Official Statistics

Background information for reviews of marking and moderation for GCSE, AS and A level: summer 2023 exam series

Published 14 December 2023

Applies to England

Purpose

In this release, Ofqual presents data on all reviews of marking, reviews of moderation and administrative error reviews (collectively referred to as ‘reviews’ and formerly known as ‘enquiries about results’) requested for all GCSE, AS and A level assessments taken during the summer 2023 exam series.

Geographical coverage

This report presents data on the number of reviews requested in England. Four exam boards offer GCSE, AS and A level qualifications in England:

• AQA Education (AQA)

• Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR)

• Pearson Education Ltd (Pearson)

• WJEC-CBAC Ltd. (WJEC/Eduqas)

Description

The review of marking process

Every year, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), a membership organisation of 8 awarding organisations, including the 4 exam boards in England offering GCSE, AS and A levels, publish information and guidance for schools and colleges on making use of the post-results services for the relevant exam series. The GCSE, and AS and A level Qualification Level Conditions and Requirements (the Conditions) published by Ofqual, outline the requirements for reviews of marking, reviews of moderation, and administrative error reviews that exam boards must follow for GCSE and AS and A level qualifications.

If a school or college or an individual student is concerned that an error has occurred when assessment material has been marked, the school or college can decide to seek a review from the exam board. Exam boards only accept review requests through schools and colleges, and not from students, and require consent from the student to request reviews of marking and administrative error reviews. Private students are the exception; the Conditions for GCSE and AS and A level require exam boards to accept review requests directly from private students.

A whole qualification (for example A level English literature) will comprise of several assessments, for example, one or more examinations, and/or one or more non-examination assessment (NEA) components. Reviews are requested for each assessment individually and not for the qualification as a whole. Reviews can be requested for multiple assessments that a student has taken for one qualification. This is why the total number of qualification grades challenged is always lower than the total number of reviews of marking. Reviews of moderation are different, as one review involves multiple students. However, the vast majority of reviews requested are reviews of marking and so, overall, the number of grades challenged is always lower than the number of reviews requested.

In some cases, multiple reviews are requested for the same assessment, for example, an administrative error review may be requested and then a review of marking. Where an assessment is made up of more than one part (known as sub-components) and a student must complete all sub-components to complete the assessment (for example, an exam with a multiple-choice element and a written element), a review can be made on an individual sub-component in some cases.

If the review shows that marking or administrative errors have been made and the student’s result is incorrect, the exam board is required to change the mark to correct the error. The changed mark can be higher or lower than the original mark. In some cases, this may affect the overall qualification grade, which will then also be changed. For reviews of moderation, grades can only be confirmed or raised following review. Exam boards charge a fee if qualification grades are not changed following review, or, for a review of moderation, if the original school or college marks are not reinstated.

Ofqual’s Conditions for GCSE and AS and A level state that exam boards must set their own deadlines within which they should complete reviews and report the outcome for GCSE, AS and A level qualifications. They must do so within the timeframe of ‘key dates’ that Ofqual has prescribed. These dates provide a common minimum window for centres and/or students and allow exam boards to set common dates if they wish – which they have so far all chosen to do. The dates the exam boards have chosen to set are detailed in the sections on each type of review below as outlined in the Joint Council for Qualifications guidelines.

Each exam board offers 3 post-results services for reviewing exam papers and non-examination assessment:

• An administrative error review for an individual assessment (‘Service 1’)

• A review of marking for an individual assessment (‘Service 2’)

• A review of moderation of the school or college’s internal assessment using the sample of students’ work that was used in the initial moderation (‘Service 3’)

Administrative error review of an individual student’s script

The exam board checks the script to make sure that every question has been marked and the total number of marks awarded for that script is correctly added up and recorded. This year exam boards stipulated that schools and colleges must have requested this service by 28 September 2023. The deadline set by exam boards by which they must aim to notify schools and colleges about the outcomes of administrative error reviews is 10 calendar days from the date of receipt.

Review of marking for an individual assessment

A reviewer considers the marking of the original examiner to determine, in respect of each task in the assessment for which marks could have been awarded, whether the marking included any marking error(s). The exam board also conducts a full administrative error review if this has not been previously requested for the assessment. Exam boards typically operate 2 priority levels:

• Priority – schools and colleges can request this if the student’s place in further or higher education depends on the outcome of a review or if a quick response is desired. Exam boards stipulated that requests for a priority service 2 review must have been submitted by 24 August 2023 for AS and A level, and GCSE qualifications.

• Non-priority – exam boards stipulated that schools and colleges must have requested this by 28 September 2023.

All exam boards offer priority reviews of marking for AS and A level assessments. However, only Pearson currently offer this service for GCSE assessments.

The deadline set by exam boards by which they must aim to notify schools and colleges about the outcomes of reviews of marking is 20 calendar days for the non-priority service and 15 calendar days for the priority service from the date of receipt.

Review of moderation of the school or college’s internal assessment using the sample of students’ work

Under Ofqual rules, students must be given the opportunity by an exam board to seek a review of the centre assessed mark that their school or college determines, prior to the mark being submitted to the exam board. Exam boards do not collect data on such reviews.

A review of moderation service is not available for individual students. It is requested by a school or college and undertaken on a sample of students’ work that was originally marked by teachers at that school or college. The exam board reviews the initial moderation to make sure that the moderation was carried out correctly and in accordance with the marking criteria and/or if there were any errors made in any adjustments to the centre’s original marks as a result of the moderation. Marks must be corrected if an error is found in the judgements made by the original moderator and/or they find any errors in any adjustments made to the centre’s original marks as a result of the moderation.

