This blog has been updated since originally published to incorporate the latest JCQ guidance.

Alison Leather, Customer Support Manager for the South East

Before you submit your marks to us, you need to inform students of their centre-assessed marks (and endorsement grades) and provide enough time for them to appeal these marks. In this blog I wanted to provide answers to the questions we often receive about this process. There’s more detail in the JCQ Instructions for conducting non-examination assessments and Instructions for conducting coursework.

Overview

Which qualifications does this apply to?

The requirements relate to AS and A Levels, Cambridge Nationals, Entry Level, GCSEs and the Project qualifications. This includes the Art and Design timed exams and the A Level Sciences and GCSE (9-1) English endorsements. Whilst not a requirement, you can extend this service to other qualifications.

What do centres have to do?

Schools and colleges need to: 

1. Inform students of their centre marks 
2. Provide an opportunity for internal review 
3. Carry out the review

When must it be done?

Students must be given marks, and reviews must be completed before marks are then submitted to the awarding bodies. You need to allow enough time for this to take place before the awarding body mark submission deadlines. You may also need to consider the scheduling of timed or controlled hours sessions in order to accommodate this internal appeals process.

1 Inform students of their centre marks

What should we issue?

Teachers should issue marks only to their students. Do not issue a grade or what you think their grade would be. It’s good practice to let students know their centre marks could change after an internal review and also after external moderation. (A candidate consent form could help you with this.)

How should we issue the marks?

This is a decision for your school or college. You should consider how you are going to inform students, the format you’re going to use and the timescale for issuing marks to allow enough time to carry out any reviews.

2 Provide an opportunity for internal review

What do we have to do?

You need to inform students they can request a review of the centre’s marking of the assessment. How you do this is up to you. You must also let students know they can request copies of materials to assist them in considering whether to request a review.

What materials should we make available to students?

These materials could include a copy of their marked work (not the original), the relevant specification and associated subject-specific documents, such as assessment grids or candidate assessment forms. Teachers need to use their professional judgement about what they think the student will need to see in order to decide whether or not to formally request an internal review. That might vary from subject to subject and teachers should refer to the specifications for any exceptions.

Can students be given copies of the mark scheme?

Yes, the standard marking criteria for internally assessed work are in the specifications which are publically available.

What deadlines should we set?

This is a decision for your school or college. It will depend upon internal deadlines for marking, internal standardisation arrangements, staffing arrangements and resources. The OCR mark submission deadlines are available within our key dates spreadsheet.

Can we charge students for the review?

This is a decision for your school or college – it may depend on whether your policy is to charge for other services.

Can students only request a review of marking if they identify an issue?

This is a decision for your school or college. It would be reasonable to ask students to explain why they wish to request a review and what they believe the issue to be.

What happens if a student asks for additional work to be marked?

Students cannot have additional pages marked. Reviews must be carried out after students have submitted their final work to be marked.

3 Carrying out the review

Who can carry out the reviews?

The reviewer has to be someone who has appropriate competence and who was not involved in the initial marking and therefore not considered to have a conflict of interest: 

• If staffing levels are large, internal standardisation arrangements could be made to enable different subgroups of teachers to mark, standardise and conduct any reviews in a matrix arrangement. 
• For smaller schools, where there are only a few staff or even just one teacher in a department, you need to consider whether or not the student’s work has already been seen by all departmental staff. In such cases, consider using another member of staff in a similar subject area or a subject that has a similar assessment structure. Alternatively, you could outsource reviews to a third party, for example, another school or college. 
• If you work as a group of centres, eg in a consortium or academy trust, you could pool staff resources to carry out the reviews.

I thought centre-assessed work was confidential and couldn’t be shared with those not connected with the assessment?

If a reviewer is involved in an internal appeal, they are connected to the assessment and so centre-assessed work can be shared with them.

How do we make sure the assessors are equipped to carry out the review?

You need to make sure all those carrying out a review are ‘standardised’ so they can review to a consistent standard. If you are using someone who has not already been involved in the marking, eg a third party from a different school/college, you will need to train whoever carries out the review.

What about data protection for practical subjects like Drama and PE where we have to provide copies of video evidence?

Reviewers will need access to necessary materials and candidate work and should, therefore, be instructed on the data protection policy of your school or college.

What happens if the reviewer disagrees with the marking?

The reviewer is required to correct any marking error. If there is a difference of opinion between the original marking and the review of marking, centres must resolve this and submit marks to the awarding organisation which they believe are correct for each candidate.

Having given a student the outcome of a review, would a centre have to allow the student the right to appeal?

This is a decision for your school or college. Once the review has taken place, there is unlikely to be time for students to appeal this further unless candidates submit work very early.

About the author

Alison Leather - Customer Support Manager (South East)

Alison is Customer Support Manager for the South East region. The Customer Support Team provides support, training and guidance for centres administering OCR qualifications.

Alison has worked in education since 1995, as an Exams Manager in a college, a Centre Support Officer with the National Assessment Agency (NAA) and an Exams Officer in a secondary school – so she knows how challenging and rewarding it can be working in the exams office. Alison joined OCR as Customer Support Manager in 2007.