School-assessed grades

In countries, and regions of countries, where government directives mean that exams cannot take place, we are switching from exams to school-assessed grades using student work, so that students can progress despite the impact of the pandemic.

Where this happens we will update schools immediately if it becomes clear that exams cannot go ahead in their country or region and we need to switch to school-assessed grades in their country or region. We are working with our regional teams worldwide to monitor the situation in countries where we work.

Overview of our approach:

1. We will ask schools to provide an assessed grade based on the level of achievement that each student has demonstrated.
2. To assess this grade, schools should identify a portfolio of three substantial pieces of work from each student in every syllabus.
3. Schools will be asked to submit grades to Cambridge International between mid-May and late June.
4. We will ask schools to share details of the internal quality assurance processes they have followed while collating portfolios of student work, and when submitting assessed grades. Cambridge International will also carry out external quality assurance checks on grades.

Collecting evidence to support school-assessed grades

Each school-assessed grade will be based on the level of achievement demonstrated by students in work that they have done. You should identify a portfolio of three substantial pieces of work for each student in each syllabus.

The types of work to be included among the three pieces of work are at the centre’s discretion. They can include one or more of any of the following:

• Complete past papers from the syllabus with a duration of an hour or more*
• Completed coursework prepared according to syllabus requirements
• Work made up of questions selected from various past papers
• Papers used as mock exams
• Extended project work set by the school during the course of study
• Tasks set by the centre, such as essays, assignments, problems, practical tasks.

You can find more information about how to collect evidence to use as part of your students’ portfolios in this document (PDF, 168KB).

Setting and aligning standards for exams and school-assessed grades

In this document (PDF, 40KB), we explain:

• how we will set standards for exam grades and align them with school-assessed grades in June 2021
• understanding the standard of school-assessed grades
• maintaining standards year on year and aligning with standards in England
• why our first choice for assessing students is exams

Students whose results are determined by school assessment will not be systematically advantaged or disadvantaged compared to students whose grades are determined by taking exams.

Webinars

On 25 March, we ran a webinar for Exams Officers about using school-assessed grades for the June 2021 series. View a recording of the session.

We will be running further webinars covering other parts of the school-assessed grades process soon – including how to use evidence to work out grades, how to use the Rationale Document, and how to submit grades to us. Look out for registration links in our weekly update emails.