Supporting exams officers on results days 2021: GCSEs, AS and A Levels and Cambridge Nationals

Alison Leather - Customer Support Manager (South East)

It only seems five minutes since I was preparing last year’s results blog and yet it’s been another year of change, during which we know exams officers have had to work very differently. However, I always find it reassuring we’ll still be issuing results and, in many ways, much of that will be ‘business as usual’. So, in our results blog this year, I wanted to provide a summary of what will be available and how our results documents can support your results days – whether you’re handing results out in person or sending them to students electronically

Results will be issued to centres just after midnight on the following dates, known as restricted release:

• 9 August: AS and A Level, Core Maths, Extended Project and FSMQ
• 11 August: GCSE, Cambridge Nationals and Entry Level
  

They can be given to students from 8.30am on results days (the day after restricted release). This is later than previously and is designed to coincide with the timing of the UK-wide release of Higher Education (HE) application outcomes for students. 

Please remember that results must remain confidential until this time so you can’t give students the final teacher assessed grades you submitted to us. 

Results data must also not be shared more widely until after the students have received their results and, remember, you can only release results to local authorities or the media after 9.30am on results day. See the JCQ release of results guidance for further details.

EDI results files

We’ll be issuing EDI results files as normal just after midnight on restricted results release. To download the results files, you’ll need the latest version of the basedata, which has been updated to reflect the new 'results type indicator' within the files as marks will not be issued this year. If you need help with refreshing your basedata, Capita SIMS have put together a YouTube video to show you how.

We’ll be providing refreshed EDI results files weekly as usual until the end of October via Interchange. To access the updated files, log in to Interchange, hover over ‘Results’ in the left-hand menu and click on ‘EDI Results’ – if you do choose to use these updated files, they’ll overwrite any manual changes you’ve made to results.

Interchange results reports: broadsheet and statement of marks

Since we’re only issuing qualification grades this year (rather than unit grades or component marks), everything you need to give students their qualification results is contained within the EDI files. However, if you don’t use EDI files, you may find our results reports useful. This year we’re going to be providing the following reports:

• Results broadsheet – A PDF ‘matrix’ showing all candidates and their qualification grades.
• Candidate statement of marks – This ‘results slip’ is available as a PDF which can be printed out one statement per candidate or exported to a CSV file. Updated student-friendly examples of the statements of marks are available for A Levels, GCSEs and Cambridge Nationals.

To access the reports, log in to Interchange, hover over ‘Results’ and click on ‘Results documents’ in the left-hand menu.

Please be aware that, like last year, we won’t be publishing grade boundaries, examiners’ reports or mark schemes. Our results analysis service, Active Results, will not contain any June 2021 (or June 2020) data but will be available from results days as usual, providing you with data from previous series.

However you manage results days this summer, I hope they go smoothly for you, your colleagues and your students.

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.