More than a third of examiners say they did not receive training on changes to the re-marking process prior to implementing the reforms, new research from the exam regulator suggests.

And the majority (54 per cent) of moderators also did not receive training on the new rules implemented last year before carrying out the reviews, according to a new report from Ofqual.

New rules were introduced by Ofqual last summer to ensure reviewers only changed marks when the original mark represented a clear error in marking.

But new analysis released today suggests that not all examiners followed the rules. In a small number of cases, a mark change was made even when there was no error in the original marking.

A survey, carried out by Ofqual, revealed that only 46 per cent of moderation reviewers and 64 per cent of marking reviewers said they had received any training prior to undertaking reviews.

Around half of the marking reviewers indicated they would change the mark to give a candidate ‘benefit of doubt’ when the original examiner had not- despite the new rules, the survey found.

An “experimental” study carried out by Ofqual - which looked at the reviewed scripts for English literature GCSE, mathematics GCSE and biology AS level - also found that the vast majority of questions in the study (93 per cent) were reviewed according to Ofqual’s rules.

But 6 per cent of the questions were not - which impacted upon 60 per cent of scripts in the study.

Sally Collier, Ofqual chief regulator, said: “It is pleasing to see that our new rules were used in many cases in the way we intended last summer.

“There will always be a period of adjustment following any change, and we are working with exam boards to identify what can be done this year to be even more confident that students are getting the results their performance deserves.”