Lina

*Please note the student’s name has been changed to maintain confidentiality. 

Authors: Dr Liyuan Liu (Senior Assessment Researcher, Pearson), Kevin Mason (Senior Assessment Researcher, Pearson) 

Citation: Liu, L & Mason, K (2024) Modified exam papers: Lina’s story.  Available at: Modified exam papers case studies (Accessed: 26 March 2024).  

Lina, a Year 12 student at a mainstream secondary school in England, completed her GCSE summer exams in 2023. For her exams, Lina utilised Unified English Braille (UEB) 2 and tactile diagrams. Additionally, she has been using a Braille Note Touch device for her school work and is currently enrolled in a learning program for the screen reader Jaws, which she primarily uses at home for Zoom meetings and music software. 

In late 2023, Lina's mother reached out to us to share Lina's remarkable achievement in her GCSE Geography exam. Although initially predicated to achieve a Grade 3, Lina impressively attained a Grade 6. Lina and her mother attributed this outstanding result to Lina’s diligent study with an excellent personal tutor and extensive practice with past Geography Braille papers provided by Pearson Edexcel. This achievement is particularly encouraging for a blind student who faced a subject heavily reliant on graphs and maps. In discussions with us, Lina and her mother highlighted the obstacles encountered while preparing for the GCSE exams and shared their insights and concerns regarding the A-level exams scheduled for two years ahead. 

Our key findings: 

• The lack of early access to past Braille exam papers and the low availability of additional, exam-mimicking practice questions are significant barriers to effective exam preparation.  
• Learning and becoming familiar with Assistive Technologies requires time and support from schools and families.
• The use of diagrams presents significant challenges that need to be addressed during preparation and in the exam. 
• Allocating extra time for exams can lead to exhaustion among students. 
  

1. The lack of early access to past Braille exam papers and the low availability of additional, exam-mimicking practice questions are significant barriers to effective exam preparation  

Lina began her exam preparation by practising with past exam papers in Year 10, giving her just one year to familiarise herself with the question types and formats across the seven subjects she selected for her GCSE exams. Lina's mother suggested that it would have been beneficial to have access to past Braille exam papers earlier, even starting from Year 7. This would have allowed Lina ample time to start familiarising herself with the style in which the exam questions are written and would have helped her in her preparations. In our interview, Lina's mother pointed out that the lack of access to past exam papers in accessible formats hindered their ability to start early preparation. She explained to us that the school was unable to provide the past exam papers in braille as they were used for the mock exams. She went on to emphasise how helpful it would have been to have had more access to these types of papers and for Lina to have started practicing with them from as early as Year 7.  Unfortunately, the barrier is still there, and she told us “I'm facing the same problem now, I’ve asked (relevant agencies) to give us [A level] past exam papers, but they haven’t sent them to us.” She told us they are not alone in this experience and that this seems to be an issue for many families with blind students, “it’s a real fight and I know of some other families now nationally who cannot get exam papers, which is not okay.”   

Lina affirmed her mother's view that practising with past exam papers is advantageous. She also emphasised the need for new practice questions that mimic the style and format of previous exam items. Lina shared, "I did do past exam papers. They were okay. The only thing I found with that is that they’re never going to come up again... it was good to get the style of the paper, the type of question. I would have liked to have seen more practice questions that hadn’t been used before.” 

2. Learning and becoming familiar with Assistive Technologies requires time and support from schools and families   

In addition to printed versions of past exam materials that are accessible to them, vision-impaired and blind students often need to utilise assistive technologies (ATs) to fully access assessments and ensure they are on equal footing with their peers. ATs encompass a wide range of tools and systems designed to maintain or enhance the functional abilities of individuals with various learning needs, including tactile diagrams, screen readers, screen magnifiers, Braille displays, etc. 

These technologies aim to foster students' independence; however, mastering them requires time. During our interview, Lina talked about the complexity of a screen reader software - Jaws. When tracing back to her learning journey, one initial hurdle was learning the software with the assistance of a school IT staff member who was unfamiliar with it. “He basically always had to read the manual first and then explain it to Lina," resulting in a slow learning process. Consequently, Lina’s family sought external assistance from a US tech company to support the learning.  

