General Qualifications Bulletin - International - Issue 33
Dear Colleague,
I hope you have all had a great break and have been able to take some well-earned time off to enjoy the weather at this time of year.
It’s been another very busy summer for us as we returned to the largest full scale exam series that we have delivered in nearly 2 years. With the support of our incredible workforce of examiners we have marked over 25 million individual questions which will ensure that all learners receive their grades on the upcoming results days. I'd like to thank all our examiners for their dedication and hard work this series.
Although we have returned to exams there has been an extra package of support for UK qualifications, International GCSE and International A Level Law that has been in place to support learners. Optionality, advance information, changes to coursework, formula sheets and generous grading have all been implemented this year. The Ofqual student guide explains more about these. Ofqual has also released a very helpful podcast about the approach for marking this year and how you can be prepared for results days. Back in July there was also an update about ten things to know about grading for GCSE, AS and A level exams, as all exam boards begin to return to pre-pandemic standards. I would recommend reading and listening to these in the run up to results day to understand the approach that has been taken this year.
We have created a guide to support students, parents and carers with understanding their results and grades this series. Please do share this with your learners. It also contains important information about how to access any post results services, should they wish to use them.
There will be lots of information to digest over the course of the next few weeks as everyone heads back to school. There will be general updates and also subject specific pieces of information that will be important to know and I therefore urge you to sign up to receive the subject advisor newsletters if you have not already done so.
In the meantime, if you need any more information or want to share any feedback with us, you can always get in touch. We will always do our best to get you the answers as quickly as possible.
Have a great few weeks celebrating the achievements of all your learners, they should be very proud of all they have achieved.
Hayley White
Assessment Director
The next two weeks sees the release of both Level 2 and Level 3 General Qualifications results.
Results should not be issued to candidates until 08:00am (BST) on 18 or 25 August depending on the qualification. Please refer to the table below for a final reminder of what’s happening and when.
Level 3 Qualifications
| Date | Time | Details | Qualifications |
|
00:01am |
Electronic (EDI) results released to centres via A2C |
AS/A level inc. AEA International AS/A Level Edexcel Award Level 3 Extended Project (EPQ) Mathematics in Context |
03.00am |
Electronic results will be available for centres on Edexcel Online (EOL) |
||
06.00am |
Results files uploaded to Exams Officer's EOL mailboxes |
||
|
06:00am |
ResultsPlus available to centres |
AS/A level inc. AEA International AS/A Level Edexcel Award Level 3 Extended Project (EPQ) Mathematics in Context |
08:00am |
Post Results system available to centres on Edexcel Online |
||
08:00am |
Results can be released to students |
||
08:30am |
ResultsPlus Direct available to students |
Level 2 Qualifications
Date |
Time |
Details |
Qualifications |
|---|---|---|---|
|
00:01am |
Electronic (EDI) results released to centres via A2C |
GCSE International GCSE Project Level 1 and 2 Edexcel Award Level 1 and 2 ELC(A) iPrimary and iLowerSecondary |
03.00am |
Electronic results will be available for centres on Edexcel Online (EOL) |
||
06.00am |
Results files uploaded to Exams Officer's EOL mailboxes |
||
|
06:00am |
ResultsPlus available to centres |
GCSE International GCSE Project Level 1 and 2 Edexcel Award Level 1 and 2 ELC(A) iPrimary and iLowerSecondary |
08:00am |
Post Results system available to centres on Edexcel Online |
||
08:00am |
Results can be released to students |
||
08:30am |
ResultsPlus Direct available to students |
The Ofqual student guide explains clearly about the package of support measures that were used this year. Optionality, advance information, changes to coursework, formula sheets and generous grading have all been implemented.
We recommend listening to the very helpful podcast that Ofqual have released about the approach for marking this year and how you can be prepared for results days.
Ofqual have also written an update about ten things to know about grading for GCSE, AS and A level exams, as all exam boards begin to return to pre-pandemic standards. I would recommend reading and familiarising yourself with this to understand the approach that has been taken this year. All exam boards have used data from 2019 and 2021 as a starting point for grading. Using data is important to support alignment between exam boards, so that it is no easier to get a grade with one exam board than another.
Senior examiners have reviewed the quality of student work over a range of marks and have recommended grade boundaries based on all the available evidence. Grade boundaries change each year to reflect any differences in the demand of the question papers and this year is no exception as a result of the package of measures. Although it is likely that some grade boundaries will be lower than when summer exams were last sat in 2019, this will not always be the case for every qualification. However, the outcomes for qualifications will reflect a midpoint between summer 2019 and 2021.
When an International A Level exam is sat, the ‘raw’ mark is the number of marks a student achieved on that exam. We convert the raw marks into a UMS score, to make sure that any differences in the difficulty of exams are taken into account when adding up a student’s marks to give an overall qualification grade.
So that we can calculate a students overall grade we require you to submit a "cash-in".
If you need a late cash-in for a student, please follow the instructions on our support portal for submitting a late cash-in.
Grade Boundary information will be sent to the Edexcel Online mailbox of your Exams Officer/Exams Manager on 17 August (AS/A level/International A Level) and 24 August (GCSE/International GCSE). Grade boundary documents must be treated as secure and confidential information. They must not be published or distributed wider than to Exams Office staff and the Head of Centre until Thursday, when grade boundaries and results are available to students and teachers on our website. This ensures there is no undue anxiety to learners prior to the issue of results.
