A-level examiners might have been impressed with the bright teenagers who gave insightful and lengthy answers to questions on Shakespeare's Hamlet in this year's English literature exam paper, had it not been for one small thing.

Many of the answers bore no relation to anything on the question paper. Rather, they were responses to questions asked in previous years.

Examiners from the Edexcel exam board have hit out at the trend for spoon-fed students, who appear to have prepared for their exams by studying past papers simply to regurgitate answers from previous years.

In reports on this summer's English A levels, the examiners are withering in their assessment of answers to questions on Hamlet. “This text, more than any of the others, drew responses to questions set in previous years. It is to be stressed how important it is that candidates answer the question in front of them,” they say.

They are equally brutal about many of the answers given to a question on Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. “Stock” answers are “a waste of the candidate's and examiner's time”, they say. Answers to a section on poetry and drama elicited “second-hand” responses “based on notes made in class, written into books and regurgitated in exams, often ignoring the specific question being asked”.

Elsewhere, examiners complain of students “relying on prepared material which they are determined to use, come what may”.

Bethan Marshall, a senior lecturer in education at King's College London, said the high-stakes nature of the exams system was to blame for this “cut and paste” approach.

With nearly a quarter of English students gaining grade A at A level, and with some of the leading universities demanding straight A grades, most students were too afraid to attempt anything as dangerous as an original answer. “Because they know they have to get exceptional grades to get into university, they stick with tried and tested methods and answers,” Dr Marshall said.

The examiners also complained that many pupils appeared unable to spell the names of authors they had studied. Even when they did, they sometimes adopted an inappropriate “chummy” approach, referring to authors by their first names only. Misspellings, poor punctuation and the poor level of accuracy in written English were also a source of concern.

The examiners' complaints come despite the fact that overall this year, a record-breaking 22.8 per cent of English papers were graded A. The pass rate was 99.1 per cent.

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, suggested that poor use of language might result from the assumption in some schools that spelling and punctuation “get in the way of creativity”.

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