No matter how well you prepare students for exams, there will always be things that can go wrong. From failing to read the question properly to forgetting to turn the page, even the best performers can be caught out by the stress and worry that inevitably accompanies high-stakes exams such as GCSEs.

Ofqual recognises this: it is currently holding a consultation on the accessibility of national assessments for all students. The regulator states that its focus is on identifying and removing “unnecessary obstacles” - but what does this mean?

Though an exam paper may be carefully crafted, there are plenty of features that could prove problematic - for example, the wording of questions and the use of “command words”, sentence structures or the range of topics and real-world scenarios.

We need to look closely at these features to avoid students being tested on something other than what we think they are being tested on. For instance, if the questions on a GCSE biology exam have sentence structures that are long and potentially tricky to follow then, rather than primarily testing students’ understanding of biology, we will instead be testing their comprehension skills.

Research suggests that the sequencing of questions can also have an impact here, as shown by a recent study from the US by Lina Anaya and colleagues.

In the study, 19,000 people undertook an online maths test with 10 questions. The questions were categorised according to difficulty and arranged in different sequences. Participants were randomly assigned a sequence to complete. Those who undertook a sequence in which the “easy” questions came before the “difficult” ones performed better on the test than those who answered the difficult questions first.

Impact on motivation

The researchers concluded that when people are faced with difficult questions straightaway, it can impact their motivation, contributing to a lower rate of correct answers but also higher dropout rates from the test.

Of course, teachers have no control over assessment design beyond contributing to consultations like the one currently being held. But Ofqual does offer some useful advice about what teachers can do to help students to overcome assessment obstacles.

In its consultation, it recommends that when preparing students for exams, teachers should raise awareness of the language of exam papers, covering aspects that could prove difficult.

For example, while Ofqual suggests that test makers avoid “uncommon words with unusual spellings”, confusing double negatives and figurative language, it makes sense to flag these potential obstacles to students all the same.

This guidance and related research is useful both for clear and accurate exam preparation and for teachers considering developing assessments of their own.

With some timely close focus (without overdoing exam practice), teachers can prepare students to best navigate the question sequences and language they will encounter, reducing the likelihood they will be caught out on the day.

Alex Quigley is national content manager at the Education Endowment Foundation. He is a former teacher and the author of Closing the Reading Gap, published by Routledge

This article originally appeared in the 26 November 2021 issue under the headline “Exams needn’t be an obstacle course to run”