When making your entries (and any resit entries), it’s essential you plan carefully, taking the entry and certification rules into consideration.
You will need to check unit and/or combinations are valid using the entry codes booklets and resit rules will not be broken.
There are no terminal rules for Cambridge Nationals. Units can be taken in any available series and do not need to be taken at the end of the course. A certification entry must be made in the final series. If the certification entry is not made before results are issued, centres may use the post-results late certification process.
The following resit rules apply to qualifications with the exception of ICT (J800/J810).
Unit resit rules before certification (examined units)
- Candidates may resit each examined unit once before certification, i.e. each candidate can have two attempts at a unit before certification. If the candidate takes a unit twice and does not obtain a certification grade, a third entry for this unit will be rejected by our system.
- If the candidate is absent from a unit then this is not considered to be one of their two attempts with regard to the resit rules.
- Where a candidate has taken a unit twice, the better result counts towards the final grade.
Unit resit rules after certification
- After certification, candidates may wish to resit units. They may want to do this because they are resitting that qualification or want to improve an individual result before moving on to a larger qualification.
- Following certification, a candidate may have up to two further attempts at each examined unit.
- Where a candidate has taken an examined unit more than twice, the better of the two most recent non-absent results will be used.
- Where a candidate has taken an internally assessed unit multiple times, the best result is used.
Rules for retaking a qualification
- A candidate can have as many attempts at a qualification as they wish.
- Candidates can retake a qualification either by resitting all the units, or by resitting some units and reusing previous results for others.
- When a qualification is retaken (i.e. after certification), a candidate may have up to two further attempts at each examined unit. However, only the better of the two most recent non-absent results will count towards the final grade.
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Candidates may certificate for the Award, Certificate and Diploma concurrently, or they may certificate for a qualification of one size and later certificate for a larger qualification, with the units used towards the first qualification being reused towards the subsequent qualification(s).
The early entry rule is applied to qualifications that count towards key stage 4 performance tables. It helps define which qualification will count when two qualifications which discount each other are taken by a student or where the same qualification is taken more than once by a student. For Cambridge Nationals the early entry date is the date we award the full qualification. Cambridge Nationals full qualifications can be claimed in a November, January or June series. Awarding takes place shortly after the series:
- November series: awarding date is in December
- January series: awarding date is in February
- June series: awarding date is in July.
For Cambridge Nationals, it is the best grade of all units taken (including any permitted resits or resubmissions) that counts towards the final grade, but it is the date of the award of the first overall certification result that is reported to the DfE and used for the performance tables.
Note: Cambridge Nationals restrict resits of the externally assessed unit to one resit before certification. This does not apply to the internally assessed units or Cambridge Nationals in ICT (R001).
Full details of the discounting rules, the list of key stage 4 discount codes and the early entry guidance for schools can be found on the DfE website.
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