Exam boards stipulated that this service must have been requested by 28 September 2023. The deadline set by exam boards by which they must aim to notify schools and colleges about the outcomes of reviews of moderation is 35 calendar days from the moderator receiving the original sample of work from the school or college.

Appeals

If a school or college has requested a review but is still dissatisfied with the outcome, it can make an appeal to the exam board. There is also a final stage available through the Examination Procedures Review Service. A report presenting the data on appeals for the 2022 to 2023 academic year (including the June 2023 series) will be published by Ofqual in Spring 2024.

Context

When considering the data presented in this release, it is important to note several changes to qualifications and requirements for reviews of marking that are likely to have impacted on these figures. Therefore, any comparisons between the figures this year and previous years should be made with caution as arrangements for assessment and grading were not the same.

Grading in summer 2020 and summer 2021

In summer 2020 and summer 2021, exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, no reviews of marking or moderation took place and there is no data presented for these years.

Grading in summer 2022

Summer 2022 saw the return of formal exams and assessments, as well as the review of marking and moderation process. To recognise the disruption experienced by students due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a package of support was made available to students sitting exams in 2022. Grading in summer 2022 reflected a midpoint between summer 2021 and 2019.

Grading in summer 2023

In summer 2023, there was a return to pre-pandemic grading, with protection built into the grading process to recognise the disruption that students had faced.

Changes to the review of marking process

In August 2016, Ofqual introduced the Conditions for GCSE and AS and A level which specify the requirements for reviews of marking and moderation that exam boards offering qualifications in England must follow. The key changes to the review of marking process following the introduction of the Conditions were as follows:

• a mark must only be changed following an administrative error review, a review of marking or a review of moderation if an error occurred. The reason for a change of mark must be recorded.

• exam boards must have their own review processes and publish these.

• exam boards are required to train reviewers (including those undertaking reviews of moderation) prior to undertaking reviews and monitor their performance as reviewers.

From summer 2022 onwards, Ofqual rules required exam boards to make marked GCSE scripts available to centres before their deadline for requesting a review of marking. These requirements were originally intended to come into effect from summer 2020, but in the absence of summer exams in 2020 and 2021, they came into effect from summer 2022. This change was intended to increase the information that schools and colleges had to identify potential marking errors and inform their decision about whether to apply for a review of marking or moderation. This change could have affected the numbers of reviews of marking or moderation from summer 2022 onwards.

Changes to the student population

Total numbers of qualification entries and hence the number of reviews of marking and moderation fluctuate with changes in the student population. Notably, there was a 10.4% increase in the 16-year-old population over the past 5 years, from 613,025 in 2019 to 676,773 in 2023 according to ONS population estimates.

Data source

Data used in this release was submitted to Ofqual by AQA, OCR, Pearson and WJEC. Data for AS and A levels is presented jointly, unless otherwise specified. Data on the total number of GCSE, AS and A level component entries and qualification certifications presented in Table 1 and 2 of the data tables accompanying this release is collected every exam series from exam boards in a separate data return. Data on the number of qualification certificates awarded in each subject presented in Table 7 and 8 was supplied by JCQ and is published in their GCSE and AS and A level results day reports.

Limitations

Reviews are conducted on individual assessments and so it is possible to request more than one review for a single qualification that a student has taken. It is therefore possible that, where more than one review has been requested for the same student and qualification, more than one service may have been requested. For example, consider a student who has taken GCSE biology and whose school has decided to request a review for 2 assessments that the student has taken for this qualification. The school may decide to submit both assessments for a review of marking or they may decide to submit one assessment for an administrative error review and one assessment for a review of marking. Breaking down the number of grades challenged and changed by service becomes problematic when multiple review services are requested for the same student across multiple assessments within a qualification. In the example given above, only one grade is challenged but 2 review services are requested. Counting the grade challenged in both administrative error review and review of marking figures would mean double counting, which would be incorrect. Therefore, in the breakdown of reviews requested and grades challenged and changed by service, students who have had their grades challenged through more than one service have not been included in the grades challenged and changed figures. These students are however included in all other figures reported and Tables 5 and 6 in the data tables published along with the report include a breakdown of the number of grades challenged and changed through multiple services by exam board.

When a review of moderation is requested by a centre, the exam boards provide us with data for all the students in the centre who took the assessment, regardless of the outcome of the review. Ofqual cannot guarantee that the data collected is correct, although it expects exam boards to send correct data. There are several validation and data check processes in place. Summary data is sent to exam boards for checking and confirmation. The figures reported in this release reflect the status of reviews at the data cut-off date - 14 November 2023.

Revisions

Once published, data are not usually subject to revision, although subsequent releases may be revised to insert late data or to correct an error.

Confidentiality and rounding

To ensure confidentiality of the published accompanying data, figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. If the value is less than 5, it is represented as ‘fewer than 5’ and 0 represents zero reviews, grade challenged, or grades changed. As a result of rounded figures, the percentages (calculated on actual figures) shown in tables may not necessarily add up to 100.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance procedures are carried out as explained in the Quality Assurance Framework for Statistical Publications published by Ofqual to ensure the accuracy of the data and to challenge or question it, where necessary. The publication may be deferred if the statistics are not considered fit for purpose.

Status

These statistics are classified as official statistics.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Related publications

A number of other statistical releases and publications relate to this one:

• Statistics: GCSEs (key stage 4) collection

• Statistics: 16 to 19 attainment collection

For any related publications for qualifications offered in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland please contact the respective regulators – Qualifications Wales, CCEA and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

Useful links

• Report and data tables accompanying this release

• Definitions of important terms used in this release

• Policies and procedures that Ofqual follow for production of statistical releases

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on our publications. Should you have any comments on this statistical release and how to improve it to meet your needs, please contact us at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk.