The assessment arrangements for the new advanced level qualifications allow considerable flexibility and scope for variation. This is a result of the availability of:
- external assessment of GCE and VCE in January and June of each year
- single resits for GCE/VCE units (and retakes for whole qualifications)
- external assessment of key skills on several occasions each year, with multiple resits
- optional coursework in most GCE subjects and two-thirds portfolio assessment in VCE.
Schools and colleges use a range of approaches to manage flexible assessment, depending on their own circumstances and priorities.
This page has information and guidance on:
The flexible use of assessment
Assessment patterns
Managing resits
Managing coursework
Managing study leave and revision
Using the period after AS exams
The linked case studies also include examples of charts on which to plot assessment for institutions and individuals.
The flexible use of assessment
To smooth out students' workload, schools and colleges are:
- spreading examinations over two years
- choosing coursework rather than examinations
- producing charts showing subjects' planned use of assessment opportunities. These enable managers to identify potential problems and students to see where the demand on them will be greatest if they take specific combinations.
Assessment patterns
One of the advantages of the new advanced level qualifications is that they enable schools and colleges to decide which assessment opportunities are most appropriate for the institution as a whole and for individual students and subjects.
In general, schools and colleges are either:
- implementing a whole-institution policy. This usually involves restricting year 12 assessment to June, avoiding the loss of teaching time in January and allowing students to benefit from the whole year's learning. Some institutions are using the January assessment session in year 13 for resits only
- delegating the decision to subject departments. In some subjects, the AS units are seen as discrete and end-of-unit assessment is helpful. This also spreads the assessment burden for students.
Teachers of VCE might want to teach some portfolio units first, to ensure overview and understanding, and then concentrate on the tested units.
Staged assessment
The advantages of staged examinations are that they:
- can motivate students to work hard from the beginning of the course and focus them on specific, short-term objectives
- are less stressful for the students because they have fewer examinations in a session and deal with recently learnt material
- suit subjects where students have to remember a lot of factual information (theories, arguments, dates, formulae) rather than demonstrate a skill (such as a foreign language). A skill will improve over two years whereas the memory of factual information might fade
- provide resit opportunities
- provide early feedback on whether students' choice of subjects and qualifications is appropriate and allows them to decide which subject to take to full A level
- recognise achievement, which motivates and encourages students
- can be helpful for higher education (HE) application where admission tutors want AS results
- help students and teachers to become familiar with the standard of the AS.
End-of-course assessment
The advantages of end-of-course examinations are that they:
- maximise teaching time
- cause least disruption to school or college facilities, such as halls and specialist spaces that are used for examinations
- cause least disruption to study because students do not miss classes to revise for or take an examination in another subject
- foster a comprehensive grasp of the subject and help candidates to tackle the synoptic questions in the A2 examinations
- allow teachers to teach the units in whatever order they think is most appropriate for the subject or the timetable
- might be more appropriate for subjects in which the development of a skill over two years is of particular importance.
Institution-wide policy
Although the different departments in a school or college might decide their own assessment pattern, there can be advantages in asking all the departments to adopt a common pattern. One advantage is that a common pattern minimises disruption. The purpose of this guidance is not to advocate a particular assessment pattern but to set out the options and discuss some of the factors involved so that institutions can be clear about the rationale for their choice.
In choosing the right policy, an institution needs to consider:
- the need to strike the appropriate balance between teaching time and the volume of examinations to be taken at the end of the course
- the number and length of examinations (some specifications might have longer external assessments)
- subjects with students who will not continue to the A2 will need to use examination sessions in the first year
- the need for 75 per cent of VCE portfolio material to be available for moderation by the end of May in the year in which certification is claimed
- the length of the new examinations, which are much shorter than traditional A-level examinations because each is related to a single unit; so, although students take more examinations, there is little significant increase in the total examination time
- whether some subjects suit some patterns better than others
- whether students should be entered for a unit assessment when they have been prepared for it and when their chances of success are high. Teaching units in a sequence that maximises resit opportunities might not be the best way to develop students' understanding and skills
- the need to make the most efficient use of accommodation and IT resources.
Managing resits
Some teachers are concerned that students regard resits as the norm and that working for resits distracts students from current work. Schools and colleges use a range of strategies to manage this, including:
- making it clear that resits should be taken only when students have achieved a result that does not reflect the progress they have made during the course
- making sure that each resit is the subject of a discussion between the student and subject teacher
- making a package of resits the subject of a discussion between the student, tutor and, sometimes, parents
- restricting the number of resits that individuals can take in any one session
- having different guidelines for GCE and VCE subjects, on the grounds that VCEs have a smaller proportion of external assessment
- using the subject specification, and details of individuals' results and experience, to analyse why a resit is necessary, then focusing support on weaknesses identified
- providing supportive revision material for independent learning
- providing extra classes for students who are resitting, where possible involving members of more than one teaching group with a single teacher
- asking year 13 students to help year 12 students who need to resit. This reinforces the older students' understanding of the material.
