These short series of articles are designed to help you choose the right GCSE English specification for your resit examinations. Each article will cover a situation you may find yourself in and provide detailed guidance on what would be the best option for you in that situation.

If you have students who have previously certificated GCSE English J350 or GCSE English Language J355 and have achieved a good result in some or all of their controlled assessments, you will probably be looking to carry forward the previous controlled assessment marks and focus on exam preparation. If this is the case, students should continue to follow the specification they have taking previously. Speak to your Exams Officer to ensure that you select the right entry codes for the carry forward options.

Students can either carry forward the marks for all of the controlled assessment units, or carry forward the marks for some units and retake others. The decision of whether students should retake a controlled assessment unit will be based on consideration of the needs and circumstances of the individual student, and of the amount of work they can reasonably do in the time they have available. It is worth bearing in mind that if a student retakes a controlled assessment unit, they must retake all of the elements that make up that unit: if a student retakes A641 as part of the GCSE English J350 specification, they would need to retake all three literary essays, for example.

It’s possible for students to have a fresh attempt at a controlled assessment task they have previously submitted. This means that students must reattempt the task from scratch; under no circumstances should they amend their previous work. The same notes and research that they used for the first attempt can be reused. Further information on the rules around retaking a controlled assessment unit can be found in our recent Notice to Centres.

All students who retake GCSE English J350 or GCSE English Language J355 will need to retake the A680 exam. There are two tiers available for this exam, Foundation and Higher. Resit students can be entered for either tier, and can be entered for a different tier to the one they have sat previously. The maximum grade available at Foundation tier is a grade C and the maximum grade available at Higher tier is a grade A*. For more information on the assessment requirements at each tier, please refer to the relevant specification.

The final entry deadline for the June 2017 exam series is 21 February 2017.

If you have any questions regarding resit opportunities in June 2017, or on any other aspect of our GCSE English and English Language qualifications, please get in touch at english@ocr.org.uk.

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What specification should you choose if... Your students have previously taken GCSE English or GCSE English Language with OCR. They would like to improve on all units.