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Welcome to the latest edition of the international Exams Officer Update. 

As always, our customer support portal offers a wide range of articles to support you in your day to day activities. As we begin to look ahead to the summer exam period, you may find our Entries and Registrations article useful.

On June 18 2024 we are hosting a live event, covering key dates and top tips to help you in your role.

  • International Exams Officer webinar | 10.00 am - 10.45 am BST | 19 June 2024 
Register for this event here

You can view recordings of previous events on our Pearson Development Hub.
Date Description
17 May Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish – end of window for speaking tests
A Level
June 2024
17 May IAL MFL Units 1 and 3 – end of window for speaking tests
International Advanced Level MFL
June 2024
17 May English as a Second Language - end of window for speaking tests
International GCSE
June 2024
20 May Art and Design 9AD0/01 (and all linked endorsements) – submission of centre marks, assessment documentation and candidate work for digital moderation (ONLY overseas centes and where visiting moderation cannot take place)
A Level
June 2024
Summer 2025

Pearson and all other awarding bodies will be publishing the final timetables for Summer 2025 on the website from Monday 20 May. They can be found here

October 2025 Provisional timetables - IAL and iPLSC

We will be publishing our provisional timetables for Summer 2025 on Monday 22 January as agreed by JCQ and all other awarding bodies.

They can be found here

Consultation window will run from Monday 22 January to Friday 23 February.

Please send any feedback you may have to Timetables@Pearson.com
 
We would like to provide some helpful reminders for you to follow when returning completed exam scripts tom Pearson.

  • If required, you should use treasury tags to attach additional sheets to the exam scripts.
  • Centres are not required to return Question booklets, Inserts and drama notes back to Pearson; you may keep them locked away securely until after the exam session has finished, then either destroy them or use them for future practice exams.
  • Please ensure that the word processing document is attached to the script it refers to with a treasury tag, whether the candidate has written in it or not; this will ensure it is scanned with the right candidate and can't be lost when processing the script(s).
  • Please ensure that the candidate's name and number are written on the script and every attachment page; this reduces the risk of receiving scripts with no information on them, which could potentially delay the marking and issuing of results.
  • Centres are not required to return blank papers to us; you may keep them locked away securely until after the exam session has finished, then either destroy them or use them for future practice exams.
We recently announced the launch of a new online tool, our VQ Learner Tracker. This is a new module within our Pearson Progress platform, designed to help you keep track of your learner registrations and ensure they receive their results.

Accessing the VQ Learner Tracker

You can read our quick getting started guide to accessing and using the VQ Learner Tracker.

VQ Learner Tracker features

  • A single view of all your learner registrations 
  • Easily identify where estimated completion dates should be changed, or learners withdrawn 
  • Export data and share with colleagues 
  • Search or use filters to view learners by subject, completion year, UCAS status and more. 
  • Coming soon – identify where we are missing information for learners who are expecting an overall qualification result.

Whats next?

This year, any learners that are expecting their results in August in line with UK BTEC results days will need a full award claim making before 5 July. As we move towards the 5 July claiming deadline, you can expect to see more functionality being added so that you can identify where information is missing, such as claims or internally assessed units. We’ll be in touch when we add new features and let you know how to use them.

Thank you and further support

If you have any questions about the VQ Learner Tracker we are here to help. You can contact us through the Pearson support portal using “VQ Learner Tracker” in the description.

   
Our exams are delivered at the same time all around the world. The sessions are based upon a UK morning (a.m.) session and an afternoon (p.m.) session. You need to check the correct start times for exams in your country.  

You must deliver your exams according to the examination start time guidance detailed on our website here. The examination start times documents give the start times for all exams by country/time zone for each series. You need to check the start times for your region for the summer series.  

Please note that for the East Africa, Middle East, South Asia and Asia-Pacific regions, there are separate documents for UK exams and our international exams.

There are some permitted exceptions to exam start times, as detailed in sections 7 and 8 of the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations.  

Where a timetable variation is used, candidates must be kept under examination conditions until the end of the scheduled exam time. Centres must ensure that invigilators have been trained on supervising candidates under clash supervision arrangements. More details can be found in section 7 of the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations.

