A math exam contained questions on subjects not taught in the classroom, they say.
One student called the test “nearly impossible,” adding that he and others felt “desperate.”
Elgan from Denbigh, a Year 12 pupil at Ysgol Glan Clwyd in St Asaph, Denbighshire, was shocked by the newspaper.
The WJEC said the exam “did not rely on knowledge and understanding of subjects that were removed from the assessment in 2022”.
The test was among the first summer exams students have taken since before the pandemic.
The 17-year-old said: “There were a few questions I felt comfortable with but most were very difficult and unfair.
“We were very discouraged after the exam. We didn’t know how other schools had fared and whether it was just our school at first.
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“But the general consensus from schools nearby was that it was a very difficult test and not really fair.
“Missing two years of exam experience and embarking on what some teachers said was the toughest exam paper ever for math AS level that has ever shattered all logic.
“It was very hard.”
Elgan said he wasn’t the only one struggling with exams at his school and others.
“I looked left and right and everyone felt the same, almost desperate,” he said.
The teenager said the test affected his morale.
A math teacher, who asked not to be named, thought part of the test content was a mistake.
They said: ‘It could have catastrophic effects on our students and paper two is coming.
“At the start of the school year, a document was sent out to schools, which is publicly available, telling people that these subjects had been removed from the course. Schools across Wales knew that.”
But the teacher said that a question on a distant topic arose.
“We were told these issues would not be judged, and they were.
“Students want an explanation from the WJEC that the subjects were included in error and will not be used in the assessment.”
They couldn’t understand how the question got into the newspaper.
They said, “As a math teacher, there is no (room for) interpretation. That’s as clear as that, it’s not even a gray area, 100% these subjects shouldn’t have been.”
Senedd member Jane Dodds was among those affected.
She said: “Hearing the news, there may be subjects and issues and subjects in math work that haven’t been taught… it’s really terrifying for these young people.
“They’re going to worry, they’re going to be potentially quite anxious and anxious.
“So my reaction is really worrying for these young people.”
The WJEC has been asked to comment.
It was said on Twitter that the exam was “from the subject content and does not rely on knowledge and understanding of topics that were removed from the assessment in 2022”.
Qualifications Wales said exams were being awarded more generously this year than three years ago.
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