Skip to main content

Go to our other sites

Change language / country

Cambridge Assessment International Education

Main navigation

  • About us

    About us

    • What we do
    • Our management team
    • Our regional teams
    • Our standards
    • Careers
    • Examiners
    • Our history
  • Why choose us

    Why choose us

    • Benefits of a Cambridge education
    • Where do Cambridge qualifications take you?
    • Support for schools
    • Information for parents and students
    • Find a Cambridge school
    • Online education
    • Join Cambridge
    • Cambridge Associates
    • The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award
    spacer
    Material from Join Cambridge Welcome pack

    Join Cambridge

    Find out how to become a Cambridge school

  • Programmes &
    qualifications

    Programmes & qualifications

    • Cambridge Primary

      • Curriculum
      • Classroom support
      • Assessment
      • Resource list
    • Cambridge Lower Secondary

      • Curriculum
      • Classroom support
      • Assessment
      • Resource list
    • Cambridge Upper Secondary

      • Cambridge IGCSE
      • Cambridge O Level
    • Cambridge Advanced

      • Cambridge International AS & A Level
      • Cambridge Pre-U
      • Cambridge AICE Diploma
      • Cambridge IPQ
    • Other

      • Recognition and acceptance
      • Cambridge Global Perspectives
      • Bilingual education
  • Exam
    administration

    Exam administration

    • Cambridge Exams Officers' Guide

      • Phase 1 - Preparation
      • Phase 2 - Entries
      • Phase 3 - Coursework and Moderation
      • Phase 4 - Before the exam
      • Phase 5 - Exam day
      • Phase 6 - Results and certificates

    Other

      • What to expect on exam day
      • Results
      • Private candidates
  • Support & training
    for schools

    Support & training for schools

    Support and resources

    • Teaching and learning during Covid-19
    • Support for teachers
    • Support for new schools
    • Teaching Cambridge at your school
    • Endorsed resources
    • Communications toolkit

    Professional development and conferences

    • Professional development courses
    • Professional development calendar
    • Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications
    • Cambridge Schools Conference

    Other support

    • Resource Plus
    • Test Maker
    • Cambridge Personal Styles Questionnaire
    • Great teaching toolkit
  • News & blog

    News & blog

    • Latest news
    • Blog
    • Newsletters
    • Sign up to our eNewsletters
    • Media contacts
    • What's new February 2022
    spacer
    Cambridge Outlook magazine front cover

    Cambridge Outlook magazine

    Keep up to date with news from Cambridge and its schools around the world.

  • Help

Programmes & Qualifications

  • Portfolio of evidence
    • Submitting the portfolio
    • Marking the portfolio
    • Secure Exchange
    • Special consideration and malpractice
    • Results and enquiries about results
    • FAQs
  • Portfolio of evidence
    • Submitting the portfolio
    • Marking the portfolio
    • Secure Exchange
    • Special consideration and malpractice
    • Results and enquiries about results
    • FAQs
  • Home
  • Information for schools about Covid-19
  • Portfolio of evidence
  • FAQs

Portfolio of evidence FAQs

Switching to portfolio of evidence

  • What are the criteria for switching to portfolio of evidence?
    • We will switch schools to the portfolio of evidence approach once we are clear that exams cannot go ahead. We will judge this on a variety of criteria, including:

      • Government / local directives closing schools during the exam series
      • Government / local directives moving to cancel national / local exams that would take place in a similar window to the Cambridge International exam series
      • Individual school closures due to local outbreaks where no alternative exam venue can be sought, and the closure will fall within the exam series.
  • What do we have to do to prove we can’t do exams? What information can a school give Cambridge?
    • We are not asking schools to prove that exams cannot go ahead, but we do welcome local insight and information as we navigate these unpredictable times together. We will be working closely with our regional teams in understanding the needs of our different localities and we recommend you contact your regional representative in the first instance. They will be gathering information at a local level to inform our decision making and keeping us informed about local situations.

      If we switch you to portfolio of evidence, we will email you to confirm our decision, and we will notify all affected schools in that area.

  • Our parents are worried about sending their children to school. Can we switch to portfolio of evidence?
    • We understand that some parents are very concerned about the health and welfare of their families and that some of the children in your schools may be in close contact with vulnerable relatives.