3. The use of diagrams presents significant challenges that need to be addressed    

(This refers to a non-Pearson GCSE but would apply across all awarding organisations.) 

It was clear from listening to Lina and her mother that Geography is one of Lina’s favourite subjects and she would like to continue studying it at A level despite facing significant challenges. Lina’s mother pointed out that "70% of the geography paper consists of images and diagrams," highlighting a major obstacle for Lina. 

Lina expressed difficulties with the school's tactile diagrams, particularly due to their lack of texture and the inappropriate use of embossing materials. She mentioned, "The main issue is with the diagrams, especially the Zychem paper. Ideally, I'd use other materials like Tacti-Mark or Wikki Stix, which provide more texture than the Zychem paper." She explained that the insufficient texture makes it hard to distinguish between different elements of the diagrams, such as grids and graphs. To underscore the importance of texture, Lina’s mother gave an example: without adequate textures, a blind child may struggle to explore details and differentiate between various elements like the sea, houses, and roads within a graph. 

Furthermore, during the exam, Lina faced difficulties with the layout of questions and diagrams when they were placed on separate pages. This arrangement required her to constantly switch back and forth between the diagram and its corresponding questions, significantly taxing her working memory. 

When asked about her views on using a screen reader to read out audio diagrams, Lina conveyed a lack of enthusiasm, saying, “It's just not how people process information. They don’t capture my attention, and I end up losing focus or even falling asleep." This statement reflects the challenges and limitations of audio diagrams in keeping her engaged. 

4. Extra time might make students exhausted

Lina qualifies for 100% additional time on her exams. When asked if she found the extra time sufficient, Lina responded, "Yes, it's actually too much time. I didn't use all of it for many of the exams." Lina's mother mentioned that having two four-hour exams in one day is excessively long and tiring for Lina and other students in similar situations. Ultimately, they resolved this issue by coordinating with the examination board to reschedule one of the GCSE exams to the next testing day, instead of having it on the originally planned day, which significantly relieved Lina. 

Lina shared how she utilised the extra time during exams: " I'm not sure I used it as much in the finals, but I often found myself rereading material many times, to an extent where it got crazy”. She told us the excessive time gave her too much opportunity to second-guess myself. There were moments when she wished to leave because she was the only one remaining, which was frustrating, especially when everyone else had already left by five o'clock. 

Lina offered her advice for students who receive extra time: "Try to predict what may come up. Don't feel pressured to use all the additional time if it's not necessary. Because I had a problem with that. Too much extra time, I think, is a thing. People often say that it’s not a thing, but I think that is a thing." 

Disclaimers and acknowledgements 

Disclaimers 

a. This case study is based on one person’s experience, which gives us a valuable window into the specific challenges and opportunities they encountered but may not be representative of all students.   

b. The above case study is part of the Pearson Modified Exam Papers Project, our interviewed student sat for subjects across three exam boards, and feedback was not linked solely to Pearson Edexcel GCSE exams.   

Acknowledgements   

We would like to acknowledge the important contribution towards the work in this case study from the UK LOOK family and our young student expert, in particular their support in the Modified Exam Papers Research Project 2022-2024.   

Furthermore, we wish to take the opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks to our colleagues at Pearson UK, spanning various teams. These individuals include:  

Benjamin Redmond, Grace Grima, Hayley Dalton (Pearson Qualifications & Assessment Research Team) for their invaluable comments, feedback and professional support during the case study.  

Louise Denman and Rachel Laking (Modified Formats Team) for their role in highlighting the significance of conducting this research project and for providing recommendations based on the unique scenarios of students as presented in the case study.  

Joanna Biggers and Lesley Roberts (Communications & Engagement Team) for their noteworthy contributions and support in shaping the MPP campaign plan. Their meticulous review and editing of the case study have been fully appreciated.    

Sam Hone for her contribution to the Modified Paper Campaign and collaboration with the Communications & Engagement and RNIB PR teams to promote our case studies. This collaboration aims to enable more families and schools to benefit from these individual stories.