Students at Horsforth School had their university places threatened after a blunder by beleaguered exam board Edexcel.

Many of the A Level English Literature students are facing an agonising wait to confirm for definite their places at university.

The 13 teenagers have had to wait for a week to get their papers remarked after receiving grades that were much lower than had been expected.

Exam board Edexcel has said that the mistake was due to an examiner who had marked too severely.

Teachers and students alike battled to keep university places open - but most universities said they had to offer the places to somebody who had their grades.

Pupil Caroline Galvin, 18, was among the teenagers who faced losing her place at Newcastle University, and she still isn't sure that everything is resolved.

"I was stunned because I had expected to get what I needed for university and when the mark was a lot lower than I had thought. I didn't know what to do.

"I rang the university and they told me I had lost my place because there were other students who had their grades confirmed.

"I am so angry with the mistake and I feel like Edexcel should be stripped of the exam board status."

Miss Galvin had done well on all of her English Literature course modules apart from the last one.

She was told she had achieved 29 out of 120 on the final exam, which gave her a U - unclassified - grade, which meant her final grade was not good enough for her first choice university.

"Fortunately after the re-mark the university was legally bound to accept me, but I still feel completely stressed because I've not heard from the university since and I'm nowhere near sorted," said Miss Galvin, from Mavis Lane, Cookridge.

She added that her friends had arranged their university accommodation, but she hadn't been able to finalise the details.

"It's three weeks to go until I start at university but I feel so unhappy because nothing is arranged.

"I feel tired from the whole ordeal and I am looking forward to the situation being resolved."

Teachers spotted the large proportion of low grades and spoke to Edexcel who confirmed there was a problem.

Headteacher Steve Jex said: "We asked for an urgent remark for those who desperately needed to know and then we were going to ask for a general remark. We came in a day before the GCSE results were due and I found a standard letter from Edexcel which said there were new marks with new final grades. They had altered 12 grades dramatically."

Edexcel is one of three exam boards that the school uses, but Mr Jex said he had no plans to change which boards were used.

"I am annoyed that the letter I got from Edexcel did not apologise. It just told us about the change in marks and was a very standard letter.

"I do appreciate that they have a difficult job but they must make sure that their checking procedures are questioned.

An Edexcel spokeswoman said: "We identified that one examiner had marked too severely and not to our requirements. The papers were remarked and we have issued the grades out. It is quite a rare occurrence and our examiners are trained to mark to the standards we set. We will look at that particular marker and see where the problem lies."