Autumn 2020 assessments
A special and additional assessment series has been arranged. This coincides with an Ofqual requirement for all awarding organisations to run a full exam series in the autumn. All qualifications will be offered, and none can be withdrawn unless no entries are received by the stated closing date.
Key Dates
The table below shows the entries deadline dates and assessment windows for the autumn 2020 assessment series across all Pearson Edexcel language qualifications. As our International A level qualifications already have a January assessment opportunity, only our IAL in Arabic will have an assessment offered in this window. Please double-check the entry dates with your exams officer as an earlier internal entry deadline may be imposed at your school or college.
| Qualification | Entry deadline | Start of window | End of window |
|---|---|---|---|
| A level | 4 September | 5 October | 23 October |
| GCSE | 18 September* | 2 November | 23 November |
| International GCSE | 18 September | 2 November | 23 November |
| IAL (Arabic - Unit 2 only) | 29 August | 5 October | 29 October |
*This date applies to GCSEs in languages. GCSEs in English and maths have an earlier entry deadline (4 September).
Access exam timetables for languages and paper specific dates
No speaking tests in autumn 2020
It’s important to note that no speaking tests will feature in the autumn 2020 assessments in line with regulatory guidance or, in the case of International GCSEs, to mirror the approach taken with GCSEs. Similarly, the separate speaking endorsement for our International GCSE in English as a second language qualification cannot be assessed in this series although entries can be made for this if carrying over a result from a previous endorsement.
Revised paper weightings
Students sitting examinations in this special series will still be able to achieve ‘full status’ qualifications but the assessment weightings for each language skill will be adjusted to compensate for the temporary removal of a speaking element.
For GCSE and International GCSE, the weightings for listening, reading and writing papers will each increase from one quarter to one third of the total qualification marks available. For A levels in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish, the weightings of papers 1 and 2 will increase from 40% and 30% to approximately 57% and 43% of the total qualification marks.
Restricted entries
It is intended that GCSE and A level entries in this series are restricted to those wanting to be examined following disappointing results or to those who had intended to take the summer 2020 exams but were withdrawn as the exam centre was unable to provide centre assessed grades. Entries for our International GCSE language qualifications, however, will be open to all candidates.
Which grade will count?
If students already have been issued grades in summer 2020 and also decide to take examinations in the autumn, Ofqual has confirmed that they will be able to use the highest of the two grades for future progression.
Subject advisor
Rebecca Waker
Languages