As a reminder, we publish both grade boundaries and notional component grade boundaries for each qualification. The notional component grade boundaries can be useful as an indicator of grade performance when, for example, an examination paper is used as a future mock examination. There is an explanation of how grade boundaries and notional component grade boundaries and scaling work at the start of each notional component grade boundary document. It is useful to review these when considering applying for a review of marking and moderation.
The total subject mark for a number of linear AS and A levels may not be the same as the total of individual component marks (“raw” marks). This is due to a process called scaling, where raw marks for some qualifications are given a “weighting” factor to reflect the contribution each component makes to the overall qualification. The raw mark for each component is scaled up or down by multiplying it by the weighting factor.
You can read more about scaling on our support portal, alongside our scaling component calculator.*
*Due to some of the adaptations this year, a small number of subjects will have new weighting factors, so won't be able to use the scaling component calculator. These subjects are listed, along with the new weighting factors, in our guidance on scaling on our support portal.
ResultsPlus is our online results analysis tool that gives you a detailed breakdown of your students’ performance in Pearson Edexcel exams. Providing you with the most detailed analysis available of your students’ performance, ResultsPlus will help you to identify topics and skills where your students could benefit from further learning – helping them gain a deeper understanding of their subject.
You can read about reviews of marking and moderation (RoMM) services available to you on our website, alongside our information on post-results deadlines.
We also have a guide to applying for post-results services on our support portal which includes a video walk-through of requesting a post results service.
If you need to consider making an appeal after you've received the outcome of a post-results service, you can view our guide to making an appeal on the support portal.
Our popular Access to Scripts* service provides visibility and transparency of marking and helps to inform future teaching and learning. You can find out more about Access to Scripts on our website, along with Access to Scripts FAQs and a step-by-step User Guide for viewing scripts. If a paper has been traditionally marked (not online) then these will not be available through Access to Scripts, but you can still request a free copy through the post results section of Edexcel Online.
*This service is available for any exam paper that has been marked online. Written permission must be gained from candidates before scripts can be accessed.
Check out our guide to help students, parents and carers understand results and grades. From results slips and grade boundaries to university applications and certificates, our guide explains all the support that will be available from results day.
Download the guide Understanding results and grades from our website and pass this on to your students so they are ready for results day.
The Key Dates Finder on our website enables you to find all of the key dates for Pearson general qualifications and subjects in one place.
Here are those taking place in the next few weeks.
AS, A level and other level 3 qualifications
17 August – Restricted release of AS, A level, International AS/A Level and other level 3 qualification results to centres
18 August – Release of results to candidates for AS, A level, International AS/A Level and other level 3 qualifications
18 August – Submission window for reviews of marking and moderation (ROMM) opens for AS, A level, International AS/A Level and other level 3 qualifications
25 August – Deadline for Service P2 reviews of marking and moderation (ROMM) for AS, A level, International AS/A Level and other level 3 qualifications
29 September – Deadline for Service 1, Service 2 and Service 3 reviews of marking and moderation (ROMM) for AS, A level and other level 3 qualifications
29 September – Deadline for access to scripts (ATS) for ATSPE and ATSO services for AS, A level, International AS/A Level , and other level 3 qualifications
GCSE, International GCSE and other level 1/2 qualifications
24 August – Restricted release of GCSE and other level 1/2 qualification results to centres
25 August – Release of results to candidates for GCSE and other level 1/2 qualifications
25 August - Submission window for reviews of marking and moderation (ROMM) opens for GCSE, International GCSE and other level 1/2 qualifications
1 September – Deadline for Service P2 reviews of marking and moderation (ROMM) for GCSE, International GCSE and other level 1/2 qualifications
29 September – Deadline for Service 1, Service 2 and Service 3 reviews of marking and moderation (ROMM) for GCSE, International GCSE and other level 1/2 qualifications
29 September – Deadline for access to scripts (ATS) for ATSPE and ATSO services for GCSE, International GCSE and other level 1/2 qualifications
For more information on key dates for post results services please visit our Post-results services key dates web page.
The November 2022 advance information is now available for:
- GCSE English Language
- GCSE English Language 2.0
- GCSE Mathematics, along with the exam aids for maths.
Do take a look at the exam timetable for the November resit dates and the resit rules for English on our website. There is no requirement to submit video recordings for the Spoken Language Endorsement in November 2022.
Your Subject Advisors will be providing information and support for results days. If you’ve not done so already, do sign up to receive regular communications about your subject area to ensure you have all you need ahead of results day. You’ll receive important information and support ahead of results day and continue to receive communications throughout the year. You can also follow them on Twitter.
The latest VQ Bulletin has all the information you need for Results Day including information about managing results, post results services, and appeals. There is also our comprehensive Results Day 2022 FAQs and dedicated Teaching, Learning and Assessment 2021/22 web page which we hope will answer any outstanding questions you have about how results have been awarded this year.
You can keep informed by following @PearsonBTEC, where we will update you with the latest information. Our social media is monitored from 8am-4pm, Monday-Friday and we welcome, and will respond to, any suggestions or feedback you have for us. Finally, please do contact us with any queries or concerns that you may have.
