Jane Parsons - Customer Support Manager (Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Somerset, Wiltshire and Worcestershire)

This blog provides guidance on managing Cambridge Technicals results this summer, and hints and tips on what to look out for if a result you're expecting isn't available. 

Remember, you can view full guidance on managing results on our website which includes details on what’s available, where and when.

How Cambridge Technicals qualifications work 

Cambridge Technicals qualifications are unitised qualifications, which means they are designed to be taken in chunks, or units, throughout the course. These units are usually either assessed via an exam or coursework which is marked by teachers and then ‘moderated’ by an OCR moderator. When all the required units have been taken, we automatically issue an overall grade. 

This year, students who are certificating may have a combination of live assessments and assessed grades for moderated units where assessment from 2021/22 was reduced. Students on a 3-year programme may also have unit teacher assessed grades (TAGs) from summer 2021.

How are Cambridge Technicals qualification results graded? 

The overall grade for Cambridge Technicals will be determined in the standard way, combining the points from units taken in the normal way, the reduction in assessment units, and any units from summer 2021 you gave a teacher assessed grade for.

• Where a permitted reduction in the number of assessments has been used or the student is eligible for a special consideration absence, we will produce an assessed grade. We will then assign points based on the grade submitted and the guided learning hours (GLH) of the units as normal. You can read more on how assessed grades will be calculated in summer 2023 in our FAQ.
• Where a unit from summer 2021 was given a teacher assessed grade, we assigned points based on the grade submitted and the guided learning hours (GLH) of the units as normal. We issued results for unit teacher assessed grades in January 2022.
  

Details of how many points are assigned to a unit at each grade and how many points are required for the overall grade can be found in the centre handbook for each qualification. The centre handbooks can be downloaded from the qualification pages on our website.

Units are graded as Pass, Merit or Distinction. In addition, a near-pass grade is available for Level 3 examined units and is reported as ‘R’. This allows a student to achieve an overall qualification without passing one or more of the externally assessed units. 

You can see the grade scales for Cambridge Technicals overall qualifications on the results section of our website. 

How and when we issue results 

The first thing to note about Cambridge Technicals results is that there is no official results embargo. You can give students their results as soon as they are issued.

This year we are issuing Cambridge Technicals results a couple of days earlier than usual on Monday 14 August at 8.00am. Although results can be given to students as soon as they are available, the earlier release has been designed to give schools and colleges more time to check and prepare results for students who need them on 17 August, alongside A Levels.

Interchange results and results reports

For the June 2023 series examined units, results and results reports will be available on Interchange on 14 August, 8am. If students have completed enough units, we will also issue qualification results at the same time.

If you have requested a reduction in assessment for moderated units for certificating students, we will issue the assessed grades by 14 August (once the student has achieved enough units to certificate). These grades will appear as a standard moderated unit result – there will be nothing to distinguish them from units that have been assessed. 

Students’ results are available from the ‘candidate achievement report’ on Interchange.

The report shows the latest qualification grade achieved and the unit results from a selected date range or series. You can generate it for individual candidates or the whole cohort. You can also choose whether to produce it as a PDF – for example if you want to use it as a results slip – or as a CSV file. You can see a student-friendly example on our website.

To access the report, log in to Interchange, hover over ‘Cambridge Technicals’ and click on ‘Results documents’ in the left-hand menu.

To generate a report showing your June 2023 exam results and any full qualification results, select 'Series' and then 'June 2023' from the dropdown. 

If you would like all units to show on the report, enter the date range of when the units were achieved. To make sure any assessed grades are also included, enter an end date of 14 August 2023.

EDI results files 

We will issue up to five EDI results files on 14 August at 8.00am. You will receive results files for: 

Cambridge Technicals (2016 suite)

• 6E23 – Examined units from the June 2023 exam series 
• 9I22 – Qualifications and moderated units awarded between 1 and 31 July 
  
• 9I22 – Qualifications and moderated units awarded between 1 and 7 August
  

Cambridge Technicals (2012 suite)

• 9C22 – Qualifications and moderated units awarded between 1 and 31 July
• 9C22 – Qualifications and moderated units awarded between 1 and 7 August
  

When importing your EDI results files, please check carefully which series you're importing them into. You make qualification entries in the Annual/September series so when importing your results, this is where your qualification and moderated unit results will show. For exam entries, these appear in the June series.

If you are a SIMS user and want to import your qualification results into the summer series, we produce specific ‘summer’ basedata to enable you to do this – this is an optional download. The basedata and instructions on how to use it are available from our website. 

Hardcopy results reports and final certificates 

We will send hardcopy control reports and certificates to arrive by 16 August. The control reports show the results for all units, including the marks for examined units – you can see an example on our website.

Troubleshooting

Difficulties importing results 

If you are unable to import your EDI results files, before you do anything else, please check you have the latest version of the basedata. This is the first thing our Customer Support Team will ask you if you are having difficulties, so it’s best to check this first.

ESS SIMS also have a helpful YouTube video you can use if you need a reminder on how to refresh your basedata.

Some common error messages you may see when you’re downloading your EDI results file include:

• ‘Results for elements absent from imported basedata’ – This is where you may not have imported all the elements in your basedata and is usually resolved by refreshing the basedata to include all the units or qualifications you need. 
• 'Invalid series code in file' – This is where you are trying to import a results file that doesn’t match the basedata. This could be if you are trying import the moderated or qualification results into the optional summer basedata without amending the file or you have amended the file and are importing it into the annual (September) basedata. 
• ‘Results not matched by an entry’ – This is not a ‘fatal error’ and you can simply click through the messages to download the file.

Missing or incomplete results 

If you have any results missing from your EDI file, check Interchange to see whether a result has been issued and has just not been included in the file due to a missing unique candidate identifier (UCI) or the result was issued after the EDI file was created.

If you still have any missing or incomplete results, it’s also worth making sure: 

• Your students have achieved all the units required.
• Your students have a valid combination of units. 
• All students are entered for the correct qualification, including the right qualification level. 
• You submitted your request for any reductions in assessment.
• You have claimed for all required moderated units, including resits, and at the correct grade. 
• None of your students have duplicate records (ie more than one eight-digit OCR candidate number).
  

If you encounter any of these issues, or have any further questions, please get in touch with our Customer Support Centre where our advisors will be more than happy to help.

Remember, on restricted and candidate results days, our Customer Support Centre will open earlier than usual – you can reach them on 01223 553998 between 7am until 5pm.

About the author

Jane Parsons - Customer Support Manager (Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Somerset, Wiltshire and Worcestershire)

Jane has been working within the education sector since 2006. She supports schools and colleges across the South West region by attending network meetings, providing information about our qualifications, resources and the support we offer.