Exam boards will be required to offer AS-level exams in only five subjects during this year’s autumn exam series.
The exams will be open to any student receiving a teacher assessment grade this year, or those who an exam board “reasonably believes would have entered for the exams in summer 2021 had they taken place”.
Ofqual will require boards to offer all exams in all GCSE and A-level subjects, but will only have to offer AS exams in biology, chemistry, further maths, maths and physics.
These were the only subjects in which autumn exams were taken by more than 100 students last year. Boards can offer exams in
other AS subjects if they wish.
Boards can also offer GCSE English language and maths exams in January 2022 “for students who were eligible to enter the autumn exams in those subjects but did not do so”.
The regulator published a consultation response this week that confirmed other proposals set out earlier this year.
Separately, Ofqual also published its decisions on autumn resits for vocational and technical and qualifications.
Awarding organisations that normally provide assessment opportunities between September and January will be required to make those assessments available to learners cirwho were eligible to receive a result through a teacher assessed grade if they wish to improve on it.
Where awarding organisations do not normally provide assessment opportunities between September and January, Ofqual will require them to provide those opportunities where they “reasonably consider there is sufficient demand and would be manageable to both the awarding organisation and centres”.
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