Summer Results 2020: Everything you need to know

Learners must get their examination results from their school or college (centre), on the published Results Day, and cannot be issued with their results until after 8am.

Schools and colleges should inform all learners of the arrangements for obtaining their results and with which members of school or college staff they should discuss any results queries or concerns. 

Arrangements this year may be different to those in previous years and will need to take account of the latest government advice for your area. 

Please be aware that we cannot provide or discuss results with learners, their parents, or guardians even if the school or college is closed. All matters regarding results must be discussed with staff at the school or college. 

Explanation of results

Learners will be awarded an overall qualification grade. Marks will not be issued as no exams were sat in this series and no work was marked.

There will be no grade boundaries issued in summer 2020, as the process by which results have been calculated is different from in other years. More information on the calculation process is available here.

For unitised qualifications, with the exception of Level 1/2 Vocational Awards, there will be no unit grades awarded.

The overall qualification grade sets awarded this summer will be the same grade sets as in other years. They will have equal value and should be treated in this way by universities, colleges and employers.

The grade sets for each qualification type can be found in Appendix 1 of our Guide to Results and Appeals.

Please see our RESULTS UPDATE for the latest information on grades. 

Despite the cancellation of the summer examinations this year, it is important that learners are awarded with results in order to allow them to progress to the next stage of their lives. Therefore, a method for calculating grades has been implemented this summer which has been agreed between the regulators and awarding bodies to ensure a consistent and fair approach.

Step 1: Centre assessment grades and rank order

Schools and colleges provided us with a centre assessment grade for each subject for each learner together with the rank order of learners within each grade for each subject.

The centre assessment grade is a professional judgement, based on a broad range of objective evidence, of the most likely grade a learner would have achieved if they had sat the exams. This is based on a range of evidence such as classwork, homework, mock exams and non-exam assessment. A centre assessment grade is different to a predicted or target grade, which are often used to motivate learners.

To ensure that the grades and rank order are as accurate and as fair as possible, two members of staff signed off the grades before the head of centre declared that their centre assessment grades and rank order information were accurate and represented the professional judgements of centre staff. The grades and rank orders that centres submitted to us were not the sole responsibility of any individual teacher.

Step 2: Standardisation

There have been questions about why standardisation is required and why centre assessment grades cannot be awarded as the final calculated grades to learners.

Standardisation is important to ensure that standards are aligned across schools and colleges, and that national results are broadly in line with those in previous years.

Each year we maintain standards through setting similarly challenging assessments, monitoring the standard of marking to ensure it is accurate and consistent, and deciding on grade boundaries to ensure that standards are comparable from year to year. As this year’s learners have not had the opportunity to sit their assessments, we have adopted a statistical process which will ensure that we maintain grading standards so that:

• All learners this year are treated fairly
• Learners this year are treated consistently with past and future learners
• Grades awarded this year are valued the same as in any other year

For schools and colleges in Wales (and others entered for our WJEC specifications) WJEC must use the statistical standardisation procedures approved by Qualifications Wales for calculation of grades for GCSE, AS, A Level and Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate. The procedures identify the datasets that must be used for standardisation.

For our other qualifications, we have used similar approaches to our models for general qualifications in Wales or England.

What data has been used?

When standardising grades, we have looked at the following data:

• previous national results in a subject
• the prior attainment of learners
• the school or college’s results in recent years

We have considered a school or college’s grade distributions across previous summer exam series for the subject based on results in recent years. We have also looked at the differences in prior attainment between a school or college’s learners in previous exam series and learners getting their results this summer. For unitised qualifications, we have also taken account of banked assessment results where appropriate.

This data has been  compared against the centre assessment grades and rank order information submitted to us and  adjustments have been made if centre assessment grades are too generous or too severe. A learner’s final grade may be lower, higher or the same as the centre assessment grade submitted, however, the rank order submitted by the school or college will not change.

Regulators will also review the overall national results to ensure that they are comparable with previous years.

Teacher guidance on understanding your students’ results: Please read our Results Reporting Guidance documents for additional information to help you understand how we have calculated your students’ results, and the data we have used in the calculation.

Detailed reports are available to teachers via the Secure Website.

For further information, please read our Guide to Results and Appeals.

Please remember – if you’re a learner or parent looking to appeal against a grade, you will need to do this through contacting your school or college – you cannot do this through WJEC directly.

Due to the changes to the process in awarding grades this summer, the standard post results services do not apply, and instead an exceptional appeals process has been agreed with our regulators. These processes are explained in the ‘JCQ guide to the awarding bodies’ appeals processes June 2020 examination series’

JCQ has published Supplementary Information to the JCQ guide to the awarding bodies’ appeals process, June 2020 examination series. The information covers recent changes to candidate consent and grade protection. Please read this additional information prior to submitting an appeal.

Schools and colleges internal appeals procedures

Schools and colleges must have in place arrangements that allow for learners to apply to the centre to request relevant information in respect of their results. The internal appeals procedure must allow for appeals against a decision by the school or college not to submit an appeal on behalf of a learner. Learners must be notified of the school/college’s internal appeals arrangements.

WJEC’s appeal process and deadlines

There are two stages to the summer 2020 appeals process, the first stage is referred to as an initial review and the second stage is referred to as an independent review.

Initial Review

Applications for an initial review may be submitted from the date of the relevant publication of results day. The final date for receiving applications for an initial review is Thursday 17^th September 2020. Any applications or requests received after this date will not be accepted.

We will aim to complete initial reviews within 42 calendar days of the receipt of the application. Where university places are pending, centres should submit applications as soon as possible after the publication of results. Learners should inform their centre as quickly as possible if they consider that an error has been made in awarding their final grade.

Schools and colleges must submit applications for an initial review on our Secure Website. Further guidance on how to submit an application for an initial review will be available on our Secure Website prior to the issuing of results.

Applications will only be considered from schools or colleges on behalf of their learners. The application must be authorised by the head of centre. 

For full details of the appeals process and grounds of appeal, please read our Guide to Results and Appeals.

For appeals against summer 2020 results, we also advise centre staff to read the JCQ guide to the awarding bodies’ appeals processes June 2020 examination series document prior to submitting an appeal.

There will be no charge for appeals submitted by centres in Wales.