Education News: Exams in August
Due to the disruption caused by Covid-19, all GCSE and A level examinations were cancelled for the Summer of 2020. Those students due to take GCSEs (years 11) or A-Levels (years 13) are being awarded grades by their teachers based on their predicted grades and latest submission of work.
Any grades set by teachers or schools will be moderated and will reflect a similar grade average as awarded by the school in previous years. GCSE and A level final grades are due to be released in August on the dates below:
A level Results Day: Thursday the 13th August, 2020
GCSE Results Day: Thursday the 20th August, 2020
If students are unhappy with their awarded grades they may choose to sit their GCSE or A level exams in the new academic year. Dates for examinations have now been confirmed for Autumn 2020 by the joint council of examinations which includes the exam boards AQA, OCR, Edexcel and WJEC. They have confirmed:
A-level examinations will take place between Monday the 5th October and Friday the 23rd October.
GCSE examinations will take place between Monday the 2nd November and Monday the 23rd November.
This provides students who are unhappy with their grades a chance to take their examinations and attain a better grade for any of their subjects. Deadlines for entry into these examinations are:
Friday the 4th of September for A-level examinations
Thursday the 17th of September 18 for all GCSE examinations
Except GCSE English Language and GCSE maths, for which the deadline is Sunday the 4th of October.
Dr Philip Wright, director general of JCQ said: “By the autumn, many young people will have entered further or higher education or started their careers. The autumn series will be available for young people for whom it was not possible to issue a grade or who wish to improve their grades based on taking an exam. Full details on the autumn series will be available shortly from the exam boards.”
This announcement comes after Ofqual confirmed that pupils’ performance in the autumn series would be based on the examinations alone, not on any non-exam assessment. Only art and design qualifications will be assessed based on non-exam assessments. Ofqual also confirmed that exam boards must make exams available in all GCSE, AS and A-level subjects.