Autumn exam series for private candidates

Autumn exam series guidance from Ofqual for private candidates

Exam boards will be offering exams in October for AS and A levels, and in November and December for GCSEs for all private candidates. Exams will be available for all GCSE and A level subjects, and for AS in biology, chemistry, physics, maths and further maths. Exam boards may offer AS exams in other subjects.

Check with the relevant exam board and private candidate exam centre directly whether they will provide exams for any other subjects at AS.

The exams will be in a standard format and no adaptations will be made other than reasonable adjustments for eligible students.

All subjects will be assessed by exam except art & design which will be assessed by a task set and marked by the exam board. Your grade will be determined by your performance on this task.

The exams will assess you in the same way as had been planned for exams in summer 2021, including assessing you on a reduced number of topics for GCSE English literature, history and ancient history.

Private candidates can take exams in the autumn if you received a teacher-assessed grade in summer 2021 in the same subject or your exam board believes that you would have taken exams this summer had they not been cancelled. This may apply to private candidates.

If the private candidates get a higher grade in your autumn exam than you get this summer, then you can ask the exam board to provide a new certificate showing your higher grade.