Why do my exam results take so long, and why can't I enter late?

Setting dates

The first stage of the exam process is the setting of the exam dates. After much debate a few years ago, it was agreed that the exams will normally take place in the third and fourth weeks in April and in the last week in September/first week in October. The detailed exam dates are normally set a year in advance (although we are moving to two years in advance).

The exams team identify the possible dates, taking into consideration bank holidays and significant religious holidays. The options are presented to the Education Committee for a final decision. Once the decision has been taken the dates are published to students via the website, student newsletter and will ultimately appear in the student handbook.

The order of the exams (except for CA1) will switch each year – week one exams will switch with week two. Following requests from the student consultative forum, morning and afternoons exams will also swap around. The two papers for CA1 do not take place on one day as we have some students who require 100% extra time for their exams and this would then be expecting them to take the exam over 12 hours in a single day.

Exam entry

The exam entry session normally opens 12-14 weeks before the exams start. Of the entries we receive around one-third arrive in the final week before the closing date.

Entry can be made either with the use of a credit card online, or by filling in a form and submitting it by email, fax or post along with payment. If an exam entry is made online, you can check immediately that it has been recorded by checking your personal account on the website. Those who submit an email or postal entry, will receive an email confirming the details once the form has been processed.

We cannot stress enough the importance of getting the exam entry form in on time. The earlier we receive it the earlier you will receive the email confirmation saying you have been entered. Therefore it is important for you to check that your records show the correct email address, by logging on to your personal account and selecting the address you would prefer us to use for correspondence. You should note that hotmail and similar accounts are unreliable and often email confirmations to such accounts do not get through.

Too many candidates leave their exam entry form submission until the closing date. This runs the risk of the form not being received by the team and it being too late for this to be corrected. This then means that the student cannot be entered for the exam for which they have studied. You can easily check your account online and call the exams team before the closing date if your exams are not showing on your record. On the closing date the team are usually inundated with telephone calls and emails requesting confirmation of entry.

Exam organisation

It takes a lot of effort to organise over 7,000 candidates at over 100 centres, and ensure that a team of 180 volunteer markers is in place. All of this must be achieved within tight deadlines. Overseas deadlines are 7 weeks before the examinations start as the team need time to prepare/pack stationery and permits to send to overseas centres. The UK deadlines are 4 weeks before the exams start, as stationery and permits are sent out to centres and students two weeks before the exams start. This is why late entries are not accepted. Whilst one or two extra papers may not seem a lot to one student we have a large number who miss the deadline. The logistical impact of trying to organise extra seating or extra markers can affect the service given to the vast majority of students who do meet the deadline.

Marking and publication of results

Once the exam has taken place the completed exam scripts are returned to the Oxford office where they are checked and absentees are noted – in the last session 10% of those who entered the CTs and 4% of those for the later subjects were absent. Scripts can take up to 3 weeks (and sometimes more) to arrive in the Oxford office from some overseas centres. Scripts are then repackaged to be sent to the first marker.

The first group of scripts that arrives in the office for each subject is reviewed and 5 are selected to be a ‘test batch’. These are sent to all the markers and examiners for the subject to be marked before a meeting where they get together to standardise their marking, review and possibly amend any marking schedules.

Once the marking has begun, each script is marked twice by separate markers. Neither marker knows how the other scored the paper. Depending on the subject each marker can be marking anything between 60 to 240 scripts, and this process can take anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks. When each marker has completed their marking they feed the results to the lead examiner who will review the marks and form an opinion of where the pass mark should be set. This will change each session, depending on the complexity of the paper, and the students’ overall performance.

Once the initial pass mark has been decided then scripts which appear around the borderline will be marked a third or possibly fourth time to ensure that the examiners are happy with the proposed pass mark. Scripts where the first two markers disagree will also be third marked by an examiner. Whilst this is happening the exams team have gathered together all the mitigating circumstances reports and incident reports that have been submitted and these will be considered by the examiners at this time.

8 weeks after the exams the initial exam results for the CT subjects are sent to Oxford for uploading into the database to provide a variety of statistics. The Board of Examiners meeting for the CT subjects takes place one week later. This is where the pass mark and the pass rate (the number who pass out of those sitting) is agreed. Once the pass mark/rate has been agreed then the exams team have to produce the exam results letters, pass lists (which the Principal Examiner has to sign off), and finalise any statistics. In the meantime the Principal Examiner should be working on the examiners’ report. 11 weeks after the exams have been sat the results are released. For the later subjects these activities all take place two weeks later.

In summary