2022 support: frequently asked questions

Optionality is in place for International GCSE Geography and International GCSE History. Although there is no optionality for International GCSE English Literature there has been an adjustment to Paper 1. The Part 3 anthology poetry will not be assessed. Unseen poetry will be assessed.

Exam support will be provided for International GCSE Physics and the Physics sections of International Science (Double Award) and International GCSE Science (Single Award). The exam support will be a separate equation sheet which gives students all the equations they will have covered in the course. 

International GCSE Physics

International Science (Double Award)

International GCSE Science (Single Award)

Where a GCSE, AS or A level includes non-exam assessment (NEA), such as a dance or music performance, teachers should support their students, wherever possible, to complete that assessment in line with arrangements announced by Ofqual for 2022 and the timescales set by exam boards. If exams go ahead as we expect, the NEA will be marked and moderated as usual and combined with students’ exam marks to generate their grades. If exams are cancelled, teachers will be expected to take a student’s NEA into account when determining a TAG.   

For art and design qualifications, for which there are no exams, students should complete their non-exam assessments in line with the requirements previously published. 

With the exception of art and design qualifications, teachers should assess their students to provide them with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding across the range of content they have been taught and in ways that cover the assessment objectives for the qualification.  

Students taking GCSEs, AS and A levels and the Advanced Extension Award should be assessed under exam-like conditions wherever possible: for example, students should not know before the assessment the questions they will answer, they should work independently and not be assisted (other than as required for a reasonable adjustment), they should not have access to books or revision notes and the assessment should be timed and supervised. These controls may be provided within a classroom rather than exam hall setting.   

Students taking GCSEs in maths, combined science and physics should have access in their assessments to the formulae and equation sheets that they will have in the summer exams. Students taking art and design qualifications should complete their non-exam assessments – no additional assessments are needed.  

A centre must either assess all of its students who are taking a particular qualification using the same material at the same time, or using different materials at different times.  

If it is not possible to assess the whole cohort at the same time, the assessment approach for any particular qualification should be consistent within a centre: for example, students must be assessed at broadly the same time, over the same range of content and using the same style of assessment (but not the same questions). Exceptions might be needed, for example if a centre is assessing a private candidate who has not covered the same content as the centre’s students, if a student joins a centre later in the year, or if an individual student has been taught significantly less than the cohort because of illness.   

Reasonable adjustments should be made for disabled students. 

Formal speaking tests are expected to resume in 2022 and teachers should prepare to assess speaking in the normal way. Teachers will digitally submit the recordings of student assessments on the Learner Work Transfer Portal (LWT). Instructions on how to do so will be provided. 

If public health restrictions prevent the usual speaking assessments, the speaking endorsement approach adopted in 2021 will be implemented again in June 2022. Teachers are therefore asked to have regard for the speaking endorsement assessment criteria throughout the year. 

If the endorsement approach is taken, teachers will not be required to submit recordings of their assessments. However, teachers may find it useful to record students for their own purposes in terms of record-keeping, internal moderation or in case of appeals. Teachers will submit a separate level for the speaking endorsement. If exams are cancelled, teachers will submit a Teacher Assessed Grade (TAG) for the remaining 3 components of the GCSE (reading, writing and listening). 

Ideally three assessments should be identified as those which would inform TAGs. These should be spread over the remaining academic year: for example, in the second half of the autumn term 2021, in the spring term of 2022, and the first half of the summer term 2022. Any other normal assessment points should be used to provide evidence to inform TAGs if they are needed.   

Some subjects are assessed by a combination of exam and non-exam assessments. Teachers should consider the balance of exam and non-exam assessments when deciding on how many occasions students should be assessed.   

Some centres, for good reason, might adopt a different approach to assessing their students, for example because of the characteristics of their students, or the nature of their provision. In such cases, centres should be able to provide a rationale for their approach to the exam boards if exams are cancelled.   

Some centres might have assessed their students before the October half term.  

Centres may wish to aim for a total assessment time that does not significantly exceed the total time students would spend taking exams for the relevant qualification, plus any time spent on non-exam assessment. Try not to over-assess and think about opportunities to schedule specific assessment opportunities which taken together would provide evidence from broadly the same proportion of the specification as would normally be covered in exams.   

Students should only be assessed on content they have been taught. Teachers should plan the package of assessments so that students are assessed, across the assessments when taken together, on a wide range of content, similar to that on which they will expect to be assessed in their summer exams, and across the assessment objectives for the qualification.    

