What can schools do about examination and test anxiety
This blog discusses how school staff can help students through exam time, looking at whole-school approaches and supporting individual needs.
Examining the examiners
While students are getting ready to take their exams this summer, exam boards are also busy, completing their examiner recruitment and finalising their arrangements for the series. This is no mean feat. Last summer alone, 63,000 examiners were needed to …
What is it like to experience exam stress? A student perspective
Test anxiety blog series: 2 Authors: Tamsin McCaldin, Kerry-ann Brown and Dr Jo Greenwood With recent changes to exams in England, there has been increased media interest into exam stress and what that might mean for students working towards exams. …
New A level maths in 2019
For some years, maths has been the largest entry A level in England. In 2018 around 90,000 students took A level maths, with just over 15,000 also taking A level further maths. The introduction of the new A level was …
Be prepared: GCSE and A level exam contingency day 2019
At Ofqual, and regardless of the weather, our minds are always on the summer. We’re either thinking about the summer exam series just gone or the one to come. Sometimes we’re thinking about the series after that. We’re not alone. …
A level results day: what to expect
With only a few days to go until A level results day, the wait is nearly over for students, parents and teachers everywhere. This is the third year of results for reformed AS and the second year of reformed A …
What happens after exams finish?
GCSE, AS and A level exams finished in late June, and schools and colleges are now nearing the end of term. But what happens to students’ scripts once the exam is over? Here’s a brief guide to marking, who the …
Exam marking: how technology is improving the quality of marking
When asked to think of examiners marking scripts, many people still tend to think of them sitting at a desk with a pile of envelopes from schools and colleges, gradually working through each one in turn. In some subjects, that …
Setting standards in the new A level maths qualifications
This summer we will see the first awards of the new A level maths qualifications. These were available for schools to teach from September 2017, so they would not normally be available to enter after only one year. When we …
A level awarding in 2016 and 2017
...courses for new linear A levels and this means the exam boards will have to change the way they set standards. We have agreed a principle with the exam boards:...