The number of requests for special consideration in GCSE and A-level exams has risen sharply since last year and before the pandemic.
There were 700,600 special consideration requests made for the 2023 summer GCSE, AS level and A level exams, up 19 per cent on the year before (588,170) and also up 19 per cent on the 2019 figure, the last before the pandemic (590,835).
Newly published Ofqual data shows 633,610 requests for mark adjustments were approved this year, up 26 per cent on the 2022 figure (502,165) and up 21 per cent on 2019 (522,265). The total number of special consideration requests approved is 23 per cent higher than in 2019.
Special consideration refers to post-exam adjustments made to a student’s mark or grade owing to “exceptional circumstances” affecting their performance.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) lists some of the reasons special consideration may be requested to be illness or injury, bereavement, domestic crisis, serious disturbance during the exam, or failure by the centre to implement previously approved access arrangements.
The other form of special consideration request approved is a qualification award, which is for students who were absent from the exam with “good reason”. Mark adjustments are used for students present but disadvantaged in some way by the circumstances at the time.
The number of qualification award requests approved was 35 per cent lower than in 2022 (32,565 compared with 50,135). However, 53 per cent more were approved this year than in 2019.
The mental health connection
Ofqual said that the jump in special consideration requests could be down to some adaptations being maintained from the pandemic, extended time intervals between exams being largely preserved and guidance relating to students who had Covid during the exams.
Association of School and College Leaders qualification specialist Tom Middlehurst said the rising mark adjustments combined with a fall in qualification awards “suggests that fewer students are missing exams because of illness, but that the performance of more students is affected by illness, extreme distress, traumatic experiences and injuries.”
“We wonder whether this is connected to rising rates of poor mental health among young people and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on families, leading to students reaching crisis point during the intense pressure of an exam system that is almost entirely based on terminal exams,” he added.
Ofqual advises caution in comparing consideration requests from year to year because of changes in the balance of exams and non-exam assessment in many subjects and changes in components of exams available.
Subject breakdown
At AS and A level, maths had the highest number of special consideration requests (17,640), followed by psychology and biology. At GCSE, the highest number of requests were for combined science (109,905), followed by maths and then English language.
Ofqual said that the subjects with the most special consideration requests “were generally those with the highest certifications”.
The latest summer exam series saw 6 per cent of marks adjusted by 5 per cent (the highest adjustment JCQ allows in its guidelines), 26 per cent of marks adjusted by 4 per cent and 28 per cent adjusted by 3 per cent.
A 5 per cent mark adjustment is said to be ”reserved for the most exceptional cases, such as the recent death of a family member of terminal illness”.
Special consideration requests had previously peaked in 2018 when they were at their highest in at least the five previous years. Earlier this month, Ofqual data showed that the number of access arrangements put in place for the 2023 exams had jumped 8.7 per cent compared with the year before.
