Schools and colleges in England will have a second chance to challenge GCSE, AS, A Level and Project results if they have concerns about marking errors.

Ofqual has announced that schools and colleges will have a second opportunity to challenge results if they continue to have concerns about marking or moderation errors. This adds to their existing right to appeal results on the grounds that an exam board hasn’t followed its own procedures.

Starting this summer, those who continue to have concerns about marking or moderation errors in AS, A Level or Project qualifications after the exam board has conducted its first review will be able to ask exam boards to look again. This follows the evaluation of a pilot exercise involving three A Level subjects (geography, religious studies, and physics). It found that this additional appeal provided a better opportunity for errors in marking to be identified and corrected.

The opportunity to appeal on the grounds of a marking or moderation error will be extended to GCSEs in English language, English literature and maths in 2018, and to all remaining GCSE subjects in 2019.