The assessment community
Every year, around 70,000 individuals are involved annually in external examining, moderating and marking Key Stage tests, GCSEs and A Levels.More about the assessment community
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The assessment system
Each year thousands of students sit GCSEs, AS and A-levels. The entire assessment community, from awarding bodies and their regulators to assessors and teachers, takes great care to ensure they get a fair deal, and the grades they deserve, by maintaining standards from year to year.
The exam boards
There are five awarding bodies, better known as exam boards, covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They each provide specifications (syllabuses) in each subject, from which schools, colleges and sixth-form centres choose what their students will study.
The five exam boards are:
- AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) (www.aqa.org.uk)
- CCEA (Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessments) (www.ccea.org.uk)
- Edexcel (www.edexcel.org.uk)
- OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) (www.ocr.org.uk)
- WJEC/CBAC (Welsh Joint Education Committee) (www.wjec.co.uk)
The regulatory authorities
The exam boards are overseen by the regulatory authorities, whose job it is to monitor standards and the quality of marking across the exam boards to ensure consistency and that everyone gets a fair deal.
There are three regulatory authorities:
- DELLS (Department for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills) (http://new.wales.gov.uk/about/departments/dells/?lang=en)
- CCEA (Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessments) (www.ccea.org.uk)
- QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) (www.qca.org.uk)
Setting the papers
The 18 month process of setting an exam paper begins with a principal examiner, appointed by the awarding body. He or she writes the exam paper and creates a detailed explanation of how it should be marked.
This is passed to a reviser, then to an evaluation committee, and finally to an assessor, to ensure that it is a fair test and error-free.
At every stage, experts check that the paper is clear, that there are no trick questions or nasty surprises, that it is of a similar standard to the previous year's paper and that it can be completed in the time allowed.
Marking the papers
Once exams have been sat, examiners attend what is known as a standardisation meeting. At this meeting they come to an understanding of exactly how to mark the exam scripts, actually marking some papers so that their assessment can be checked for accuracy and consistency.
After the standardisation meeting, examiners mark another set of papers. These are also checked. If the marking is not up to standard, the examiner undergoes further training or is not retained by the awarding body. If this happens the papers are given to another examiner.
There are further checks throughout the marking process to ensure that students get the correct marks they deserve.
Setting the grades
Once all marking is complete, an awarding meeting takes place. This is when the marks needed for each grade are decided (known as setting the grade boundaries). This is also when awarding bodies ensure that standards have been and will be maintained.
This part of the process carefully follows guidelines set by the regulators. Exam papers from previous years and papers from the current year, as well as expert judgement and technical and statistical information, are used to judge where the grade boundaries should be set.
Results
For GCSEs and A-levels results are issued to schools and colleges in mid to late August. In the case of A-levels, UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) and the universities get the results a few days before schools. This gives them enough time to make arrangements for those who are able to take up offers of a place at university.