Dear colleague,
Following our previous update confirming the cancellation of International GCSE and International A Level exams in the May/June 2026 series in schools in your country, we can now share more detailed guidance on which students will be eligible for International Contingency Grading and what this means in practice.
What will International Contingency Grading involve?
You will need to submit a portfolio of evidence for all students eligible for international contingency grading this summer, which will be graded by an examiner to give an overall qualification result.
Which students are eligible for International Contingency Grading?
Students eligible for International Contingency Grading will meet one of the following criteria.
Students on linear qualifications:
- Have an entry for the summer 2026 series, and
- Have not completed any components in the summer 2026 series.
Students on modular qualifications:
- Have unit entries and a cash‑in entry for the summer 2026 series, and
- Have no banked results from a previous series or have resit entries in summer 2026 for previously banked units from an earlier series.
Only students who meet these will be considered. Where learners do not meet these criteria:
- entries may be deferred (if the learner is not certificating), or
- we will calculate a grade using existing banked unit results, or if any component has been completed in summer 2026 eg NEA (non-examined assessment, such as coursework).
To receive a calculated IAL grade, students must have at least one banked IA2 unit result.
Where candidates are entered for the full IAL but only have IAS units banked, you will need to submit portfolios of evidence for the IA2 units they have entered for in this summer series.
What are calculated grades?
For some students, we can calculate grades without requiring a portfolio of evidence. This applies where students already have completed and banked assessment results, such as components from the current series or unit results from a previous exam series, which can be used to support grading for assessments they were entered for but could not sit this summer.
Using students’ existing results, we estimate performance for the missing assessment(s), taking account of how they previously performed compared to the wider cohort and typical patterns across the qualification. This is an established approach used by awarding bodies and approved by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) designed to ensure students receive a fair outcome where some assessment evidence is already available.
Resit entries
As the entry deadline has now passed, we already know which students have resit entries and are therefore eligible for International Contingency Grading. We will therefore not be accepting any further resit entries from today.
Where students certificating this summer have resit entries already, you should submit evidence for:
- the unit(s) entered to resit, and
- any additional units the learner is entered to sit in summer 2026.
NEA and speaking exams
The existing arrangements for NEAs and speaking exams remain in place and the two-week extension to published deadlines also still applies.
If you won't be able to submit work by the revised deadline, please
let us know as soon as possible.
We are now accepting submissions for modern foreign language speaking exams on our international qualifications to be completed online
Read our guidance on conducting remote speaking assessments.
Where you submit completed NEA or speaking assessments for candidates this summer series:
- work should be submitted as normal
- candidates will be eligible for a calculated grade
- no portfolio of evidence is required for these learners
Portfolio evidence: what to submit and when
We’ve created a detailed guide on International Contingency Grading and portfolios of evidence, covering:
- what evidence to submit as part of the portfolio
- how to submit it
- the key dates and deadlines
