Access to Scripts

A script is the copy of a candidate’s answers submitted in an exam. When we mark your candidates’ scripts, we allocate each script to a particular marker – the examiner. In most cases, a candidate has to take more than one question paper in the same subject. These different question papers are allocated to different examiners who are experts in their field. Each examiner marks each script according to the mark scheme for that question paper. Senior examiners check a sample of the marking of every examiner to make sure that their marking is consistent across all scripts and in line with the mark scheme.

For syllabuses and components included in the Access to Scripts pilot, most scripts that we scan and mark digitally will be available. Any scripts we do not scan and mark digitally will not be available. The syllabuses and components included in the Access to Scripts pilot are included in the administrative guide above.

The following reasons also mean that scripts will not be available in Access to Scripts. Where a script:

• is returned to us late or is unscannable
• has assessed or adjusted marks
• has no marks due to malpractice
• has results set to 'Q – Pending' or 'X – No Result'. If scripts have their 'Q – Pending' or 'X – No Result' status removed five working days before Access to Scripts closes, we will make these available in Access to Scripts.

We cannot resolve any other issues or provide scripts that are unavailable in the system.

You will be able to download up to 20 scripts at a time using the 'Download selected' button, or you can select individual scripts to download. There is more information in our administrative guide (see above).

You do not need to securely store scripts that you download. However, you must store and share them appropriately. You must not share the scripts online, on any public website or via social media.

You can share the script with the candidate, and with relevant teaching colleagues in your centre. Viewing the script should inform and support future teaching and learning, and exam preparation, in your centre. It may also help you and your candidate decide whether to apply for an enquiry about results. If you save scripts in your centre on a central file location or shared drive, you must make sure they are securely saved.

You will be asked to confirm that permission has been given by the student(s) to download their script(s) and/or the script(s) will be anonymised at the point of use. If they have not given permission to use their scripts they must be anonymised for teaching and learning purposes.

If a script is not available to you via Access to Scripts it is because we have not been able to scan and mark it digitally. This could be for several reasons:

• Some components are always hand-marked, rather than marked digitally, by our examiners, for example:
  • modified papers. Contact us to request these scripts.
  • science practical exams. Submit an enquiry about results Service 1S or 2S to receive a copy of a practical exam script.
  • multiple-choice papers. Submit an enquiry about results Service 1S to receive a copy of a multiple-choice exam script. (Service 2S is not available for multiple-choice papers.)
• We always receive a small number of scripts each series which we are unable to scan even though the component is marked digitally. Contact us and we will put these scripts in the 'My Messages' section of Direct.
• A script is part of a malpractice investigation. We will have contacted you separately if this is the case.

If you are seeing an error message such as '500 server error' please check your firewall settings.

If a candidate has been withdrawn, their name will appear in Access to Scripts but a script will not be available.

Candidate scripts are available to download from results release. If you log in to My Cambridge and select the Access to Scripts tile before our published results release date(s) you will not be able to see any scripts.

You can share the script with the candidate, and with relevant teaching colleagues in your centre.

You must not share the scripts online, on any public website or via social media.

You can share scripts with candidates by email, but you must tell them not to share the script, or permit anyone else to share the script, on social media or any online platform.

Viewing the script should inform and support future teaching and learning, and exam preparation, in your centre. It may also help you and your candidate decide whether to apply for an enquiry about results. If you save scripts in your centre on a central file location or shared drive, you must make sure they are securely saved.

Access to Scripts is currently only available to exams officers. You can then share scripts with candidates, and with relevant teaching colleagues in your centre after you have downloaded them.

You must not share scripts online, on any public website or via social media.

You can share scripts with candidates by email, but you must tell them not to share the script, or permit anyone else to share the script, on social media or any online platform.<

Viewing scripts should inform and support future teaching and learning, and exam preparation, in your centre. It may also help you and your candidates decide whether to apply for an enquiry about results. If you save scripts in your centre on a central file location or shared drive, you must make sure they are securely saved.

Modified question paper responses may not be in a format that we can scan so we mark the hard copy. Please contact info@cambridgeinternational.org to request these scripts.

Access to Scripts may help you to decide whether to apply for an enquiry about results, and which type of enquiry to request. Before you decide, there are a number of things to consider, and we have described these below.

As part of our usual marking and quality assurance checks, a script is sometimes marked and reviewed by more than one examiner before we release results. When you download a script from Access to Scripts, you will only see marks and annotations from the most recent stage of marking. We use a different colour for each stage of the marking and monitoring process (see below for more details).

