at the Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy will be affected if the Ministry cannot negotiate with AQA.

Berkeley principal Michelle Simmons said the school was working on a solution. "We are trying to resolve it," she said.

Another English board, Edexcel, is insisting that some exams start at 8 a.m. The three schools already mentioned plus Warwick Academy and Saltus Grammar School will be affected by this.

* Are you the parent of a child affected by the AQA decision who wants to have their say? Call 278-0137 or 0133 or email news@royalgazette.bm.