Exam Information

Summer 2023 contingency days

The awarding bodies have collectively agreed a contingency day for several years now which is always scheduled at the end of the GCSE, GCE AS and A-level exam timetables.
The contingency day is in the event of national or significant local disruption to exams in the United Kingdom, being part of the awarding bodies’ standard contingency planning for exams.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, further resilience was needed within the exam timetables. A single contingency day was not felt to be sufficient if a national event or incident had a significant effect on the exam timetable. For example, summer exams could be affected by extremely high temperatures.
For the June 2023 exams, the awarding bodies have therefore introduced two additional half-day contingency sessions. These are on Thursday 8 June 2023 and Thursday 15 June 2023. The standard contingency day remains at the end of the timetable being scheduled on Wednesday 28 June 2023.

Candidates are therefore strongly encouraged to remain available until Wednesday 28 June 2023 should examinations need to be rescheduled.

Arrangements for GCSE, AS and A level exams and grading in summer 2023
Exams and other formal assessments are returning to normal this year with protection in place for students. Please access this link for full details. ‘Grading protection’, see below, means that even with the disruption experienced by students, we expect national results in 2023 to be similar to those in pre-pandemic years, even where the quality of work is a little weaker.

There is no set number, or ‘cap’, on the number of students who can achieve each grade.