GCSE pupils to have extra help with exams next year

As reported by the BBC, exam students will not have to memorise formulae and equations for some GCSE subjects next year

In mathematics, physics and combined science, pupils will be provided with a sheet containing formulae and equations, similar to the 2022 exams.

Many of the students sitting exams will have experienced serious disruption to their studies because of the pandemic.

The exams regulator Ofqual said the move would offer the support students needed ‘as we move towards normality.’

In September, it announced exams in England would mostly return to normal next summer.

Students will no longer have advance information of exam content.

And after three years of adjustments, grades, though still ‘protected’, will be ‘much closer’ to pre-pandemic levels.

A consultation on the proposal to allow supporting materials found 93.7% of teachers and students working towards 2023 GCSEs said it was necessary.

The students ‘will have faced significant disruption to their education due to Covid-19’ and it would be a challenge to ‘get through all of the specification’, one teacher said.

And one of the students highlighted how they had gone into lockdown in Year nine, after the start of their GCSE maths course.

Chief regulator Dr Jo Saxton said: “In 2023, students will again have the opportunity to show what they know and can do in exams,” and “together with some protection on grading”, Ofqual would “offer the degree of support students need as we move towards normality”.