A longstanding problem attributed to I. Schur says that for a finite group G, the exponent of the second homology group H 2 (G, Z) divides the exponent of G. In this paper, we prove this conjecture for finite nilpotent groups of odd exponent and of nilpotency class 5, p-central metabelian p groups, and groups considered by L. E . Wilson in [30]. Moreover, we improve several bounds given by various authors.