      However, if the school is open and able to run exams, we would expect all students to sit these exams. We are not able to switch some students to the portfolio of evidence and not others – we have to treat all candidates within a syllabus the same.

      We have produced additional guidance to support you in running exams where it is safe and permitted to do so. This may also reassure students and parents that exams will be conducted as safely as possible.

  • What will happen when we move to the portfolio of evidence route?
    • If we decide to move your school to the portfolio of evidence route, your exams officer will receive an email from us confirming the switch. You must continue to make entries as normal. In April, we will move your entries to the portfolio of evidence route. Do not be concerned if your entries appear as normal on Direct before then. Once we have moved your entries to the portfolio of evidence route, you will see the new entry option on Direct. We will not be issuing updates statements of entry following this change.

  • Could exams and the portfolio of evidence route both be used in the same series?
    • If you have sat at least one component that counts towards the syllabus grade in the exam series, we will be able to calculate an assessed grade for that syllabus based on the component sat. In this case you will not need to be switched to the portfolio of evidence route for that syllabus. However, it is possible that you could be switched to the portfolio of evidence for a syllabus for which your candidates have not yet taken any exams.

  • How late can we switch to portfolio of evidence?
    • The portfolio of evidence is designed to be as flexible as possible to accommodate uncertainty where it is unclear whether exams will be able to run. We aim to switch schools to the portfolio of evidence route by 17 April. However, if circumstances change in your country or region after 17 April and we need to switch schools from exams to the portfolio of evidence after that date, we will be able to do so.

  • What happens if exams have to stop after the start of the of exam series?
    • Once the exam series starts, we can still switch to portfolio of evidence for syllabuses where no components have yet been sat.  We need to do this for all students at your centre entered for that syllabus. We will not be able to switch some of your students entered for a syllabus to portfolio of evidence while the rest of your students entered for that syllabus take the exam.

      Where at least one eligible assessed component has been taken in a syllabus, including coursework components where you have already prepared or submitted work to us for marking/moderation, you should apply for special consideration – absent for an acceptable reason. We will calculate an assessed grade for each student taking that syllabus.

      Please note, we cannot calculate an assessed mark for the following:

      • Cambridge International A Levels where a candidate has not completed any A Level components (A2 Level components) in the exam series
      • Any component that does not have a weighting e.g. an endorsed component
      • Syllabuses where a candidate has only completed a component that does not have a weighting e.g. an endorsed component.
      • Syllabuses where a candidate has a carry forward mark but has not taken any components in the exam series

      If candidates in your centre are entered for a Cambridge International A Level and have taken at least one AS Level component but no A2 Level components, we will move all of your candidates for this syllabus to portfolio of evidence, so these candidates can be awarded A Level grades.

      Portfolio of evidence is only available at syllabus level for a whole centre. This means for each syllabus where you are unable to run any exams and need to submit a portfolio of evidence, you must submit evidence for all candidates entered for that syllabus. It is not possible for some candidates entered for the same syllabus to sit exams and others to submit portfolios of evidence, and we cannot use the portfolio of evidence for one candidate – unless they are the only candidate entered for that syllabus.

      We understand that schools want certainty about how their students will be assessed. As exams are the fairest and most accurate way of assessing candidates’ performance, we encourage you to prepare for exams as far as possible. We also encourage you to collect evidence for the portfolio.

  • Once we have been switched to portfolio of evidence, can we switch back to taking exams if the situation improves?
    • You will not be able to switch back to running exams if we move you to the portfolio of evidence route. This is why we will switch schools only as a last resort, when it is clear that exams will not be able to go ahead.

      Switching back to exams would require a significant amount of operational work which we cannot guarantee to complete in the time available to us. You would also have to re-start exam administration that may have been abandoned with the move to portfolio of evidence. Expecting both us and you to deliver everything required extremely quickly introduces many risks to the delivery of exams which could mean students do not receive grades.

      In addition, we appreciate that the uncertainty around exams can be stressful for students and their families. In making the move to portfolio of evidence ‘one way’ for a particular exam series, students will then have certainty about how they will be assessed and will know that this will not change.

Cambridge International AS & A Level

  • How will Cambridge International AS Level grade awarded through the portfolio of evidence route be used for students taking A Level in future exam series?
    • Many of you have questions about carrying forward from AS Level to A Level and we appreciate the options available can be complex. To help explain the carry-forward options available to you, we recommend you read Carrying forward AS to A Level information.

