Covid: How will my exams be different this year?

Advance information about this year’s exams in England and Wales has been published.

It is part of measures agreed between national governments and exam regulators to compensate candidates for learning loss and allow their work to be assessed fairly.

Pearson, OCR, AQA and Eduqas examination boards have published information for most A-level, AS-level and GCSE subjects.

The idea is to give candidates a better idea of ​​what to review after the spring semester, rather than reduce the breadth of courses.

They list the topics that will be the main focus of the assessments, but they do not cover everything that will be covered in the exams.

Therefore, candidates are still encouraged to review the entire course, and teachers will contact students to help them prepare.

Courses that are entirely based on coursework are not included, including art and design at both GCSE and A/AS level.

Students taking examinations in other subjects (English Literature, Geography, History and Ancient History) will not be required to answer questions on one of their GCSE course options.

Teachers will have already chosen which of the options they are focusing on and therefore which of the options the students do not have to learn.

On math and science tests, students will be given formula sheets and equations.

Students who earn B-Tec vocational qualifications will have fewer internal assessments.

Qualification Wales, which oversees Welsh examination standards, has simplified the content of the examinations and relaxed the rules for courses.

The Welsh Examinations Board WJEC published details of this in July so that schools are already familiar with the changes. They also increased the number of options in assignments to reflect the likelihood of missing learning blocks.

In addition, advance information on a variety of topics (similar to that offered by English boards) has been posted.

The CCEA examination board, which covers the majority of students in the country, allows them to drop an entire examination unit if they wish.

This will be decided in discussion with students, teachers and parents.

An exam can have two units, so students can drop up to 50% of the content, but a minimum amount of content must still be covered.

Scotland has a different examination system to the rest of the UK, with the Nationals taken at age 16 and the Seniors in the fifth or sixth year of secondary school.

Grades are awarded for a combination of courses and exams, although this is currently under review.

For 2022, the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) has reduced the burden on students by removing or reducing the exam or an element of coursework.

The details were published some time ago, so schools and universities are already aware.

And SQA has decided to offer more support, such as guidance on exam topics, in light of the continued disruption to education in recent months.

Grades will be decided in the usual way through external grades, rather than relying on teacher evaluations used during the last two years.

After that, the examination boards will make the normal adjustments, taking into account the standard of the entries and the difficulty of the individual papers.

In all four nations, there will be more lenient grade limits.

These will be set at a “midpoint” between the pre-pandemic limits of 2019 and the grade levels used in teacher evaluations in 2021.

As assessed by teachers, more students passed the exams and received higher grades than in previous years.

The more generous caps are designed to reflect the reality of learning over the past two years and give an extra boost to students who might otherwise simply miss out on a higher grade.

Teachers, academics, politicians and educational charities have recognized the magnitude of the disruption caused by Covid.

The Commons education committee has been repeatedly told that the poorest pupils and those with special educational needs have been hit the hardest.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he would put “equity at the core” of plans for the 2022 exams.

There are clear differences in how nations plan to tackle learning loss, but review boards say they are working closely with each other to ensure a consistent approach.

The Education Policy Institute said governments had had to choose from a variety of “imperfect options.”