Much-anticipated advance information on GCSE and A-level exams is set to be published by exam boards today to help focus revision for summer exams amid fears that it will not be enough to mitigate against the disruption to learning caused by the Covid pandemic.
The advance material is being released to help focus study ahead of exams for students whose learning has been disrupted for subjects including maths, sciences, English, history and geography, but without providing exact questions that will appear.
Examiners will also be asked to be more generous than during pre-pandemic exams when setting grade boundaries to account for disruption.
Exams regulator Ofqual has previously announced that grade boundaries will be set roughly between 2019 pre-pandemic levels and boundaries in 2021, when teacher assessment was used to set grades.
However, exam experts, headteachers and teachers’ leaders have warned of fears that the move will not be enough to ensure fairness amid evidence that students have experienced varying levels of disruption to their learning over the past two years.
Last month, data from FFT Education Datalab revealed that disadvantaged students had missed an average of eight weeks of school since they started Year 10 in autumn 2020 - on top of the two months they were learning remotely when schools were closed in early 2021.
The figures, revealed by Tes, also expose regional disparities in absence rates for the current GCSE exam cohort: Year 11 students in the northern regions missed around 15 per cent of school sessions, compared with around 11 per cent in the South.
Professor Robert Coe, a member of Ofqual’s advisory board, said: “All sorts of problems in the system have been amplified by Covid. It is not at all obvious if advance notice achieves fairness and equalises outcomes. Will it achieve a perception of fairness? That’s what seems to matter.”
He added: “One of the pinch points this year is we are heading towards a grade-awarding process where the number of top grades could be reduced from one year to the next.”
The Department for Education and exam regulator Ofqual said the information released today will look different for each subject and exam board, reflecting the nature of those subjects and assessments.
In all subjects - with the exception of English literature, history, ancient history, geography and art and design which will focus on skills to be assessed- pupils will be given notice about the topics to be covered in this summer’s exams.
The advance information will not always list every topic covered because boards are concerned that could lead to excessive revision of one topic.
However, boards have said that, in some subjects, all topics covered will be listed to help preparation.
Students will be able to prioritise those topics in their revision, particularly if they are using past paper questions.
For some text-based subjects, such as English language, the advance information may include the genre or period that unseen texts used during exams will be drawn from.
Subjects such as art and design, which are only assessed through coursework, will not feature any advance information.
For “synoptic” questions, designed to cover the entire range of a syllabus, there will be no advance information because pupils could otherwise be disadvantaged through limiting their revision focus to a few select areas, exam boards said.
Such questions are designed to test pupils’ broader knowledge as it is feared that providing advance information would be restrictive.
The materials will only be available on the exam board websites.
In GCSE maths, combined science and physics, pupils will be given equation sheets to reduce the number of equations they need to memorise.
In GCSE English literature, history, ancient history and geography - subjects where advance information will not be released - pupils will study and be examined on fewer topics.
GCSEs 2022: Advance information ‘should have been provided earlier’
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said there are “grave concerns” among teachers that the advance information has come too late and “will not be enough to fairly mitigate the disruption” to education from the Covid pandemic.
“The government’s intention of releasing this information only in time for revision and not to aid teaching and learning always carried with it a critical flaw,” she said.
“If one of the topics you see on the list today is one you couldn’t cover at all or in as much depth through no fault of your own, due to Covid-related disruption, what do you do now?
There is just one half-term left until Easter, close to when exams begin, and little time to rush through any content. Yet this is the situation many students will face, which is going to create stress and pressure.”
Dr Bousted added that NEU members had been calling for the information at the start of the academic year, which would have enabled teachers to “plan powerful learning” and “maximise classroom time”.
“The mental health and wellbeing impact for exam classes this year is really significant,” she added.
“This isn’t a normal year. Many exam classes have needed supply teachers, and students have learned from home for periods. It is hard to fathom why the DfE can’t provide more support, flexibility and compassion for young people in how it has responded.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said his union will be looking at the advance information “in detail” to ensure that it provides “fairness to students of all ability levels.”
“This is clearly a very difficult situation because students have been affected to such hugely varying extents by the pandemic,” he said. “Creating a level playing field in these circumstances is exceptionally challenging. However, we hope that, taken together, the mitigations that are being put in place will provide fairness.”
Mr Barton said the ASCL supports the decision for students to sit exams this summer with adaptations “to show what they can do” and because “it seems right also to be taking a step back towards normality”.
Sarah Hannafin, senior policy adviser for school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “Advance information is not a simple list of what is assessed in the exam; the information is more complex, covers only high-tariff questions and might relate to only a particular exam paper or section of it, with different approaches between specifications and subjects.
“We need to remember this is new to teachers so it will only be over the coming days that we learn whether they believe it will be sufficient to counter the levels of disruption which students have faced due to Covid.”
Ofqual chief Regulator Dr Jo Saxton said: “Students have shown so much resilience during the pandemic and we know that they are seeking certainty. Advance information published today is one of the ways we are supporting students to have that certainty as they prepare to show what they know and can do.
“We are also ensuring there is a safety net for students with a generous approach to grading.”
The government insists that exams will go ahead this summer unless in the “very unlikely” case of a public health emergency that would prevent students from being able to physically sit exams.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “Exams are the best and fairest form of assessment, and we firmly intend for them to take place this summer, giving students a fair chance to show what they know.
“We know students have faced challenges during the pandemic, which is why we’ve put fairness for them at the forefront of our plans. The information to help with their revision published today, as well as the range of other adaptations, will make sure they can do themselves justice in their exams this summer.”
