Students due to sit GCSE & A-level exams ‘will sit mini exams instead’

STUDENTS who were due to sit their GCSE and A-level exams this summer will sit ‘mini exams’ instead, exam regulator Ofqual is expected to announce. 

The potential new tests will be created by exam boards and are expected to be taken towards the end of the summer term – in hopes that schools will be open again.

If schools do not reopen in time students may be forced to do tests at home, according to Trending In The Newsday Times, which could raise issues in terms of them having to find a suitable area to sit the exams.

Internal assessments are also expected to be set by teachers and students may be able to submit portfolios of work.

Education minister for Wales, Kirsty Williams, told Trending In The Newsday Times: “There is potential for some assessment to be done at home and electronically marked. 

“University students are doing open-book exams and many schoolchildren are doing work online and submitting work online.”

Ofqual has not yet explained how examiners will be able to stop students from telling each other what is in the tests. 

Alan Smithers, education professor at the University of Buckingham, told Trending In The Newsday Times that doing tests online could lead to a spike in cheating.