With the results period nearly upon us, we wanted to remind you about our priority review of marking service and let you know about the latest updates for reviews of moderation for the June 2019 series. 

Submitting priority reviews of marking

In June 2018 we introduced additional quality checks to reviews of marking – you can see our previous blog for more information about this. 

Although you have a week to request a priority review of marking after A Level results day, we recommend you submit any priority reviews on behalf of students as soon as possible. This is to give us as much time as possible to process the review in time for all outcomes to be with universities by 31 August. The deadline for requesting our priority service 2, covering AS and A Levels, as well as Level 3 Cambridge Technicals and other Level 3 general qualifications, is 22 August, and we will confirm the outcome within the JCQ-agreed 15 calendar days – although we make every effort to complete reviews sooner than this. 

In the rare event we are unable to complete all the additional checks for the priority reviews by 31 August, we will issue ‘provisional’ results of the review. We believe this is still in the best interests of the student. 

Keeping universities informed 

In all cases, students should inform their prospective university immediately if a result is being queried that could affect a university place. This allows universities to take this into account when making their decisions. 

Additional quality checks for reviews of moderation 

We are continually striving to ensure students get the results they deserve. We’ve therefore improved our approach to reviews of moderation this year by updating the training we give to moderators who are reviewing candidate work and by increasing our monitoring of how they do this. 

What does this mean for schools and colleges? 

To enable us to carry out the monitoring efficiently, we’ll be scanning the original candidate samples so that quality checks can be carried out on-screen – reducing the need to send hard copies to lots of different places. This means any fastenings, like paper clips or staples, will be removed so the work might look a bit different when it is returned at the end of the post-results period. You might also notice the work is returned straight from us rather than the moderator. 

This shouldn’t affect the length of time it takes to process your reviews of moderation. When we receive your sample, we aim to complete your review as quickly as possible, and within the agreed JCQ timeframe of 35 calendar days. If there’s a delay to the outcome of the review, we’ll make sure we update you. 

When you submit your review to us, we’ll send you an email with guidance on how and where to submit your sample. 

You should make sure candidate work is retained and securely stored in your centre until the end of the post-results period. This applies to all work, even if it wasn’t part of the original moderation sample. More information about securely storing non-examination assessment work can be found on pages 13 and 14 of the JCQ Instructions for conducting non-examination assessments.

About the author

Alison Leather - Customer Support Manager (South East)

Alison is Customer Support Manager for the South East region. The Customer Support Team provides support, training and guidance for centres administering OCR qualifications.

Alison has worked in education since 1995, as an Exams Manager in a college, a Centre Support Officer with the National Assessment Agency (NAA) and an Exams Officer in a secondary school – so she knows how challenging and rewarding it can be working in the exams office. Alison joined OCR as Customer Support Manager in 2007.