  • My candidates are taking the Cambridge International A Level linear route. Why are you asking for six pieces of evidence for linear A Level?
    • We are asking for six pieces of evidence for A Levels where the student is following the linear route to assessment. This is where they have not taken the AS Level after the first year of study. As a result, to award the A Level, we will need a portfolio for the AS part of the course and a portfolio for the A Level part of the course. These six pieces of work represent the amount of work assessed when taking a linear A Level – where candidates sit all components at the end of two years, this would typically be around six hours of assessment, reflecting the size of the A Level qualification.

Exemptions and access arrangements

  • We had planned to apply for an exemption for the practical component and our candidates are not able to provide evidence of the practical assessment objectives. How should we address this?
    • If you are not able to cover the practical assessment objectives because your school was under restrictions preventing candidates' access to the facilities needed for practical work, or circumstances in which social distancing regulations prevented group work, it is acceptable for the evidence portfolio not to include those practical assessment objectives. You should explain this in the Rationale Document.

  • I am an exams officer, and my school is in a country that has been switched to the portfolio of evidence route. Are there any tasks from the exams route I still need to carry out, for example, exemptions or submitting forecast grades?
    • If your school is in a country or region that we have switched to the portfolio of evidence route, you no longer need to:

      • apply to us for component adjustments or Covid-19 exemptions
      • apply to us for access arrangements. However, you should give appropriate access arrangements, such as extra time or enlarged copies of the paper, to eligible students when they complete past papers, mock exams and work made up of questions from past papers that you intend to use as evidence of their performance for school-assessed grades. This will ensure the work reflects the candidate’s usual way of working. We recommend that you maintain records of any access arrangements that were used throughout the year and will be used in any mock exams. You must be confident that any evidence of candidate’s need supports the need for these arrangements. If you would like us to review a sample of the evidence of candidate’s need, we would be happy to do so
      • submit any coursework, speaking tests or other non-examined assessments to us. Instead, you should retain and use this work as evidence
      • submit internally assessed marks for moderated components on Direct
      • submit work samples for internally or externally assessed components using Submit for Assessment
      • return candidate scripts to us. Please recycle any despatch and identification labels you may receive from us.

      However, there are some tasks to carry out:

      • You should continue to submit entries as if you were sitting exams. We will move these entries to the portfolio of evidence route
      • You should submit forecast grades via Cambridge International Direct. The forecast grades are not to support the evidence and should be awarded as if candidates were going to sit exams
      • Where a carry-forward mark will be used, you must provide candidates’ previous entry details as you would if they were sitting an exam. If you have Cambridge International AS & A Level candidates using carry-forwards that have been entered for a ‘best of both’ option, those candidates will now be entered for the staged route using portfolio of evidence
      • You should submit attendance registers using Submit for Assessment when you upload the candidates’ evidence
      • You must follow the regulations in sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the Cambridge Handbook for receiving and storing confidential exam materials. If you receive any confidential exam materials from us, you must not open the materials and you must keep them in your secure storage until 24 hours after the Key Time for the exam. Exam materials must not be used towards the evidence for school-assessed grade
  • I have already applied for access arrangements - what do I need to do?
      • Candidates can use access arrangements that you have already applied for past papers, mock exams or future classwork you use to build portfolios of evidence for your school-assessed grades. If you have already applied for access arrangements and we have approved them, the candidate can use these in any past papers, mock exams or future classwork you use to build portfolios of evidence.
      • We may continue to ask you for evidence of candidate’s needs as normal. Please make sure you keep evidence of need for all access arrangements in case we ask to see it.

Gathering evidence

  • Can a centre choose different pieces of work for different students based on their achievements per syllabus or does a centre have to use the same pieces of work set for each student in the syllabus?
    • The types of work to be included among the three pieces of work are at your discretion and you can therefore use different pieces of work for each candidate's portfolio. However, you should not simply select each candidate’s best work. You should choose work which is most representative of the level of performance that the candidate has demonstrated during their course of study.

  • Does the hour's worth of work need to be completed all at once?
    • Candidates may complete the hour's work in more than one sitting if lessons in your school last less than an hour, provided that you are still able to authenticate the candidates' work.