The assessments should be as useful as possible for students preparing to take summer exams. Assessments should be similar to full or parts of the exam papers they are preparing to take next summer. Past papers could be used, in full or part, where appropriate. If required (for example because all previous past papers have already been used) teachers may combine different past papers (for example, Paper 1 from June 2019 and Paper 2 from June 2018) or, combine questions from past papers, in order to generate a ‘new’ assessment for students. If teachers develop their own assessments, the questions used should be in a similar style to those found in the corresponding exam board’s exam papers and marked in line with the exam board’s approach to marking exam questions for the qualification.    

Teachers setting assessments after the advance information for the summer 2022 exams has been published, should take that advance information into account when deciding how to assess their students and make their students aware of the fact that they have done so prior to their assessments.    

Students should not be given the opportunity to repeat an assessment, for example to improve their mark in response to feedback. Their performance in later assessments might, of course, reflect feedback on their performance in earlier assessments.   

No. Students should sit not assessments for longer than the duration of the exams, if they had taken place. Teachers are advised to assess students at 3 points during the academic year. The past papers or sections of past papers may be sat individually across the 3 assessments (for example Paper 1 in December 2021, Paper 2, Section A in February 2022 and Paper 2, Section B in April 2022). 

Ofqual have provided guidance on the approach to awarding in June 2022. Pearson will be applying this guidance to the grading of international qualifications. 

Yes. Where assessments are scheduled after the publication of this guidance, students must be told before they take each assessment that their performance in it would be used as part of the evidence to determine a TAG if exams are cancelled. This information should be given sufficiently far in advance of the assessment to allow students time to revise and prepare.  

Students should be told which parts of the subject content will be covered by the assessment, but they should not be told the questions in advance or be able to predict the questions from information given to them. This means that students should not, for example, be assessed using past papers from one particular year spread over three assessment points, as students would be able to predict the questions they would be answering in the later assessments.  

In exceptional circumstances, it might be necessary for work that was not undertaken in line with this guidance to be used to inform a TAG, for example where a student misses the later assessments because of illness. Guidance will be provided on this if exams are cancelled.   

The same reasonable adjustments that will be made for disabled students taking exams in the summer should, where possible, be applied to the assessments – and records made of the adjustments and the reasons for them. The centre should record the reason why any reasonable adjustment was not made.   

If a student’s need for a reasonable adjustment is only identified after an assessment had taken place, their teacher should record the reason for this late identification and allow the student to undertake a different, but equivalent, assessment with the reasonable adjustment in place.    

If a teacher is satisfied that a student’s performance in one or more of the assessments was affected by an event that was outside of the student’s control at the time of, or immediately before, the assessment, such as illness or family bereavement, the teacher should adjust their marking of the assessment. The JCQ’s approach to special consideration provides a helpful reference point for teachers who need to adjust a mark to take such an event into account. The centre should keep a record of the event and the marking adjustment, in a form that would be available for an exam board to review if exams are cancelled. Centres should make sure students know they need to tell their teachers before or immediately after the assessment of any events outside of their control that might have affected their performance in an assessment.    

Where disruption to education means assessments cannot be completed for all or some of their students in line with the guidance, centres should take reasonable steps to collect evidence of each student’s knowledge and understanding in ways that align as far as possible with the guidance. Centres will need to be assured that the evidence collected is of the student’s work alone – that it is authentic – and that it covers a broad range of the subject content and the assessment objectives for the qualification.  Centres should record the exceptional reasons why they have not been able to gather evidence in line with this guidance for all or some of their students. The records will need to be available for exams boards to check if exams are cancelled.    

Teachers should mark the assessments in line with our published mark schemes and guidance that can be found on the qualification pages. Centres should support teachers to mark work for the same qualification to the same standard. Students should be provided with feedback, which could include marks or comments. Teachers may tell the student the grade indicated by their performance in the assessment, but they must make it clear to their students that this is not a TAG. It will not be possible for a teacher to determine a TAG unless and until Ofqual sets specific guidance on the determination of TAGs for 2022, which it will only do if exams are cancelled.   

The original student work must be retained by the centre securely - students may be given copies if this would help support their learning.  

Students taking project qualifications do not take exams. Project qualifications use non-exam assessment only. Teachers do not, therefore, need to carry out any additional assessment of their project students to collect evidence in case exams are cancelled. They should encourage and support students to complete their project assessments as usual.   

In normal years, when exams take place, private candidates register with a centre which arranges for the candidate to take their exams alongside the centre’s students. As we expect exams to take place in 2022, centres are encouraged to allow private candidates to register with them in the usual way.  

