Exam students can 'phone a friend'

School pupils in Austria are being given a phone-a-friend lifeline during exams to boost their results.

Teacher Reinhard Peter - inspired by Who Wants to be a Millionaire - allows students to call a series of experts if they're stumped by questions at his high school in Bregenz.

He said: "They can call doctors, teachers and other people to ask their help."

But he said the experts were often more nervous about the exams and getting the right answers than the students.

Mr Peter said: "Many of them suddenly have exam anxiety as though they were sitting in the classroom taking the exam.

"They get nervous on the phone and feel that if they give the wrong answer they are not only failing themselves but the pupil who is calling them as well."

He said that so far all his pupils had passed the exams though using the phone-a-friend lifeline.

"The worst mark any of them have got is 'satisfactory'," he said.