  • Where a syllabus has fewer than three components, can we include one completed past paper for one component and two completed past papers for the other component to make up the three pieces of evidence?
    • Using three completed past papers meets the requirements of the evidence portfolio. However, you can also use a teacher-set task or one of the other types of task listed in our portfolio of evidence guidance. There is no requirement for all the pieces of evidence to be past papers.

  • Is it acceptable to submit raw scores rather than candidates' actual work as evidence?
    • The evidence contained in the portfolio must show the candidates' actual work; it is not acceptable to submit raw scores without the work itself.

  • Can we use an average score from topic tests as one of the three sources of evidence?
    • The evidence contained in the portfolio must show the candidates' actual work; it is not acceptable to submit raw scores without the work itself.

      For each candidate, the three pieces of evidence in the portfolio must cover as broad a range as possible of the content of the syllabus.

  • Where the tasks on an exam paper take an hour each to complete, does the whole paper count as one piece of evidence or can each task count as a separate piece of evidence?
    • You can use a complete past paper, and this will count as one piece of evidence. You can also use parts of past papers to create your own task. This task should take candidates at least one hour to complete, and it will count as one piece of evidence. You should make sure that each candidate’s portfolio of evidence covers as broad a range as possible of the syllabus content and the assessment objectives.

  • Can a class or homework assignment be used instead of an assessment?
    • Yes, candidates can complete class or homework assignments to be submitted in the evidence portfolio, providing the assignments meet the requirements set out in our portfolio of evidence guidance. You must be able to authenticate the work.

  • Can assessments be invigilated via Teams?
    • You can invigilate candidates completing assessments remotely, providing you use video call technology that enables you to authenticate the candidates' work. You must be able to see all candidates throughout the duration of the test.

  • Can we submit two or more smaller tasks that, combined, constitute one substantial piece admissible as evidence?
    • By substantial, we mean a piece of work that has taken the candidate at least one hour of concentrated work to complete. It is acceptable if you set two or more smaller tasks to create a substantial piece of work completed in one hour.

  • If the minimum amount of time a candidate needs to spend on a piece of evidence is an hour, is it acceptable to set a 30 minute question and give candidates an hour to complete it?
    • By substantial, we mean a piece of work that has taken the candidate at least one hour of concentrated work to complete. If the candidate has not needed to concentrate fully for an hour to complete the work, then it does not meet the requirement. As an alternative, you could set two 30 minute questions instead to create a substantial piece of work completed in one hour.

  • Please could you clarify about pupils not knowing the topic of an assessment. Surely they have to know the overall topic they are being assessed on (i.e. Coasts / Hazards) so do you just mean they should not know the specific questions beforehand. These are not supposed to be exams because exams have been cancelled. They are pupil assessments.
    • You may share the broad topics that the assessment will cover with candidates. However, candidates should not know specific questions in advance.

  • Can I use multiple-choice questions as evidence?
    • You cannot use a multiple-choice question paper as a piece of evidence in the portfolio. You cannot use multiple-choice questions as part of a test created in the centre. This is because the candidate responses provided for multiple-choice questions do not provide clear evidence of a candidate’s performance. Our Cambridge examiners will not be able to make holistic judgements about a candidate’s performance and the level of a candidate’s understanding and skills based on this type of evidence.

Past papers

  • Can we adapt past papers to fit the requirement of one hour minimum and the content covered by our candidates?
    • Yes, you can adapt past papers to fit the requirement of one hour minimum of concentrated work and the syllabus content covered by your candidates.

  • How can candidates complete a past paper if they have not covered all the syllabus content?
    • If your students have not covered sufficient content to meet the demands of a complete past paper you can replace questions, where needed, with those selected from other past papers that are appropriate to the content your students have covered. You must explain this in your Rationale Document.

  • Our candidates have seen all the papers available for this syllabus. Can we still use these papers as part of our evidence?
    • We know past papers are widely available online and that your candidates may have seen the papers before. Providing the candidates do not know in advance the content of the specific paper you set them and that you can authenticate the candidates’ work, you may still use these past papers. To help you do this, we recommend that you anonymise the paper so that it is more difficult for candidates to identify the paper you plan to use.

