Guidance on what to expect from exam questions from September 2025
July 2025
General considerations:
• Most specifications being taught for GCSE, International GCSE, AS, A level and International IAS/A level have been assessed for at least 9 years.
• Some subjects/qualifications have two or more exam series per year.
• For International GCSEs, 2 or more sets of exam papers are offered per series (paper-based, regional, linear, modular, onscreen).
• Pearson provides a range of sample assessment materials and specimen papers.
This means that for some qualifications, as many as 25 sets of papers have been written to date. For many subjects, students are offered a choice of questions on the same text/topic. This means that, for example, examiners may have authored more than 100 questions since 2016 on a particular text/topic.
As a teacher, what can I expect from exam questions in future exam series?
This is explained clearly by JCQ in the ‘Question papers and assessment tasks’ section:
We design all of our question papers and assessment tasks to follow the specification. This means that they are at the correct level for the qualification they assess, they are valid for the specification, they assess the content reliably over time and they differentiate between learners of different abilities. At the same time they allow learners of all abilities to demonstrate what they have learnt. We also ensure that our assessment materials are unbiased, accessible, are not overly predictable and where there is a choice of questions or tasks they will be of equal difficulty. If we find evidence during the assessment process that a particular assessment item has not performed as expected we will take that into account at the grade boundary setting stage. We review the performance of our assessment materials after each exam series.
Access the JCQ guidance.
Frequently asked questions
As the current specifications ‘get older’ will questions set before be repeated?
Over time, questions may assess similar content. Depending on the question style in the subject/qualification, either similar or identical wording may be used. Where qualifications have extract-based questions, over time, in some subjects, an extract may be used more than once.
Will examiners only set questions on the parts of the content that has not been assessed before?
No, they won’t. Examiners set questions across all of the content that is available each exam series. If they only set questions on material that had not previously been assessed, there could be an element of predictability about which topics might be covered in exam questions. This could undermine the fairness of assessments.
Where students have a choice of questions, must every question give a student the opportunity to respond on the same scope/breadth of material?
No. On questions requiring extended responses, some questions may be ‘broad’ so that a student may think about a large amount of content and select which parts they are going to address. Other questions may have a narrower focus. In every case, examiners write indicative content to ensure that each question offers students access to the full range of marks. As JCQ notes above, all question options must have a similar level of demand and broader questions are not ‘easier’ than more narrowly focused ones. ‘Narrower’ questions may give students the opportunity to explore a topic in depth.
After exams have been sat, examiners monitor how questions have performed. If they find that in practice one question has proved more demanding than another, they instruct examining teams to take that into consideration when awarding marks and setting grade boundaries.
When can we expect specifications which date from 2015 or 2016 to change?
The Department for Education is undertaking a Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) with recommendations due to be published in 2025. The review recommendations may provide information about when any changes to current qualifications may be expected.
Subject advisor
Clare Haviland
English
