Malpractice and Maladministration relating to Practical Investigation (A452) and Programming Project (A453) of GCSE Computing (J275)

We would like to remind centres that are entering candidates for GCSE Computing (Unit A452 Practical Investigation and Unit A453 Programming Project) that teachers must follow the JCQ Instructions for conducting controlled assessments, available from the JCQ website, when delivering controlled assessment sessions. 

We will investigate any suspected malpractice or maladministration and we would like to remind centres that there are serious sanctions for centres and staff that commit malpractice or maladministration. There are a range of penalties available for us to use in cases of malpractice and teachers can, and are, barred from delivering our assessments. Such sanctions have obvious implications to centres, teachers and students so we want to ensure all centres are aware of rules and controls surrounding this qualification. 

We would also like to remind centres to ensure that they are using the appropriate tasks with candidates for submission next year. We urge you to check the date on the front cover of the tasks to ensure that they are admissible in 2017 as we will not accept legacy tasks. We would also like to remind centres that copies of the live controlled assessment tasks should not be made publicly available through any medium. As part of our commitment to ensure best practice in centres, all centres that were found guilty of malpractice last year will be provided with mandatory training on the guidelines and rules for controlled assessment. 

The GCSE Computing specification, available from the qualification page, contains further guidance (see section 4.2 – planning and managing controlled assessment). All teachers supervising controlled assessment must be aware of the specification regulations and abide by them. Guidance outlined in both the specification and the JCQ Instructions takes precedence over any other published materials. 

Centres must ensure candidates are fully aware of any applicable JCQ and specification instructions. For example, candidates must be made aware that posting any sections of live work online, including raw code, is a breach of guidelines. Where this happens and it is detected, appropriate action will be taken. 

For more information relating to malpractice, please refer to the JCQ Suspected Malpractice in Examinations and Assessments, which is available to download from the JCQ website.

If you have any queries about this notice, please call our Customer Contact Centre on 01223 553998.