Ofqual publishes report into summer 2014 exams

In our review of the summer 2014 exams, we conclude that despite the scale of the system, problems are relatively rare. Out of thousands of exam papers, only a handful had errors and the small number of security breaches were managed and contained.

Today we are issuing our report ‘Delivery of Summer 2014 Qualifications’ about our work to oversee the system. This also details issues that arose and interventions that we made during and after the summer 2014 exams.

‘Delivery of Summer 2014 Qualifications’ draws on our work regulating qualifications such as GCSEs, International GCSEs, A levels, Pre-U and the International Baccalaureate.

Says Glenys Stacey, Ofqual’s Chief Regulator:

22 million exam scripts and pieces of coursework were marked in June and July 2014 by tens of thousands of examiners - this meant a lot of work to tight timescales for the exam boards and examiners.

I am pleased to detail here what we did, during and after the summer 2014 exams, to make sure the actions taken by exam boards were fair and consistent.

But we do have some concerns:

1. The increases in requests for both access arrangements and special consideration. We will do more work to investigate the reasons for these.

2. The increase in both reported malpractice and enquiries about results. We are already working to drive improvements in the way exam boards manage malpractice and we are working to overhaul the enquiries about results system.