A Melbourne cafe owner whose business was inundated with hundreds of negative online reviews following the VCE English exam is taking legal action against the state's curriculum authority.
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Tara Conron, who owns the Calmer Cafe in Aberfeldie, is still assessing the fallout from a blunder in Wednesday's exam, which asked students to analyse a scathing review of a cafe that shared an almost identical name to hers.
"I don't know how much damage this is going to do until further down the track when people who don't know it's a joke read the reviews," she said.
The negative reviews started to flood in after the exam finished on Wednesday afternoon.
"Burnt, bland coffee," one year 12 reviewer wrote on Google.
Another wrote: "This is a terrible cafe with poor service, poor decor, got a 1/10 for food and drinks".
The students were referencing a review of a fictional hipster cafe called Calmer Coffee that featured in their three-hour exam.
In the fictional review, Jonty Jenkins takes aim at the cafe’s “exhaustive list of frappes, soy and almond milks”, “tablet-wielding” employee with a man bun and its bland, burnt coffee.
Ms Conron told The Age that she had hired a lawyer and would be taking legal action against the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority over the "uncanny" similarities.
She fears they have caused long-term damage to her cafe's reputation.
"I am so angry," she said.
She said a simple Google search would have revealed that there was a cafe in Melbourne with an almost identical name.
The resemblance didn't stop there.
Ms Conron said she employed someone with a man bun. She also employs a manager who has the same last name as the fictional author of the cafe review in the exam.
And like the cafe in the English exam, Ms Conron's also stands out in the sleepy suburb of Aberfeldie in Melbourne's north-west.
"We are a hipster cafe in a suburb that doesn't have a hipster vibe," she said. "We are in Aberfeldie and we have got this grungy cafe."
The cafe's hard-earned Google reviews fell from almost 5 stars to 3.3 stars on Wednesday.
But in the wake of the exam blunder, loyal customers have been trying to counteract the negative reviews with positive reviews that have increased the cafe's rating to 4.
But many of the blistering reviews remain online.
Ms Conron said she understood where the students were coming from, and she'd probably do the same if she were a teenager.
"If I was a teenager and there was an exam question I would be the first one hanging s---," she said.
She said the experience had been incredibly stressful, particularly as she is in the middle of her university exams. Ironically, she is studying teaching.
A spokeswoman for Google said the company was working to fix the situation.
"Contributions to Google Maps should accurately represent the location in question," she said.
"Where contributions distort truth, we will remove content."
A VCAA spokesman said the authority had apologised for the inadvertent similarity in business names and contacted the Calmer Cafe a number of times seeking a meeting with the owners and manager to offer assistance and support.
"The VCAA engages an external writer to draft the text used in Section C of the English examination," he said. "The text is then reviewed, modified as necessary, and approved by a panel and reviewers made up of highly experienced teachers, academics and experts."
It's not the first time the VCAA has been involved in an exam blunder.
In 2012 it was forced to apologise after a giant robot was included in History Revolutions exam.
And in 2011 it was accused of plagiarism after it used an article by Melbourne author Helen Razer without attribution or permission in the VCE English exam.
