the pandemic, pupils in England will be offered a choice of topics in some GCSE exams, such as English literature, history, ancient history and geography, as well as exam aids next summer.
For subjects where a choice of topics is not provided, advance notice on the focus of exam content will be given in February to help with revision.
In a speech to the Sixth Form Colleges Association conference earlier in January, Jo Saxton, Ofqual’s chief regulator, said that the release of advance information on the kinds of topics pupils will see in their exams would not advantage higher-ability pupils.
Pupils will be given information on February 7 to help focus their revision to answer questions carrying more marks – higher-tariff questions – whereas advance information will not be provided for simpler one or two-mark questions. Of course, much of the advance information gives a steer on how to revise for higher tariff questions, although not all of it,” Ms Saxton said.
“Bluntly, to focus advance information on low tariff questions would be nonsensical,” she added.
“It would be silly to publish a document that says something like; you will be asked to identify the year in which the Versailles Treaty was signed, or the year in which Magna Carta was signed. Clearly, at that point, the exam would stop being an exam,” Ms Saxton said.
There have been concerns that, by releasing the information in the spring term rather than earlier in the academic year, the changes could “exacerbate” problems for pupils disadvantaged by the pandemic.
But Ms Saxton added that questions carrying more marks did not necessarily mean “harder content”, as pupils of any ability gained marks across an exam paper.
“We hope that the benefit of advance information will mean that students who suffered the most disruption, or those who are less able, may gain confidence to tackle elements of a paper that they might previously not have felt confident to try,” she announced.