  • What do you mean by a completed past paper?
    • Each syllabus is divided into components. We refer to the written exam a candidate completes for a component that is externally assessed by us as a paper. A single completed past paper counts as one piece of evidence. Using three completed past papers meets the requirements of the evidence portfolio. However, there is no requirement for all the pieces of evidence to be past papers.

  • Where the syllabus is new for 2022, or has significant changes, what past papers do we use?
    • We are aware that for some new syllabuses, complete past papers do not exist. We realise there are fewer published materials available for new syllabuses. However, you can also create your own tasks and assignments based on the specimen papers. You can find out more in our portfolio of evidence guidance.

Coursework

  • Can we use partial coursework, in line with the requirement for component adjustments?
    • Providing the work produced is substantial, we can accept coursework that is not complete where this is because schools were ordered to close, preventing access to the facilities needed for practical work, or circumstances in which social distancing regulations prevented group work. You should explain this in the Rationale Document.

  • If a piece of coursework is made up of two tasks, does this count as two pieces of evidence if they each took longer than an hour to complete, or does this count as one piece of evidence?
    • For most syllabuses, if you want to use coursework as a piece of evidence, the entire coursework component, prepared according to syllabus requirements and to the requirements specified in the Cambridge Handbook, counts as a single piece of evidence. Please refer to our portfolio of evidence guidance document for syllabus-specific information.

  • If the syllabus has a coursework component, does the coursework have to make up one of the pieces of evidence?
    • No, you do not have to include the coursework component, providing the evidence portfolio covers as broad a range as possible of the assessment objectives and content of the syllabus. However, it is recommended that the coursework component is included.

General

  • Receiving and storing confidential exam materials
    • If you are following the portfolio of evidence route and your candidates will not be sitting exams, you must still follow the regulations in sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the Cambridge Handbook for receiving and storing confidential exam materials. If you receive any confidential exam materials from us, you must not open the materials and you must keep them in your secure storage until 24 hours after the Key Time for the exam. 

      For any exams where you would normally download confidential materials from Digital File Despatch or the School Support Hub, you may still receive an email from us at the Key Time for a particular exam. If you are not running exams then you must not download or print any materials, such as ICT source files. If you or anyone else in your centre mistakenly downloads or prints confidential materials that you do not need because you are not running exams, you must follow the regulations in sections 4.3.1 and 4.4 of the Cambridge Handbook.

  • Are we expected to produce forecast grades if we are using portfolio of evidence route?
    • Yes, as per our processes for a standard exam series, please do submit forecast grades to us as normal. We will be able to use forecast grades to support the portfolio of evidence in the same ways that we do for candidates who take exams.

  • Can candidates who are resitting following a school-assessed grade result use the same pieces of evidence for the portfolio of evidence as was used in setting the school-assessed grade?
    • Pieces of work from a school-assessed grades portfolio cannot be used again for the portfolio of evidence. All work in the candidate’s portfolio of evidence must be new pieces of work. ‘New’ means that the candidate has not attempted the same task on a previous occasion.

  • Can we outsource the scanning of students’ work – for example, to a scanning firm – for including in the portfolio of evidence?
    • We can allow schools to do this where it reduces administration for the school. If you want to outsource scanning students’ work, you must:

      • Conduct due diligence against the quality of the scanning firm to mitigate the risk of scanning errors – for example, one candidate’s evidence being scanned and recorded as belonging to a different candidate.
      • Be confident that each piece of evidence is the candidates’ own, unaided work. To maintain this confidence, you must be sure the work could not be changed or tampered with prior to scanning. Establish a process with the scanning firm to ensure that changing or tampering with work would not be possible.
      • Protect candidate personal data. If you have any concerns that a scanning firm may not protect personal data, you must not use them.

      Any such arrangements remain the responsibility of the school and any errors which may impact the assessment, for example incomplete scanning or delayed transmission, will not be Cambridge's responsibility.

  • What can we do if we have concerns about a grade awarded using the portfolio of evidence route?
    • As students’ work will have been marked by Cambridge examiners, there will be opportunity to challenge results through an enquiry about results service, and we will publish more information about this soon.

  • How will the portfolio be marked and graded?
    • The portfolio will be marked by Cambridge examiners who will use exemplar materials to make judgements about the standard of the student’s performance in each piece of work. We have published information about this process.

