We appreciate that a wide range of events can impact our centres and candidates before and during an exam series.
Our priority is always the safety and wellbeing of staff and candidates in our centres. We also recognise the importance of supporting candidates to be able to progress with their education or next life steps and do everything we can to facilitate this.
We have a well-established and robust range of measures in place to support our schools and candidates. We have detailed these below, with links to further information.
Should disruption occur in your country or region we work closely with our regional colleagues to closely monitor the situation to make sure we are fully prepared to support our schools should forthcoming exam series be impacted in any way.
Special consideration
Special consideration is available in every March, June and November exam series. Centres choose when to apply.
Special consideration is not available for Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Checkpoint tests.
Special consideration is a post-exam adjustment that we make to a candidate's mark to make allowances for some adverse circumstances, for example illness, bereavement, temporary injury or disruption to an exam.
There are three different types of special consideration:
- candidates who are present but disadvantaged
- candidates absent for an acceptable reason
- coursework-related special consideration.
We provide more information on our special consideration page. Our full regulations and guidance are explained in section 5.5 of the Cambridge Handbook.
To apply, we recommend you use Special Consideration Online, available via Direct. You can submit an application for multiple candidates at once where their circumstances are very similar.
You should wait until shortly after the last exam for the syllabus has passed before making your application. This will help avoid the need for multiple applications if the disruption continues.
Associate Centres must apply via their Cambridge Associate using Exam Day - Form 7.
Calculating assessed marks
We calculate assessed marks for candidates that are absent from an exam for an acceptable reason. We do this so we can award candidates an overall syllabus grade which allows them to progress with their education or next life steps. Where a candidate has missed a component for an acceptable reason, without calculating an assessed mark we are unable to award an overall syllabus grade.
We explain on our website:
- when and how we calculate assessed marks
- how our method of calculating assessed marks
- cancels out the effect of an easy or difficult paper
- makes sure candidates who receive an assessed mark are not advantaged or disadvantaged compared to candidates who sat the paper.
- when we may calculate an assessed mark for a missing component and when we cannot calculate an assessed mark for a missing component.
Transferring candidates to another Cambridge centre
This is where a candidate transfers from one Cambridge registered centre to another registered centre after the submission of exam entries.
Candidates who need to move to another centre can only continue with the exams if they move to a centre registered with us. Candidates cannot transfer to another centre for specific syllabuses or components. They can only transfer for all of their assessments in an exam series.
If your country or region is impacted by events beyond your control, we will prioritise your applications to enable you to transfer candidates quickly. Learn more about transferring candidates.
Alternative venue
If your school is closed or unable to run exams, candidates may be able to sit their exams at an alternative venue. You must apply, and gain our permission, to use an alternative venue. Learn more about alternative venues.
Portfolio of evidence
In countries or regions of countries, where exams cannot take place, we may move centres to our portfolio of evidence route to grades for our Cambridge IGCSE, O Level and Cambridge International AS & A Level qualifications. This allows candidates to achieve results and progress with their education or next life steps. We only move centres to portfolio of evidence in exceptional circumstances where:
- we have considered all other support options, but they cannot provide a route for candidates to achieve grades
- there is enough time for our schools to collect the portfolios, and for us to mark and grade them in time to release results on our published results days.
If we move your country to portfolio of evidence, we will tell you. We provide detailed support and guidance for our centres if this happens.
We ask centres to submit a portfolio of three substantial pieces of evidence for each candidate for each syllabus they are entered for. This is then marked by Cambridge examiners.
Candidates receive their results in the same way as if they had sat their exams. They are recognised by universities worldwide and candidate certificates do not show that results were achieved via portfolio of evidence.
We have detailed information and guidance on our portfolio of evidence pages so that centres can familiarise themselves with our regulations about how to select evidence for candidates and how to submit this evidence to us.
Portfolio of evidence is not available for Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Checkpoint.
Withdrawing candidates
Our withdrawal dates for all exam and test series are explained on our website.
Once the withdrawal deadline has passed, you can still request a withdrawal for medical reasons, following bereavement, or other exceptional circumstances. We consider any requests for non-medical withdrawals on a case-by case basis.
Replacement exams
Where countries or regions are impacted by events beyond their control, we are often asked to offer replacement or rescheduled exams. Because our syllabuses and components are taken by a wide range of candidates globally, we are usually unable to reschedule any exams.