Advance information on this year’s exams in England and Wales has been released.
It is part of measures agreed between national governments and examination authorities to compensate candidates for lost learning and allow their work to be fairly assessed.
The 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 sense of what they need to repeat after the spring semester, rather than narrowing the breadth of courses.
They list the topics that are the focus of the exams, but do not cover everything covered in the exams.
Therefore, candidates are still advised to revise the entire course, and teachers will liaise with students to help them prepare.
Courses based solely on coursework are not included, including art and design at GCSE and A/AS levels.
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Students taking exams in other subjects – English Literature, Geography, History and Ancient History – do not have to answer questions on any of their GCSE electives.
The teachers have already chosen which of the options to focus on and which of the options the students therefore do not need to learn.
In math and science exams, students are given sheets of formulas and equations.
Students completing professional B-Tec qualifications have fewer internal assessments.
Qualification Wales, which oversees Welsh exam standards, has streamlined exam content and relaxed coursework rules.
The Welsh Examination Board WJEC published details of this in July, so schools are already familiar with the changes. They also increased the choice of essays to reflect the likelihood of missed study blocks.
In addition, advance notices on a range of subjects (similar to those offered by English bodies) have been published.
The CCEA exam board, which covers most of the country’s students, allows them to drop an entire exam unit if they so choose.
This is decided in discussion with students, teachers and parents.
An exam can consist of two units, allowing students to 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 Nationals taken at age 16 and Highers in fifth or sixth year of secondary school.
Qualifications are awarded for a combination of coursework and examinations, but this is currently under review.
For 2022, the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) has reduced the load on students by either eliminating or reducing the exam or an element of coursework.
The details were published some time ago, so schools and colleges are already informed.
And SQA has decided to offer further support e.g. B. Advice on exam topics.
Grades are decided in the usual way by external assessment, rather than relying on teacher assessments used over the past two years.
Thereafter, the examination boards make normal adjustments, taking into account the standard of the entries and the difficulty of each paper.
All four nations will have softer class boundaries.
These will be set at a “midpoint” between the pre-pandemic boundaries of 2019 and the grade levels used in teacher ratings in 2021.
In teacher evaluation, more students passed exams and got better grades than in previous years.
The more generous limits are intended to reflect the reality of learning over the last two years and give an extra boost to students who would otherwise just miss out on a higher grade.
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Teachers, academics, politicians and educational organizations have all acknowledged the extent of the disruption caused by Covid.
The Commons Education Committee has been repeatedly told that poorer students and students with special educational needs have been hit hardest.
Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi said he would put “fairness at the core” of plans for the 2022 exams.
There are marked differences in how nations plan to address lost learning, but review boards say they are working closely to ensure a consistent approach.
The Education Policy Institute said governments had to choose from a range of “imperfect options”.
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