Some private candidates might want centres to assess them throughout the year, alongside the centre’s students, in line with the DfE and Ofqual guidance. Centres may agree to do so, although they would need to make sure the assessments only covered content the private candidate had studied. Alternatively, private candidates could be assessed only if exams are cancelled, in which case they would be assessed in a compressed period.    

If exams are cancelled, the Department for Education would again explore ways to encourage centres to work with private candidates and to provide affordable opportunities for private candidates to work with centres.  

Where an International GCSE, AS or A level includes non-exam assessment (NEA), such as a dance or music performance, teachers should support their students, wherever possible, to complete that assessment in line with arrangements announced for those qualifications. If exams go ahead as we expect, the NEA will be marked and moderated as usual and combined with students’ exam marks to generate their grades. If exams are cancelled, teachers will be expected to submit a student’s NEA as part of the portfolio of evidence.   

Teachers should assess their students to provide them with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding across the range of content they have been taught and in ways that cover the assessment objectives for the qualification.  

Students taking International GCSEs, AS and A levels and iPLS should be assessed under exam-like conditions wherever possible, for example:

• students should not know before the assessment the questions they will answer
• students should work independently and not be assisted (other than as required for a reasonable adjustment)
• students should not have access to books or revision notes
• the assessment should be timed and supervised.

These controls may be provided within a classroom rather than exam hall setting.   

Students taking International GCSEs in single science, combined science and physics should have access in their assessments to the formulae and equation sheets that they will have in the summer exams.  

Students taking art and design qualifications should complete their non-exam assessments – no additional assessments are needed.  

A centre must either assess all of its students who are taking a particular qualification using the same material at the same time, or using different materials at different times.  

If it is not possible to assess the whole cohort at the same time, the assessment approach for any particular qualification should be consistent within a centre, for example, students must be assessed:

• at broadly the same time
• over the same range of content
• using the same style of assessment (but not the same questions).

Exceptions might be needed, for example:

• if a centre is assessing a private candidate who has not covered the same content as the centre’s students
• if a student joins a centre later in the year
• if an individual student has been taught significantly less than the cohort because of illness.   

Reasonable adjustments should be made for disabled students.

Pearson Edexcel International Qualifications - May/June Exam Series 2022 78.7 KB pdf /content/dam/pdf/campaigns/summer-2022-support/pearson-edexcel-int-quals-may-june-2022-exam-series.pdf false

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Formal speaking tests are expected to resume in 2022 and teachers should prepare to assess speaking in the normal way. Teachers will digitally submit the recordings of student assessments on the Learner Work Transfer Portal (LWT). Instructions on how to do so will be provided.  

If public health restrictions prevent the usual speaking assessments, the speaking endorsement approach adopted in 2021 will be implemented again in June 2022. Teachers are therefore asked to have regard for the speaking endorsement assessment criteria throughout the year.  

If the endorsement approach is taken, teachers will not be required to submit recordings of their assessments. However, teachers may find it useful to record students for their own purposes in terms of record-keeping, internal moderation or in case of appeals. Teachers will submit a separate level for the speaking endorsement. Pearson will determine the grade for the rest of the qualification using the evidence portfolio submitted.

One past paper that has not previously been sat by learners should be identified and sat and would be part of the portfolio submitted.  Any other normal assessment points should be used to provide evidence to inform the portfolio if they are needed.  This could be, for example:

• in the second half of the autumn term 2021
• in the spring term of 2022
• in the first half of the summer term 2022.

Any other normal assessment points should be used to provide evidence if they are needed.   

Some subjects are assessed by a combination of exam and non-exam assessments. Teachers should consider the balance of exam and non-examined assessments when deciding on how many occasions students should be assessed.   

Some centres, for good reason, might adopt a different approach to assessing their students, for example because of the characteristics of their students, or the nature of their provision. In such cases, centres should be able to provide a rationale for their approach to the exam boards if exams cannot go ahead.

One set of past papers (for example, Paper 1 and Paper 2 if a specification is made up of 2 papers, or where there is a coursework option, Paper 1 only) that has not previously been sat by learners should be identified and sat and would be part of the portfolio submitted. 

Students should only be assessed on content they have been taught. Teachers should plan the package of assessments so that students are assessed, across the assessments when taken together, on a wide range of content, similar to that on which they will expect to be assessed in their June 2022 exams, and across the assessment objectives for the qualification.    

