July 2026 International Science Qualification News
Hello colleagues,
Welcome to your July update for teachers of International Science qualifications! Most of you will be looking forward to a holiday, or already on one - I hope this brings much deserved rest and relaxation! The focus of this update is on preparing for results days in August - see below for a range of useful resources and guidance. We also have an opportunity for teachers of our IAL Science courses to get involved in consultation on improvements to these.
As ever, don't hesitate to get in touch if I can help in any way - why not book a Teams call with me (follow the link below) if it would be helpful to talk something over?
Best wishes,
Tim Lawrence
Pearson Edexcel Subject Advisor for International Science Qualifications
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 14 July | IAL mark schemes released |
| 21 July | International GCSE mark schemes released |
| 1 August | The 2025 exam materials will be unpadlocked |
| 13 August | Results Day for IAL |
| 18 August | IAL examiners' reports released |
| 20 August | Results Day for International GCSE |
| 25 August | International GCSE examiners' reports released |
We've had a great response to our exam feedback surveys this year - thank you to those of you who have already completed them. If you haven't done so yet but would like to, they are still open - follow the links below.
Your feedback will play a vital role in shaping the future of our qualifications and assessments. Your input will be shared with our senior examiners and across our subject teams to help us continuously improve future assessments and enhance the exam experience for students.
We are seeking teachers to join our Teacher Research Panel for IAL Biology, Chemistry and Physics. We want to know what is working, what isn't working and everything in between! You can be involved as much or as little as your time allows and activities could range from simple surveys to more detailed focus groups, as we explore ways to improve these qualifications.
If you are keen to be involved and provide feedback through multiple research opportunities, we want to hear from you! If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, please fill in the form below to indicate your interest.
Below is a link to our "Understanding your students' results" guide for teachers, which gives an overview of the post-results services available. There's also some useful information and links regarding these in the section below.
After results have been published you may wish to analyse your results using some of the services we have available such as Access To Scripts and Results Plus.The Access to Scripts portal and ResultsPlus can only be accessed by Edexcel Online users who have the Exam Viewer and ResultsPlus permissions ticked in their Edexcel Online profiles.
Only Exams Officers are able to give teachers this access, so you may wish to contact your to check everything is in place ready for the results days.
You can access Summer 2026 grade boundaries on our website from results day. In addition to the official grade boundaries that are produced at subject level, we will also be providing notional grade boundaries at paper level. These can help you mark and assess future mocks.
Available from results day, our Access to Scripts service allows you to view your candidates’ marked scripts online or download as PDFs, providing transparency of marking and to help you make decisions around requests for reviews of marking and inform future teaching and learning.
ResultsPlus is our online results analysis tool that gives you a detailed breakdown of your students’ performance in their exams.
Once you’ve received your students' results, you can get more insight on their performance on each question at individual student, class or cohort level using ResultsPlus.
Set up ResultsPlus now so you’re ready to review your students’ performance as soon as results are released.
Use ResultsPlus to understand your students’ performance
ResultsPlus gives you a clear breakdown of how your students performed in Pearson Edexcel exams and BTEC external assessments at:
- student level
- class level
- cohort level.
Watch our short video to see how you can use ResultsPlus to get quick, useful insights
Find out more and set up your ResultsPlus account
For School Groups
ResultsPlus Group Analysis helps you see performance across all your schools in one place. You can also use it to analyse mock exam results, so it’s useful throughout the year.
Watch our short video to see how it works
If you’re part of a trust or group of schools, you’ll need a separate ResultsPlus Group Analysis account even if your school already has ResultsPlus.
Set up your ResultsPlus Group Analysis account
Linear qualifications (for example UK GCSEs and A Levels have grade boundaries set at qualification level based on raw or scaled marks.
Our International A Levels, and our new modular International GCSE courses, are different, and for each unit raw marks are converted to Uniform Mark Scale marks with fixed grade boundaries using a unique converstion table. It is these UMS marks that appear on candidates' results slips, and which will be used to determine their final grade.
The UMS can be confusing for students and for teachers, so we have produced this video guide to aid teachers in advising their students.
If you're not happy with your students' results from the Summer exam series, you can take the following steps:
- View the grade boundaries, question papers, mark schemes and examiner reports for the paper/qualification concerned. View your students’ scripts using our free access to scripts service that is available from results day until the 12 December 2025.
- Log in to ResultsPlus to see how your students have performed on every question for the externally assessed component and compare their performance to the national average.
- If you are still unhappy with your students' results, you may apply for a review of marking via our post-results services. Full details of all our post-results services are available on our website.
Waiting for exam results can be nerve-wracking for many students. Our guide for students, parents and carers on Understanding results and grades contains helpful information about what to expect on results day and where to find further support.
The guide includes information on:
- dates for results days
- receiving and understanding results
- grades and grade boundaries
- what steps to take if they are not happy with their results
- university applications
- certificates
- where to find further support.
Please pass this information on to your students.
We have face-to-face training events ready to book onto, for teachers of our International GCSE and IAL science courses in the following locations between August and November:
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Nicosia, Cyprus
- Dubai, UAE
- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Doha, Qatar
- Kuwait City, Kuwait
Online events in the autumn including free 'getting ready to teach' and 'exam insights' training will be launched shortly.
View all International Science courses available and book your places.
We also provide centre-based training opportunities. If this is something you would like to explore, please visit our training page below.
The questions below have been asked during training events recently, in our Facebook group or in emails to teachingscience@pearson.com:
For certain exam series we produce different papers, commonlly known as 'regional papers' for candidates sitting their exams in certain countries. For International GCSEs these have paper codes ending in 'R', whereas for International A Levels they end in 'A'.
The regions that use these 'regional papers' are not the same for International GCSE and IAL, so if in doubt check with your Exams Officer to confirm which you will be using.
Because these papers a) are designed to be comparable in terms of challenge and b) test the same content and skills, you can use either (or both) as past papers for students to practise on.
In short, 'yes' - this is common in schools in the UK where the majority of students take Combined (Double Award) Science. The additional content that students who take separate International GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics helps build their confidence and skills in these subjects, but is not required foundational knowledge for progression to A Level or equivalent courses.
It's worth noting that entry requirements for courses are the responsibility of centres and are not set by Awarding Organisations such as Pearson. This means that students don't need to complete GCSE or International GCSE courses before starting A Level or IAL courses - it's up to each centre to judge whether these are appropriate given each student's prior learning and achievement.
Yes, as long as the course is a modular International GCSE, or an International A Level (these are all modular), individual units can be re-sat after a grade has been awarded, and a new grade and certificate generated which will be based on the best mark achieved in each unit from the previous two attempts.
There is no time limit on when units can be re-sat, as long as exams for the current specification remain available. When a new specification is introduced the exams for the previous one are phased out, and units cannot be 'mixed and matched' between different specifications.
When new certificates are genearated, these will only show subjects for which exams were taken in the exam series in question. This means that if a student only wishes to resit a unit in one subject, their new certificate would only feature this one, and they would need to use their original certificate to evidence their grades for their other subjects.
Subject advisor
Irine Muhiuddin and Tim Lawrence
UK and International Science