Exams for AS Maths, AS Further Maths, A level Maths, A level Further Maths, A level Statistics, and International A level (IAL) Maths must not be moved to an earlier session – more information can be found in the JCQ guidance here and on our website here. 
You should have started receiving standard and modified question papers from the following dates: 

  • General qualification exams taking place from 7 May and up until 22 May: from 15 April onwards 
  • General qualification exams taking place from 23 May and up until 7 June: from 2 May onwards 
  • General qualification exams taking place from 10 June onwards: from 21 May onwards. 

You will be able to track your standard question paper despatch for General Qualifications via Edexcel Online.

Please ensure that appropriate colleagues are aware that question papers will be arriving soon and what they need to do with them. Question papers need to be carefully checked to ensure that you have received what you were expecting and that all question paper packs are in good condition. You should report any issues relating to question papers as soon as possible.  

Whilst the vast majority of question paper deliveries marked for the attention of Exams Officers are made during normal centre hours, on rare occasions, a courier may attempt delivery when the main reception has closed, so papers cannot be stored securely. We encourage centres to inform staff to refuse these deliveries, and the papers will be redelivered. 

Further information, guidance and tools can be found in:  


Availability of Electronic Copies of Question Papers

Our goal is to ensure that your centre's exams run as smoothly and as stress-free for centre staff as possible. To help us achieve this goal, we would appreciate you making checks outlined below well ahead of your centre's first exam.   

If your centre requires access to electronic copies of question papers in the Summer 2024 exam series, for example if you make a very late entry or need to print onto coloured paper, they will be available to download on the Secure Download Service (SDS). This also includes audio files and transcripts for listening exams. Our recommendation is that a minimum of two members of centre staff have SDS included in their Edexcel Online (EOL) profile.

If your exam staff do not already have SDS added to their EOL profile, they will need to contact us, and be available to receive a secure call-back from our Customer Services Specialist on your centre's main telephone number. Once this call has been performed successfully, access to the SDS platform will be added to their account.   

Please see the SDS support guide for further details: Secure Download Service (SDS) (pearson.com)

If you have centre exams staff without access to SDS, they should contact us as soon as possible, and well ahead of your exams so that we can update their account.  

It is important that all exam staff can access SDS as we will not be able to send electronic question papers via Secure File Transfer (SFT) on the day of the exam without a secure call back to your centre’s main telephone number first. This could result in logistical challenges for your centre at a critical time in the day - with staff required to move between an exam hall and your reception/ exam office. This may result in delays, including potentially impacting the start time of the exam in question. To avoid this please make checks to your exam staff EOL profiles (and specifically SDS) today. 

Accessing electronic copies of question papers

After consultation with Awarding Organisations, JCQ have now revised their timings for when electronic question papers are made available to centres, either by Secure File Transfer or Secure Download Service.

These updates can be viewed in the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations booklet

This has now been increased from 45 to 60 minutes before the published exam start time.

We have also updated our Secure File Transfer (SFT) and Secure Download Service (SDS) guidance to reflect this change.
The stationery and materials list provides information on the stationery and equipment required for our general qualification examinations in the next series.

The updated version for Summer 2024 can be found here
We have made lots of enhancements in recent months, to increase the security of Pearson and centre data, and maintain the integrity of our qualifications and assessment materials. These have included a move to Multi Factor Authentication and enforcing enhanced password requirements for all our platform users.

We have created a new Security page on or qualifications website, where we will share best practise as well as guidance on how you can spot if something doesn’t seem quite right.
Visit our Cyber Security webpage here
All learner work requiring digital submission, for both general and vocational qualifications, will be uploaded via the Learner Work Transfer platform (accessed via Edexcel Online). This will include samples for non-examined assessment moderation, BTEC moderated components and standards verification.

Explore our dedicated support articles for detailed guidance.
JCQ General Regulations for Approved Centres (section 5.3, (j) Conflicts of Interest) states that centres must inform the awarding body, before the published deadline for entries, of:

  • any members of centre staff who are taking qualifications at their own centre which include internally assessed components/units
  • any members of centre staff who are teaching and preparing members of their family (which includes step-family, foster family and similar close relationships) or close friends and their immediate family (e.g. son/daughter) for qualifications which include internally assessed components/units.

