GCSE students in England will get formulae and equations in their maths and science exams under plans to limit the impact of Covid.
The Department for Education (DfE) has asked the exams regulator, Ofqual, to extend the support measure for another year.
Year 11 students sitting exams had just started secondary school when the first national lockdown was introduced.
A teaching union said giving them the formulae was “the right thing to do”.
Ofqual has launched a two-week consultation on the proposal.
The DfE said it would mean “enhanced formulae and equation sheets” for students in maths, physics and combined science GCSEs.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “Young people taking GCSEs next year will be the last who experienced two years of national closures during secondary school and it’s right that we recognise that with some additional support.”
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy for school leaders’ union NAHT, said there was “no need for an additional test of memory” in the exams.
However, she said it was “disappointing that this decision has been made so late on” in the run-up to students taking mocks next month.
Exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and grades were based on teachers’ assessments.
They were reintroduced in 2022 with extra measures to reflect the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Some of those measures remained in place for exams in 2023. GCSE papers in the same subject were spaced apart more than they were before the pandemic, allowing for rest and revision.
Students had formulae and equation sheets in some subjects, and were not tested on unfamiliar vocabulary in modern foreign language exams.
But, unlike in the rest of the UK, GCSE students in England were not given advance information about the topics on which they would be tested.
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