If the script has red and / or green annotations, then it has been marked once. You do not need to request a copy of the script via an enquiry about results because there are no other marks or annotations from any other stage of marking.

If the script has brown or blue annotations, then we marked it more than once before we released results. Only the most recent annotations are visible via Access to Scripts. Therefore, if you are considering an enquiry about results, you may wish to request a service that includes a copy of the script so that you can see the marks and annotations from every stage of marking.

We explain the different stages of marking and which marking stage takes priority if a candidate’s script has been marked more than once:

• in our Enquires about results and marks on scripts factsheet
• below in the question What are the different stages of marking?
• in our Administrative Guide: Using Access to Scripts.

If you request an enquiry about results (service 2S), an examiner will review the marking of the script. This may result in the mark and / or grade for the script changing, or no change to the mark and / or grade. We send you a PDF copy of the script which will show all annotations made by examiners, along with a Candidate Marks Report showing the marks awarded at all stages of marking .

If the script has red and / or green annotations, then it has been marked once. A copy of the script requested as part of an enquiry about results will not show any additional marks and annotations. However, you may still wish to request a clerical recheck (service 1) or review of marking (service 2) and you do this in the usual way.

When you access a candidate’s script using the Access to Scripts service, the first page of the candidate’s script is a Candidate Marks Report. This report lists the candidate’s marks at the most recent stage of the marking process. Candidate marks are shown as a total (‘Paper total’) as well as the marks for each individual question. The paper total may not be the final mark awarded to the script.

As part of our usual marking and quality assurance checks, a script may be marked and reviewed by more than one examiner before we release results. When you download a script, you will only see marks and annotations from the most recent stage of marking. We use a different colour for each stage of the marking and monitoring process.

We explain the different stages of marking and which marking stage takes priority if a candidate’s script has been marked more than once:

• in our Enquires about results and marks on scripts factsheet
• below in the question ‘What are the different stages of marking?’
• in our Administrative Guide: Using Access to Scripts, available on this webpage.

All marking at each stage is completed according to the marking standard set by the principal examiner. The principal examiner is the most senior examiner marking the paper and is responsible for making sure the mark scheme is applied correctly.

• Original This is the mark that the original examiner gave to the candidate’s work on the script.
• Monitoring (if applicable) This is the mark that a senior examiner gave to the script if it has been sampled during the process of monitoring the original examiner’s marking. This mark may be higher, lower or the same as the original examiner’s mark. If the difference between the mark given by a senior examiner during monitoring and an original examiner’s mark is a matter of professional judgement and the difference is small enough to be acceptable, we do not change the mark. We explain why we do this in the sections about the use of professional judgement in marking and about the use of tolerance.
• Grade review (if applicable) This is the mark that a reviewing examiner gave to the script at the grade review stage. Grade review is a non-random, targeted re-mark of candidates whose total syllabus mark is close to a grade threshold and whose prospective result gives us some concern under one or more of a number of pre-determined criteria. One of these criteria is to review the scripts of candidates who have a grade for one component that is significantly worse than a grade in another component. The grade review mark will take priority for the candidate over all other marking instances.

The following stages could also happen during the marking process but do not appear on the Candidate Marks Report on the front of the candidate’s script. This may mean that the total mark shown on the Candidate Marks Report on the front of the script may not match the candidate’s final mark.

• Examiner scaling Sometimes we increase or decrease the marks of all candidates marked by a particular examiner for a question paper. This happens if an examiner’s marking has been consistently slightly generous or slightly severe compared with the agreed marking standard set out by the principal examiner. The process is known as examiner scaling.
• Special consideration After a successful application for special consideration from a school, we make a post-exam adjustment to the candidate’s total mark to allow for any adverse circumstances, for example illness, bereavement or temporary injury. In this circumstance, we let you know that your application was successful and that we adjusted your candidate’s mark.
• Adjustment of final mark – weighting factor In some syllabuses we apply a weighting factor to the marks so that they match the weighting the syllabus shows for each question paper, contributing to the overall syllabus grade. The weighted mark does not appear on the candidate’s script but is the candidate’s final mark that contributes to their syllabus grade.

Before the publication of results, a senior examiner monitors the marking of each examiner. At this stage, if there is a subjective difference in marks that is within the tolerance for the question paper and therefore acceptable, we do not change the mark. However, if the subjective difference in marks is greater than the tolerance for the question paper, we change the mark to be that of the senior examiner – the ‘Monitoring’ mark. We apply this principle regardless of whether the senior examiner’s mark is higher or lower than the original mark.