Ofqual has suspended its criteria for pupils wanting to appeal their A levels and GCSEs - what it means

Ofqual has suspended its criteria for pupils hoping to appeal the results of their A level and GCSE grades on the basis of their mock exam results.

The exams regulator withdrew its guidance just hours after it was published and is now reviewing its process for appeals. Here’s what you need to know.

Why has guidance been suspended?

On Saturday (15 August), Ofqual published guidance on what constituted a “valid” mock exam for pupils who were unhappy with their A level results in England.

In the guidance, Ofqual appeared to allow a wide range of mock exams and “non-exam assessment” to be submitted as evidence for an appeal.

Where a written mock exam was not taken, Ofqual said it would consider other teacher assessments instead.

It also said that successful appeals would mean the new Ofqual result would be replaced by either the teacher-assessed grade, or the mock-exam grade - whichever mark was lower.

This contradicted previous assurance from Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who said that pupils would receive their mock grade results after appeal.

However, by 11pm on Saturday (15 August) evening the guidance had been removed from the Ofqual website, with a statement from the regulator reading: “Earlier today we published information about mock exam results in appeals.

“This policy is being reviewed by the Ofqual board and further information will be published in due course.”

As yet, Ofqual has made no further comment on the appeal process.

What happened to the planned appeal process?

On Tuesday (11 August) last week, Mr Williamson said that pupils in England would be permitted to use grades from their mock exams as the basis for an appeal if they were higher than their results allocated by Ofqual, for both A level and GCSE exams.

The exam regulator was then to determine how and when valid mock results could be used, with schools required to submit evidence to the board.

The details of this process were left up to Ofqual to decide by Monday (17 August), but the Department for Education (DfE) appeared not to have consulted the regulator on these new grounds for appeal.