A private candidate is someone who takes an examination or assessment at an approved examination centre but studies independently. 

They may be, for example, a part-time student, someone taking a distance learning course or someone being tutored privately.

Exams are scheduled to go ahead in summer 2022. Take a look at the timetable that has been published. We’ve summarised the package of measures announced by the Department for Education/Ofqual to support students taking GCSEs, AS and A Level exams in summer 2022 in our news story and in our quick guide.

These include:

• optionality (a choice of topics or content) in GCSE English Literature, GCSE History, GCSE Ancient History and GCSE Geography
• advance information to help revision for the majority of GCSEs, AS and A Levels, as well as Core Maths and FSMQ: Additional Maths
• support materials you can use in the form of equation sheets for GCSE Physics and GCSE Combined Science exams, and formula sheets for GCSE Maths & Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths exams.

Advance information, along with the support materials and optionality that apply in your subject for summer 2022 exams are all now available on our website. To support you, we've also published a blog for students with answers to many of the frequently asked questions about advance information.

See our subject update which lists the adaptations and non-exam assessment (NEA) arrangements for your AS, A Level and GCSE subject for summer 2022 exams. You can also find the details of changes for 2022 that apply on your qualification page. These changes apply to summer 2022 only.

You can find details of fees in the OCR fees list. These fees should be treated as an indication only. Although your centre will charge you the relevant fees for the cost of the assessments you are taking, they may also charge an administrative fee. These vary from centre to centre, so you will need to clarify this with the exams officer at your centre.

The GCSE, AS and A Level past papers from the exceptional Autumn 2020 exam series have now been published and are available to download from our website. 

Past papers from the Autumn 2021 exam series continue to be available to teachers only, in line with usual practices. 

Private candidates who are entered for an examination in Summer 2022 and who require the Autumn 2021 exam materials to support their exam preparation can now request access to these materials. 

We recommend you first discuss this with the centre that has accepted your entry. Where this is not possible, you may also request the materials from our Customer Support Centre. 

To make sure we send materials to eligible students, we’ll first need to check your request against your entries.

If you need any further information or support regarding private candidates, particularly for the Summer 2022 arrangements, please contact our Customer Support Centre on 01223 553998 or at support@ocr.org.uk.