Managing coursework
Schools and colleges are finding that there can be a significant amount of coursework set for completion around the end of the second term of year 12. To overcome this, they are:
- asking subject teachers to confirm that coursework options are in the best interests of all students
- staggering coursework deadlines across all three terms
- suspending the timetable for some days, to enable practical coursework to be completed in a concentrated period
- publishing coursework deadlines well in advance, for parents as well as students.
Teachers are:
- considering how to give students a choice (across sets or within the same class) of coursework or external assessment, where there is a choice in the specification
- accommodating different learning styles in approaches to coursework
- breaking the task down and/or setting interim deadlines to check on the progress of work
- setting shorter deadlines and allowing some class time for completion of the task
- treating a coursework unit as a short taught unit, rather than as a longer period of individual work.
Managing study leave and revision
The pressure on teaching time has resulted in shorter study leave. Arguably, there is less need for study leave when students are being assessed on recent work. In some institutions, students might only be allowed study leave during the January assessment session if they are being assessed in all subjects. Study leave in June begins very close to the examinations.
Schools and colleges are providing support for revision during study leave by:
- ensuring that teachers are still available to students during some or all of their lesson times
- ensuring that one teacher from each subject area is available to students on a consultancy basis at specific times
- establishing email contact to answer queries
- asking students (perhaps across several sets) which aspects of the course they want help in revising, and arranging one subject teacher to deal with these aspects
- providing revision guides or study packs related to the assessment objectives and methodology (either online or paper based). Using a local teachers' network to share the work involved makes this more manageable.
These arrangements are often facilitated by the use of non-teaching invigilators for examinations.
One college designated the May half-term week and the two following weeks as development time. Classes were suspended and students were on study leave, but specialist staff were available during the whole period if students wanted to consult them about revision or examinations. For staff, the three weeks were divided into one week for holidays, one for individual work and one for meetings with students. Staff welcomed the flexibility and the time was well used by students. Another college shortened the Easter holiday by one week and added it to the summer holidays to give an extra teaching week before the June assessments.
Using the period after AS examinations
Schools and colleges are adapting their approaches to the period after AS examinations in the light of experience of teaching AS. All the colleges surveyed in one small study were dissatisfied with their previous arrangements (unless they ended the term early) and more intended to begin teaching A2 after the examinations in future. However, students might be reluctant to return to study after the examinations, particularly if they are being asked to work on subjects that they do not think they are going to take at A2. Schools have a slightly longer period than colleges before the holidays and their students might be more willing to attend.
Some schools include post-examination attendance in a student contract; most plan to set work for completion over the holidays. Some schools and colleges plan a clear break for all, such as a long weekend, and then make a 'fresh start' to the A2 teaching. Others plan a celebration to mark the end of the examinations, before restarting work.
There are two broad approaches to making the most of the time after AS examinations:
- beginning A2 teaching
- using the time for whole-school or college activities.
Some institutions choose one or the other of these; others combine the two.
Teachers choosing to begin A2 teaching:
- include an overview of the A2 or an induction to the A2 course
- introduce the A2 as a specialist course and begin to explore an aspect of a subject in depth
- teach a discrete topic from the A2 specification
- teach a topic that spans more than one A2 unit
- give students time to choose and explore an aspect of the work and make a presentation on it
- inform students about optional units and enable them to make a choice
- start A2 coursework or major projects, enabling students to use the holiday period where appropriate
- select aspects of the A2 that are interesting and enjoyable and that might confirm students in their choice of continuing the subject to A2.
Examples of whole-school or college approaches include:
- an enrichment week: one college arranged and performed a large-scale musical production
- fieldwork: this is well received by participants but has an impact on other students' experience unless special arrangements are made (for example, setting up independent learning materials for A2 on CD-ROM that the whole class has to complete)
- a focus on HE: including UCAS procedures, cashing-in decisions and HE visits
- a management conference run by the Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society)
- work experience
- a review of year 12 progress and achievement, and guidance for year 13 and progression
- taster classes for year 13 options
- for each option column to have a specified amount of time (weeks, hours or days) to use as they will, in or out of school or college
- a focus on key skills, using evidence from the activities above.
If non-A level activities, such as key skills and enrichment, take place only at this time of year, more timetabled periods can be available during the rest of the year for A level subject teaching.
Also see
> Qualifications
> Teaching advanced level subjects
QCA web links
> Assessment for learning
Other web links
> Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ)
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Page updated: 12 June 2008