Mystery shopping is usually associated with the world of retail, where undercover sleuths check out the customer service in their local supermarkets or report back on the hygiene of a new restaurant. But now an exam regulator is getting in on the act.

Ofqual is seeking “mystery shoppers” who will attend exam board training seminars and tip the regulator off about any examiners sharing too many details about what might appear on papers.

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In 2007 Tes reported that some teachers were paying £200 a day to attend training seminars with chief examiners, who would advise them on which elements of the syllabus they could ignore to gain top marks.

In 2015 Ofqual introduced a programme of “mystery shoppers”, recruiting subject experts to attend training events and report back on any leaks or tip-offs from examiners.

But this year, for the first time, Ofqual will recruit “shoppers” from teachers who are already signed up to attend training events.

“This is the first time that we have sought teachers who are already attending events rather than sending subject experts ourselves,” said Chris Shadforth, director of communications at Ofqual.

“In the past, we have asked external experts, who are also teachers, to attend training or publishing events on our behalf, but now we are looking to involve teachers who are already going to these sorts of events.”

Mystery shoppers at exam board training seminars

Julie Swan, Ofqual’s executive director for general qualifications, said: “The people we’ve approached in the past have already been contracted by Ofqual. But we do know there are lots of teachers interested in these events anyway - there’s an incentive for them to go.

“The external experts who have been three or four times get less marginal benefit themselves from going now,” she said - explaining that they will get little professional benefit from repeatedly attending this kind of event.

The mystery shoppers will be asked to complete a form after attending the training event. The form’s questions direct them to report on a range of possible information leaks, such as whether training provided additional guidance on assessment that did not appear in the specification, whether any hints were given about the topics or themes of forthcoming exam papers, or whether examiners contradicted information given in the specification.

Mr Shadforth said the form would take roughly an hour to complete, and mystery shoppers would be paid £40 for participating.

He said the programme was not a reaction to any specific incident of cheating.

“Up to now, those we have sent have not had many concerns about the events they have attended. We wouldn’t expect there to be any inappropriate information shared - people shouldn’t be speaking at these events if they have access to that information,” Mr Shadforth said.

 “It’s a novel way of recruiting teachers, but it’s not a reaction to any particular issues of non-compliance.”  

Teachers who are interested in taking part can register by emailing mystery.shopper@ofqual.gov.uk