When students are ready for assessment, you make examined unit entries and NEA unit entries for the relevant series. 

At the end of the course, you make a certification entry in the final series to let us know the student requires a qualification result. This forms the term-time checkpoint. 

You do not need to register students at the start of the course. 

This page provides a guide to Cambridge Nationals entries. You can also see our entries flow chart for a handy overview.

The entry codes booklet for Cambridge Nationals contains all the codes and rules of combination together with assessment availability for each series.

All our entry fees are provided in the fees list. Please check this document carefully to ensure you don’t incur late entry fees.

Invoices will be sent (normally via email) to your accounts contact once you have made your entries.

To query an invoice, please forward a copy of the invoice and supporting documentation to creditcontrol@ocr.org.uk, quoting your centre number and invoice number.

You must make unit entries for the series the student will be taking the assessment. All examined and NEA units are available every January and June series. 

All unit entries must be made by the relevant deadline for the series – see the key dates. 

For NEA units, candidates must be entered for the correct entry option, which specifies whether the work is uploaded electronically to Submit for Assessment or submitted via post. For each of these units, all candidates’ work must be submitted using the same entry option. 

Cambridge Nationals unit entries are always in the format ‘RXXX’, for example R093 or R094A.

The certification entry (also known as ‘cashing-in’) lets us know the student is ready to complete their qualification and needs an overall qualification result. This forms the term-time checkpoint for schools and colleges to confirm which students need a result to progress. 

You make the certification entry for the overall qualification the student is planning to achieve. 

You must make the certification entry in the student’s final series (which could be the January or June series) by the relevant unit entry deadline for the series. 

To be eligible to a receive a qualification result, the student must have been entered for all units required for the qualification, either in a previous series or in the same series as certification and have met the terminal rule. When you make certification entries, we will let you know if any students do not have enough units/unit entries to receive a qualification result. 

Certification entries are always in the format 'Jxxx', for example J834 or J835.

When making your entries (and any resit entries), it’s essential you plan carefully, taking the entry and certification rules into consideration.

A terminal rule applies to the examined unit for all Level 1/Level 2 Cambridge Nationals qualifications. You can read more on the entry rules page.