Assessment

Journey of a script – What happens after students put their pens down?

What happens after an exam is finished? AQi explains how they are turned into grades, in a matter of weeks.

Date27/05/22

AuthorPete Hawcroft, Head of Marking, AQA

A question that often gets asked is what happens to exam papers after the exam is finished. The following blog outlines a step-by-step process exam boards follow between finishing the exam and receiving their results in August.

Transporting

When an exam is finished and the papers have been collected, the exams officer at the exam centre (usually a school or college) packages them up ready for collection by couriers. They complete an attendance register so it is clear if anyone was absent.

Each examination has its own unique label to keep track of it all the way to the scanning centre. This whole section of the process only takes a matter of days.

Processing

There are a few things we need to do to get exam papers ready before they can be marked. For example, ensuring that the exam scripts are matched to the right candidate by cross-checking candidates’ details and the exam reference code. Next, we carefully slice the edge off the exam paper so it can go through our scanners; this is why it is important candidates leave the generous margins clear.

We now have an electronic image of an exam paper, linked to a candidate’s entry record, ready to be marked.

Marking

The majority of exams are marked on screen. Examiner visits and recording are used for the assessments that cannot be scanned digitally- such as speaking tests.

There are two main types of electronic marking. Where students use a separate answer booklet – typically for longer, essay style exams – the whole paper will be marked by the same examiner. Assessments that have lots of shorter questions have a designated space for students to write their answer will see a paper electronically segmented, which means that different examiners will mark different questions.

Verifying Marks

Irrespective of how the exams are marked, there are protocols in place that ensure the marks are reliable and accurate through formal training undertaken by examination markers as well as monitoring and peer-review frameworks, including ‘seeds.’ Seeds are carefully selected examples of candidates’ responses that are marked by senior examiners before the marking period starts. They are then added in at intervals for examiners to check markers’ accuracy. If they mark the seeds correctly they can carry on, if they get the seed wrong they are flagged and their senior examiner notified.

Awarding Grades

After this, net marks will be assigned to each exam paper. The next step is converting marks into grades. Students may have sat two or three exam papers and all their hard work needs to be taken into account and turned into an overall grade.

Once grades are decided for every candidate, results are ready to be issued. For students who have applied for University grades are shared with UCAS so they can start to match students and courses. The day before results are released to students, they are made available to the school to allow teachers time to ensure everything is in order for results day.

Therefore, there are various steps between sitting an exam and results being ready on results day. Each stage is an integral part that ensures students get the marks they deserve in a short space of time before the university and school term begins.

Assessment

What can this year’s GCSE entries tell us to look for in tomorrow’s results?

With GCSE Results published on 22nd August, Dr Chinwe Njoku looks into the underlying data on what subjects this year's cohort took and how this has changed from previous years.

Assessment

A-level maths students hit six figures – what’s behind its popularity?

On Thursday, more than 100,000 A-level maths students in England will find out their results – 11.4% more than last year. Why the upturn? Dr Chinwe Njoku, AQA Education Insights Lead and former maths teacher, was heartened by the news and keen to look at the story behind the data.

Education Policy

What comes after ‘urgent’ for the new Education Secretary?

After the burning issues are addressed, what should come next for the new Education Secretary?

Education Policy

Labour’s oracy plans: They need clear goals

Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants to boost students’ confidence by raising the importance of speaking skills – oracy. In this previously published blog, Reza Schwitzer, AQA’s director of external affairs, applauds the ambition but warns there needs to be clear goals

Education Policy

Through the looking glass: How polling the public can help policymakers learn about themselves

Public attitude data is key to effective policymaking. Proper polling can reveal what people think about existing policies and what they want for the future. But, if looked at from a different angle, it can also help policymakers question themselves and their assumptions about the public. In this blog, AQA’s Policy and Evidence Manager Adam Steedman-Thake, reveals the lessons he learned about himself while reading a recent public attitude survey.

Assessment

Assessing oracy: Is Comparative Judgement the answer?

Oracy skills are vital to success in school and life. And yet, for many children, opportunities to develop them are missed. Educationalists are engaging in a growing debate about where oracy fits into the school system. Labour has put it at the heart of its plans to improve social mobility and an independent commission is looking at how it is taught in the classroom. This renewed focus on oracy means it is more important than ever that teachers have a way to reliably assess and understand their students’ attainment and progression. Amanda Moorghen of oracy education charity Voice 21 explains how Comparative Judgement can help with that and why it may be a game changer.

Education

TV subtitles as an aid to literacy: What does the research say?

Jack Black is probably best known in educational circles for playing a renegade substitute teacher in School of Rock. But the Hollywood star has made a more conventional foray into education by backing the use of TV subtitles to improve child literacy. Stephen Fry and the World Literacy Foundation also want parents to use their TV remotes to get children reading. So, could this simple click of a button be a solution to boost pupils’ reading skills? AQA’s resident expert on language teaching, Dr Katy Finch, casts her eye over the research to see whether it stacks up.

Data Analysis

What is left behind now education’s Data Wave has receded?

Is data the solution to all education’s issues? About a decade ago the prevailing wisdom said it was. Advocates of this Data Wave argued that harvesting internal statistics would help schools solve issues such as teacher accountability and attainment gaps. As with all waves, after crashing onto the beach they recede, leaving space for another to roll in. In this blog, teacher, author and data analyst Richard Selfridge looks at the legacy of the Data Wave to see what schools can take from it.

International Approaches

Finland & PISA – A fall from grace but still a high performer?

Finland was once recognised as one of the most successful educational systems in the world. At the turn of the millennium, it topped the PISA rankings in reading, maths and science. But by 2012, decline set in. The last set of results showed performances in maths, reading and science were at an all-time low. In this blog Dr Jonathan Doherty of Leeds Trinity University outlines some reasons that may account for the slide.

Briefing

PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS: What actually are they and what do they tell us?

According to the latest PISA results, England’s science scores are still on a downward trajectory that started a decade ago. Yet TIMSS, another respected study, has science performances rising. Which of them is right? Is one more valid than the other? In this blog AQi examines three International Large-Scale Assessments and finds that, although they may look the same from a distance, get up close and you’ll find they are very different beasts.

Download a PDF version.

Download a copy of this content to your device as a PDF file. We generate PDF versions for the convenience of offline reading, but we recommend sharing this link if you'd like to send it to someone else.

Journey of a script – What happens after students put their pens down?

Transporting

Processing

Marking

Verifying Marks

Awarding Grades

What can this year’s GCSE entries tell us to look for in tomorrow’s results?

A-level maths students hit six figures – what’s behind its popularity?

What comes after ‘urgent’ for the new Education Secretary?

Labour’s oracy plans: They need clear goals

Through the looking glass: How polling the public can help policymakers learn about themselves

Assessing oracy: Is Comparative Judgement the answer?

TV subtitles as an aid to literacy: What does the research say?

What is left behind now education’s Data Wave has receded?

Finland & PISA – A fall from grace but still a high performer?

PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS: What actually are they and what do they tell us?

Join the conversation on Twitter

Download a PDF version.

Sign up to our newsletter