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In 2021/22, with the approval of DfE, we allowed the number of assessments for Cambridge Nationals moderated units to be reduced, where disruption to teaching and learning was so great it was necessary. To be eligible to use reduction in assessment, students had to be taking the assessment for the unit in the academic year 2021/22.
For candidates certificating in November 2022, January 2023 or June 2023, you must tell us if you are requesting a reduction in assessment for moderated units that were planned to be assessed in 2021/22.
You will need to do this in the series candidates are certificating.
The ‘reduction in assessment’ area of Interchange will reopen each series for you to supply your candidate's details for the reduced units.
In the series your candidates are certificating, you'll need to carry out the following steps:
If you completed our survey last year to tell us how many students you were planning to use the reduction in assessment for, we will send you tailored reminders about this process each series.
Reduction in assessment was only available for moderated units that were planned to be assessed in 2021/22. All units planned to be assessed this year (2022/23) must be completed as normal – you cannot request reduction in assessment for units students are taking in 2022/23 – see our subject update.
If you have Cambridge Nationals candidates certificating in the January 2023 and/or June 2023 series, you must tell us if you are requesting a reduction in assessment for moderated units that were planned to be assessed in 2021/22.
The ‘reduction in assessment’ area of Interchange will be available for you to tell us which units you are using the reduction in assessment for.
We’ve outlined the process below, and there's also more detail available in our FAQs for the January and June series.
These instructions apply to Cambridge Nationals students who are certificating in January 2023 and/or June 2023 who require a reduction in assessment from 2021/22.
To tell us the units where assessment is being reduced, log into Interchange, hover over ‘Reduction in assessment’ and click on ‘Cambridge Nationals’ in the left-hand menu. You will need the Interchange Centre Administrator role to view this menu item.
Select the ‘January 2023’ or ‘June 2023’ series from the dropdown menu.
You will see all the qualifications you have certification entries for in the series.
If you do not see a qualification, you may need to check you have made your entries.
For each qualification you want to reduce an assessment for, click on ‘Edit’ and you will see a screen similar to the following:
Click on ‘Download New Template’ to download a spreadsheet containing all the moderated units for that qualification. Further instructions are available in the spreadsheet's help tab.
For each student where reduction in assessment is being used, enter ‘Y’ or ‘y’ in the relevant unit column.
You must not enter anything where reduction in assessment is not being used.
When you have completed and saved your spreadsheet, click ‘Upload file’ then ‘Choose File’ and browse to your saved file. Click ‘Open’ and then ‘Upload’.
You will see the following message while the file is being validated. Do not refresh this screen. Instead, you can click ‘Back to dashboard’ to see the latest status of your file.
As validation may take a few minutes, you may need to refresh the dashboard screen if the file has not validated immediately. You do not need to stay on this screen while the file is validating.
To fix the errors, you can either:
You can then upload the replacement file by clicking on 'Replace file'.
As soon as a qualification status shows as ‘Ready to Submit’ you can submit your file to us. To submit your file, either select the check box on the individual row or click the top check box to select all files with a Ready to Submit status and click ‘Submit’.
Click the checkbox and click on ‘Confirm and Submit’.
You will see the status changes to ‘Submitted’ on the dashboard.
If you need to replace a spreadsheet after you have submitted it, you can click on 'Reopen' on the dashboard and replace the file. You can do this as many times as you need to until the deadline.
A reduction in assessment request must be supported with a declaration by the Head of Centre or senior leadership member. This confirms the requirements we have asked centres to observe have been followed. If you completed the reduction in assessment declaration last year, you do not need to submit this again.
The declaration confirms:
Please be aware you may be asked to provide samples of evidence to support the declaration. Please read our FAQ for more details.
If you have not already submitted a declaration, you must do this when requesting a reduction in assessment. You can submit a declaration by following these steps:
Your file has now been uploaded and submitted to OCR. You can check the file you have uploaded by clicking ‘Open PDF’.
For further support, you can view the following FAQs:
We're also providing live, online sessions on the key assessment arrangements in 2022/23, which include submitting reduction in assessment from 2021/22.
These sessions are suitable for exams officers and teaching staff, so please share the following dates with your colleagues:
For more information on the session dates and to book a place, please visit the online training and networks page.
If you have any queries, please contact the OCR Customer Support Centre on 01223 553998 or email us at support@ocr.org.uk.