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Save the date: GCSE and A level exam contingency day 2020

Posted by: Julie Swan, Posted on: 17 January 2020 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
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Students taking GCSEs, AS or A levels this year should be available from the date of their first exam up to and including 24 June 2020. This is in case one of their exams has to be rearranged because of …

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Exams are over, so what happens now?

Posted by: Cath Jadhav, Posted on: 5 July 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
A person making notes with their left hand in a textbook on a desk, in front of a tablet computer.

What happens once GCSE and A level exams have finished? An immense amount of work to mark and grade the papers that learners have completed.

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Using NRT evidence this summer

Posted by: Cath Jadhav, Posted on: 3 May 2019 - Categories: Exams, National Reference Test
Four piles of exam papers on a desk in an empty exam hall

In February and March year 11 students from over 300 schools in England took part in the third National Reference Test (NRT) in English and maths. This blog explains how the NRT evidence will be used when the exam boards set grade boundaries in GCSE English language and maths this summer.

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How do we achieve fairness in exams?

Posted by: Cath Jadhav, Posted on: 26 April 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams, National Reference Test
A man in a blue and white T-shirt is stood at the bottom of some steps, speaking to a woman with brown hair wearing a yellow dress and a woman with blonde hair wearing a blue dress. The blonde woman has her back to the camera while the brown-ahired woman and the man in the blue and white T-shirt are facing the camera.

Making sure that qualifications are fair requires careful design, analysis and evaluation of all aspects of qualification delivery. Fairness sits at the heart of our work and is something we are thinking about all the time.

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Some facts about International GCSEs

Posted by: Kate Keating, Posted on: 4 April 2019 - Categories: Exams
A student at a desk writing on an exam paper.

Reflecting on recent interest in the comparability of GCSEs and International GCSEs, this blog provides further information about the two types of qualification and how they operate in England.

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How to talk to your students about exam anxiety

Posted by: Kate Keating, Posted on: 22 March 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
A wood of tall trees, with green mossy ground. Blue sky partially visible through the trees and sun shining through, casting long shadows of tree trunks

This latest blog in our series on test anxiety offer strategies which teachers might find useful to help reduce their students’ experiences of exam anxiety.

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What can schools do about examination and test anxiety

Posted by: Kate Keating, Posted on: 15 March 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
Image is a photo of lilac crocuses with a bee on one in the foreground

This blog discusses how school staff can help students through exam time, looking at whole-school approaches and supporting individual needs.

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Examining the examiners

Posted by: Charlotte Lockyer, Posted on: 13 March 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
Picture of laptop keyboard and screen with two hands, visible to wrist, typing

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 …

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What is it like to experience exam stress? A student perspective

Posted by: Kate Keating, Posted on: 8 March 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
Image shows flowers growing on side of a cliff, going down to the sea

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. …

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11 things we know about marking and 2 things we don’t …yet

Posted by: Kate Keating, Posted on: 5 March 2019 - Categories: A levels and GCSEs, Exams
Image shows paper marked up with rows of maths sums with red pencil lying flat on the page

An enormous amount of work and research has been conducted on marking in recent years, including many contributions by Ofqual to ensure evidence-based regulation. Here is a summary of what we know, and some things we’re looking to find out …

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