The assessments should be as useful as possible for students preparing to take June exams. Assessments should be similar to full or parts of the exam papers they are preparing to take in June 2022. 

Past papers could be used, in full or part, where appropriate. If required (for example because all previous past papers have already been used) teachers may combine different past papers (for example, Paper 1 from June 2019 and Paper 2 from June 2018) or, combine questions from past papers, in order to generate a ‘new’ assessment for students. If teachers develop their own assessments, the questions used should be in a similar style to those found in Pearson’s exam papers and marked in line with Pearson’s approach to marking exam questions for the qualification.    

No. Students should not sit assessments for longer than the duration of the exams, if they had taken place. Teachers are advised to assess students at 3 points during the academic year. The past papers or sections of past papers may be sat individually across the 3 assessments (for example Paper 1 in December 2021, Paper 2, Section A in February 2022 and Paper 2, Section B in April 2022). 

Centres may wish to aim for a total assessment time that does not significantly exceed the total time students would spend taking exams for the relevant qualification, plus any time spent on non-exam assessment. Try not to over-assess and think about opportunities to schedule specific assessment opportunities which taken together would provide evidence from broadly the same proportion of the specification as would normally be covered in exams.   

Ofqual have provided guidance on the approach to awarding in June 2022. Pearson will be applying this guidance to the grading of international qualifications. 

Student work may be marked or unmarked. If it is marked, the annotation should not be such that it hinders Pearson Edexcel examiners from conducting their marking. 

Yes. Where assessments are scheduled after the publication of this guidance, students must be told before they take each assessment that their performance in it would be used as part of the evidence to determine a grade if exams are cancelled. This information should be given sufficiently far in advance of the assessment to allow students time to revise and prepare.  

Students should be told which parts of the subject content will be covered by the assessment, but they should not be told the questions in advance or be able to predict the questions from information given to them. This means that students should not, for example, be assessed using past papers from one particular year spread over three assessment points, as students would be able to predict the questions they would be answering in the later assessments.  

In exceptional circumstances, it might be necessary for work that was not undertaken in line with this guidance to be used to inform a grade, for example where a student misses the later assessments because of illness. Guidance will be provided on this if exams are cancelled.   

The same reasonable adjustments that will be made for disabled students taking exams in the summer should, where possible, be applied to the assessments – and records made of the adjustments and the reasons for them. The centre should record the reason why any reasonable adjustment was not made.   

If a student’s need for a reasonable adjustment is only identified after an assessment has taken place, their teacher should record the reason for this late identification and allow the student to undertake a different, but equivalent, assessment with the reasonable adjustment in place.    

If a teacher is satisfied that a student’s performance in one or more of the assessments was affected by an event that was outside of the student’s control at the time of, or immediately before, the assessment, such as illness or family bereavement, the teacher should adjust their marking of the assessment. The JCQ’s approach to special consideration provides a helpful reference point for teachers who need to adjust a mark to take such an event into account.  Centres should make sure students know they need to tell their teachers before, or immediately after, the assessment of any events outside of their control that might have affected their performance in an assessment.   

Where disruption to education means assessments cannot be completed for all or some of their students in line with the guidance, centres should take reasonable steps to collect evidence of each student’s knowledge and understanding in ways that align as far as possible with the guidance. Centres will need to be assured that the evidence collected is of the student’s work alone – that it is authentic – and that it covers a broad range of the subject content and the assessment objectives for the qualification.  Centres should record the exceptional reasons why they have not been able to gather evidence in line with this guidance for all or some of their students. The records will need to be available for Pearson to check if exams are cancelled.    

The original student work must be retained by the centre securely – students may be given copies if this would help support their learning.  

Students taking Project qualifications do not take exams. Project qualifications use non-examined assessment only. Teachers do not, therefore, need to carry out any additional assessment of their Project students to collect evidence in case exams are cancelled. They should encourage and support students to complete their project assessments as usual.   

In normal years, when exams take place, private candidates register with a centre which arranges for the candidate to take their exams alongside the centre’s students. As we expect exams to take place in 2022, centres are encouraged to allow private candidates to register with them in the usual way.  

Some private candidates might want centres to assess them throughout the year, alongside the centres' students, in line with the DfE and Ofqual guidance. Centres may agree to do so, although they would need to make sure the assessments only covered content the private candidate had studied. Alternatively, private candidates could be assessed only if exams are cancelled, in which case they would be assessed in a compressed period.    

If exams are cancelled, the Department for Education would again explore ways to encourage centres to work with private candidates and to provide affordable opportunities for private candidates to work with centres.