      We will align awarding standards for students taking exams with awarding standards for students using the portfolio of evidence route, so that no student will be advantaged or disadvantaged by their route to their grades.

      We commit in our Code of Practice to aligning our awarding standards to those of equivalent qualifications in England. This means that we will follow Ofqual’s approach of 2022 grade boundaries reflecting a midpoint between 2021 and pre-pandemic grading.

  • Do you expect us to follow the same security guidelines for mocks as we would for actual exams, or can we release papers to teachers, or topics to students, in advance?
    • You should not tell students the topics that will come up in any exams that you set in school, or release papers to students in advance. We expect you to think carefully about the tasks that you intend to use as evidence, and make sure that candidates cannot predict the likely content of the task. You should only use these past papers if the candidates do not know in advance, and cannot guess with any confidence, the content of the specific paper you set them and if you can authenticate the candidates’ work.

  • Is it acceptable for students to sit assessments at different times? If so, should we redact the date and version information given on past papers to maintain the integrity of the exam?
    • You should only use past papers if the candidates do not know in advance, and cannot guess with any confidence, the content of the specific paper you set them and if you can authenticate the candidates’ work. Once some candidates have sat a past paper (or other tasks set by the school), it will not be possible for the school to have certainty that the content of the paper has not been discussed or shared between candidates. Therefore, we recommend that you use a different task for the candidates who were unable to sit the paper in your scheduled assessment opportunity.

Rationale document

  • Do we keep the Rationale Document? Or should it be sent when submitting students' work?
    • We will ask you to submit a digital copy of the Rationale Document to us alongside your candidates’ portfolios of evidence.

  • Will access arrangements be included in the rationale document?
    • Students doing past papers, mock exams and work made up of questions from past papers should, as far as possible, be given the appropriate access arrangements (such as extra time or enlarged copies of the paper). It is not necessary for schools to apply to Cambridge International for these access arrangements. Please continue to keep records showing students’ need for access arrangements. We will ask you to provide details of the access arrangements that you have used in the Rationale Document.

Secure materials

  • If a candidate misses the planned assessment windows to take a past paper, can we apply for “absent for acceptable reason” as evidence could not be included?
    • If we have moved your centre to the portfolio of evidence route, some of the usual aspects of special consideration do not apply. The most significant difference is that we cannot generate a calculated assessment for a missing piece of evidence. This is because the portfolio of evidence entry is a single component with 100% weighting. There are no other components upon which to base a calculation, and so ’absent for an acceptable reason’ is not available for the portfolio of evidence route. If a candidate is absent when a piece of evidence is being generated, or the evidence goes missing, gets damaged or corrupted, or there is otherwise a shortfall in a piece of evidence, then you should replace it. If this is not possible then you should withdraw the candidate.

      If a candidate is affected by adverse circumstances while producing one or more of their pieces of evidence, you must try to replace that evidence. If this is not possible you can apply for ‘present but disadvantaged’ in the usual way.

      You must use our ‘Portfolio of evidence regulations supplement: special consideration and malpractice’ together with the Cambridge Handbook 2022 if you are moved to the portfolio of evidence route.

  • Is Cambridge still sending exam scripts to centres? Can we use the papers we have received to produce evidence for the portfolio, as long as it is after the exam day?
    • You cannot use confidential material to produce evidence for the portfolio. It is live exam material and can only be used by schools sitting exams.

Submitting work to Cambridge International

  • Can the work be submitted digitally, or will you require hard copies?
    • All students’ portfolio of evidence work will be submitted digitally to Cambridge through Submit for Assessment.

About us

  • What we do
  • Help
  • Our social media channels

Useful links

  • Join Cambridge
  • Book a training course
  • Communications toolkit
  • Log in to secure sites
  • Careers
Cambridge University Press & Assessment logo

View Related Sites

  • School Support Hub
  • Cambridge Primary support site
  • Cambridge Lower Secondary support site
  • Cambridge International Direct
  • Submit for Assessment
  • Online Learning – professional development
  • Assessment Specialist support site
  • Online Learning – student support

© Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2022

  • Sitemap
  • ISO 9001 Certificate
  • Privacy and legal
  • Accessibility and standards
  • Statement on Modern Slavery
  • Contact us
Back to top
We use cookies. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies Accept