Please note that when entering members of centre staff for qualifications with internally assessed components at their own centre, this must be as a last resort in cases where the member of centre staff is unable to find another centre.

Declarations can be submitted to us via our Declaration of Interest form which can be found here.

Centres must also maintain clear records of all instances where:


  • exams office staff have members of their family (which includes step-family, foster family and similar close relationships) or close friends and their immediate family (e.g. son/daughter) being entered for examinations and assessments either at the centre itself or other centres;
  • centre staff are taking qualifications at their centre which do not include internally assessed components/units;
  • centre staff are taking qualifications at other centres.
    If you have any questions regarding declarations of interest, please email conflictofinterest@pearson.com.

We have also prepared some training to support centres who deliver Pearson qualifications, examinations or assessments to decide whether a declaration is required. A link to this training can be found here available for Exam Officers.
Did you know that the most common form of candidate malpractice every exam series is the possession of a mobile phone?

According to data published by Ofqual, possession of a mobile phone accounted for 44.5% of all cases of student malpractice - 2,180 cases - in the summer 2023 series. This was an increase on the 1,825 cases seen in the summer 2022 series.

The JCQ awarding bodies have set out the agreed sanctions for the different types of candidate malpractice, including for possession of a mobile phone. These can be found in Appendix 6 of the JCQ Suspected Malpractice Policies and Procedures. You can see that the sanctions for possession of a mobile phone are severe, because we need to maintain the security and integrity of our exams:

  • Mobile phone in the candidate’s possession but no evidence of being used by the candidate – loss of marks.
  • Mobile phone in the candidate’s possession and evidence of being used by the candidate – disqualification.

We really want to see a reduction in this form of malpractice, which has such a significant impact on so many candidates. Please ensure that you’ve taken the following steps to help your learners avoid committing malpractice:


  • Clear communication to learners and their parents about items prohibited in exams, including mobile phones
  • Clear publication and display of the JCQ exam room posters
  • Sharing the JCQ-Preparing-to-sit-your-exams-2023_24.pdf infographic with learners and their parents
  • Having a member of your centre’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) deliver a pre-exam series assembly, to clearly explain the expectations of learners and the exam rules
  • Ensuring you have in place, and learners know about, a process for the safe collection and storage of their mobile phones during exams.
As we think ahead to the summer series, we wanted to remind you of the requirements relating to reporting learner malpractice.

The head of centre is required to report incidents of suspected learner malpractice that occur during the delivery of Pearson qualifications. We ask centres to complete JCQ Form M1 (www.jcq.org.uk/malpractice) and email it with any supporting documents (signed statements from the learner, invigilator, copies of evidence, etc) to the Investigations Processing team at candidatemalpractice@pearson.com. The responsibility for determining any appropriate sanctions on learners lies with Pearson.

Learners must be informed at the earliest opportunity of the specific allegation and the centre’s malpractice policy, including the right of appeal. Learners found guilty of malpractice may be disqualified from the qualification for which they have been entered with Pearson.

The only exception to the above is learner malpractice identified in relation to internal assessments before the learner has signed the declaration of authentication. In these cases, the centre can follow its own malpractice policy in resolving the matter.

Failure to report malpractice constitutes staff or centre malpractice.

Further information can be found in: 
We introduced app-based multi-factor authentication for all users of Edexcel Online in December, to protect your data and maintain the integrity of our assessments. This replaced the existing web based multi-factor authentication, and became mandatory on 5 December. All users will require access to a smart phone device to receive a verification code to access Edexcel Online.

Additional guidance on using app based MFA to access the Pearson Portal can be found in the Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.

Based on feedback received since this was launched we have also created a short 'Did you know?' graphic to answer some of your immediate questions.

Please share this information with your teaching and IT staff and anyone else who may have missed these communications but needs to access Pearson systems.
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.

Take a look at our short video that explains more about our support portal, the information you can find and the further benefits it provides. 


If in the event you cannot find the answers you are looking for, we have a team of customer service specialists on hand to help resolve your queries. You can reach this team by either raising a case in the Pearson Support Portal, or by calling them on +44 (0) 120 4770 696
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