The National Center for University Entrance Examinations, the independent administrative institution that oversees Japan’s national university entrance exams, has announced that this year’s geography, history and civics test distribution mistakes have created the highest ever number of retaking students.

According to the center, test paper printing and distribution errors affected 81 test centers from Hokkaido to Okinawa, which account for more than 10% of the total. As a result, 3,462 students will be required to take the exam at a later date, NTV reported Thursday.

The center said that it is currently considering alternative ways for waiting students to retake the exams and that it will announce its decision by March.

The standardized exam is used to grade students applying to public and private universities in Japan. According to the Education Ministry, 555,537 students took the exam at 709 locations across the country, down 3,447 on last year.

Officials said that although serious disruption was avoided, reports of minor problems remained. For example, 200 IC players intended for use in the English listening test were not delivered to some test centers in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, the institute said. It added that 18 students in 14 test centers experienced malfunctioning IC players.