Exams Officer Update
11 October 2023 |
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Welcome to this week’s Exams Officer Update.
Whether you’re new to the role or you’re an experienced examinations officer, we’ve developed a useful essential information guide. The article is designed to support you with processes and common questions you may have throughout the academic year.
We also launched the Pearson Development Hub earlier this year- a dedicated space for exams officer training. We have created this as part of our commitment to you to offer enhanced support and training in 2023 and beyond. We've produced a guide to accessing the hub, and we'll let you know in this update whenever new training modules are available. |
| Exams Officer Update live sessions |
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During the event, we will go through news, updates and processes for the coming weeks and give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. You can view recordings of previous events on our Pearson Development Hub. |
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You can start topping up your BTEC learners now. Certificates for learners who completed in summer 2024 have been released ahead of schedule, meaning you can now go and make top-ups for learners who are progressing to a larger qualification. This will give you extra time to make any top-ups for learners planning on sitting external assessments in January 2024 ahead of the entry deadline on 17 October.
Read our guide to making BTEC top-ups
Why should I top up learners and not re-register?
Where a learner is progressing onto a larger sized qualification in the same subject, you should top-up their registration so we can move their prior unit achievements to the larger qualification. Without doing this, the learner may not receive the results they are expecting on results day. |
As part of your conditions of approval to offer vocational qualifications, your centre must complete your Annual Quality Declaration by 14 October. This activity is expected for all schools, colleges and training providers that deliver vocational qualifications and have active learner registrations.
Not completing your Annual Quality Declaration may impact the risk profile of your centre and could result in enhanced sampling and monitoring.
Your centre’s Quality Nominee or Head of Centre should complete your AQD, logging in with their Edexcel Online username and password.
Read our guide to completing the AQD
Book a live AQD walkthrough training event
Explore our AQD FAQs |
| Date |
Description |
| 14 October |
Deadline to complete Annual Quality Declaration (AQD) and Lead Internal Verifier (LIV) registration |
| 17 October |
Entry deadline for January/February 2024 BTEC exam series |
| 18 October |
Late fees apply to January/February 2024 BTEC exam series entries made from this date |
| 1 November |
BTEC registration deadline for courses following the academic year |
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You can download entry basedata from our website. Please ensure that all your entries are made before the entry deadlines to avoid being charged late fees. Remember that you can only make an external assessment entry for a BTEC student if they have a registration on their course.
For detailed instructions on how to make entries as well as general information on BTEC external assessments, please see the following articles from our support portal:
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Lead Internal Verifier registration
Each BTEC programme (covered by the BTEC quality assurance model) offered at your centre requires a Lead Internal Verifier (LIV) to register or re-instate their registration each year. The deadline for this is 14 October 2023.
BTEC Tech Award 2022 Quality Assurance
There is no requirement for your BTEC Tech Award 2022 Lead Internal Verifiers to register via the OSCA system. However you must have one in place. Please refer to our BTEC Tech Awards 2022 Quality Assurance webpage for further guidance. |
This year all school, colleges and training providers must maintain accurate estimated completion dates for all their learners. This is essential to maintain an accurate view of your 2023/24 cohort, and so we can track these learners through to completion.
As learners are enrolled on to their BTEC programmes, you should make their BTEC registrations by 1 November to avoid any late fees. You should check that your centre has approval for the programme they will be following, and if you need to gain approval to run a course you should do this straight away.
For detailed information on BTEC registrations and approvals, see these articles from our support portal:
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| Date |
Qualification |
Details |
| 14 October |
International GCSE |
High late fee deadline for November 2023 exam series |
| 17 October |
Edexcel Award, Level 1 and 2 Projects and Level 3 Extended Project |
Entry deadline for January 2024 exam series |
| 18 October |
Edexcel Award, Level 1 and 2 Projects and Level 3 Extended Project |
Late fees apply to January 2024 exam series entries from this date |
| 1 November |
GCSE and International GCSE |
Deadline to submit Access Arrangements for the November 2023 exam series |
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You may find our Making academic entries page helpful for support with making entries using EDI or Edexcel Online, as well as these articles from our support portal:
If any of your learners sitting these examinations have special needs, it is important your centre applies for arrangements on their behalf.
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If your candidates are resitting their GCSE Maths or English exams in November, you can expect to start receiving standard and modified question papers from Tuesday 17 October.
The yellow label service will be in place for this series for centres in England to return scripts. You can expect to start receiving attendance registers and labels for November from 18 October.
If you are concerned that delivery of exam materials might be attempted whilst your centre is closed for Autumn half term, please let us know as soon as possible via the customer support portal.
If you require electronic copies of these question papers, please check your Edexcel Online account is up to date, ensuring you have access to our Secure Download Service (SDS).
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Ordering modified papers
The deadline for ordering modified papers for the November 2023 exam series has now passed.
The deadlines for ordering modified papers remain the same every year:
- 20 September: November series
- 4 October: January series
- 31 January: summer series
Models for use with Mathematics modified papers
We no longer automatically supply 3D models with the modified large-print Maths papers.
3D models will still come as standard with all orders for UEB Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille; you do not need to order these separately if your candidate uses braille.
If you have placed an order for modified large-print Maths papers for a candidate who requires the use of 3D models, then please complete this form to request them. This form will close on 6 October 2023, and we will not send models to you if you have not completed this form.
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October 2024 Provisional timetables
The October 2024 Provisional Timetables for International A Level and iPrimary and iLowerSecondary Curriculum will be available on our website from Friday 13th October.
If you have any feedback, please contact us at Timetables@Pearson.com by the Friday 27th October.
November 2024 Final timetable
The November 2024 GCSE Timetable has now been finalised and will be available on our website from Friday 13th October.
All timetables can be found on our qualifications website |
Whether you are preparing for the November 2023 series or have learners intending to take BTEC external assessments in the January 2024 series, it is important for you to stay up to date with the official exam regulations.
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We want to ensure you have all the help and support you need at your fingertips; that’s why we’ve got a library of support articles hosted on our Customer Support Portal. Each article contains answers, detailed information, step-by-step guides, instructional videos, and general advice. Articles require no special access, are easily searchable by keywords in their title, and are available 24/7, 365 days a year. And for good measure, we also have the portal user guide.
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As exams officer, you're in control of Edexcel Online accounts and access at your centre, and there's no better time than the start of a new academic year to double check that staff in your centre have the access they need.
From your Edexcel Online home page, go to Centre Accounts > List Accounts to bring up a list of every user account at your centre. Please review this list and remove any accounts for members of staff who no longer work at your centre, and also take the opportunity to go into each user's profile and check they have the correct account permissions for their role.
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Don't forget we have dedicated Pearson Exams Officer Support pages on Facebook. This provides you with a quick and convenient way to stay up to date with our latest news and advice.
Both pages are monitored 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, by Seren, Emma and Charlie on our Social Media team, so please feel free to message them with your quick queries or comments.
While we can answer your general queries online, specific queries should be submitted via the Pearson support portal to ensure you get the best advice from our Customer Services team. |
Sign up to receive these updates
If you would like to sign any of your colleagues up to receive these updates, you can do so here. You can view previous editions of the EO Update on our support portal. |
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