Guidance

Reviews of marking and moderation: guide to the submissions process

Updated 17 October 2023

Applies to England

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.

We collect the data on behalf of CCEA Regulation and share this data with them.

What data will be collected?

Reviews of marking and moderation data, which was formerly referred to as Enquiries about Results (EaRs), will be collected for GCSE, GCSE linear, GCSE full course, GCSE short course, AS, A-level and Advanced Extension Award (AEA) and Project levels 1, 2 and 3.

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

How to submit your data

Your data should be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the [‘Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data’ document] on our web page.(https://www.gov.uk/guidance/submitting-data-to-ofqual) to help you submit your files to us. If you need to ask us about a data submission please contact the Data Services team. Please do not send your data files via email to Data Services or to any other Ofqual email address, or via Contact the Regulator in the Portal.

Uploaded data

Once files have been successfully uploaded, the data will be validated against a set of validation rules. These are detailed in the sections below. If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into our systems and you will receive email confirmation. If the file is unsuccessful at any stage of validation you will receive an email with details of the validation failure. Please correct your file and resubmit it.

Amendments to data

Ofqual staff will not alter data once it has been submitted. If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify us by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

How your data will be used

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and, where required, to produce Official Statistics to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

General completion guidelines

• Numeric values must not have any formatting.
• Where applicable data should be submitted at subcomponent level.
• Unit UMS fields (see positions 12 and 13) should be overall unit UMS values, even if row of data being reported relates to subcomponents.
• For rows of data that relate to subcomponents, the value entered in the Unit Max. Raw Mark field (see position 20), should be the sub component maximum raw mark.
• For service 3, the value entered in the Date Received field, should be the date the moderator received the sample.
• For common units (that can be used to certificate against both AS and/or A level), if a review of marking request is made, and the candidate is certificating for both AS and A2, only the A2 row should be present in the data.
• The following fields will accept -2 to represent unknown for candidates that are not certificating:

Field name	Notes
QAN	-2 for unknown e.g. cases where candidate is not certificating
Specification code	For none certificating candidates taking units/components that can be used against multiple specifications
Original unit raw mark	-2 accepted for absences
Post EaR raw mark	-2 accepted for EaRs still in process, so post EaR mark not yet established
Original unit UMS	-2 accepted for subjects that do not convert to UMS
Post EaR UMS	-2 accepted for subjects that do not convert to UMS
Original qualification UMS (modular) / Scale score (linear)	-2 accepted for candidates not certificating
Post EaR qualification UMS (modular) / Scale score (linear)	-2 accepted for candidates not certificating
Original qualification grade	-2 accepted for candidates not certificating
Post EaR qualification grade	-2 accepted for candidates not certificating
Total No. of awards/certifications	-2 accepted for candidates not certificating
Reason	-2 accepted where there wasn’t a qualification grade change of two or more

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
Exam series	Exam series data relates to, for example, June 2016	1	^(January|March|June|November)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$	Full month name of exam series and year.
Reporting date	Date the file was due to be submitted regardless of when it was actually uploaded. Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd.	2	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits).
Awarding Organisation	Name of the awarding organisation	3	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted
Centre No.	Centre number (NCN)	4	^\d{1,5}$	Up to 5 digit integer accepted
Unique Candidate Identifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI)	5	^.{1,13}$	Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted
QAN	Qualification Accreditation Number, for example, 123/1234/1	6	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted -2 also accepted
Specification title	Specification title also known as subject title	7	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted Not Certificating also accepted.
Specification code	Specification code also known as Subject Award Code and Cash-in Code	8	^.{1,7}$	1 to 7 characters accepted -2 also accepted
Qualification level	Level of qualification for example, GCSE	9	^(GCSE|GCSE linear|GCSE short course|GCSE full course|AS|A level|A-level|App A Level Dbl|App A Level Sgl|App AS Dbl|App AS Sgl| AEA|Project L1|Project L2|Project L3)$	One of the following list: GCSE, GCSE linear, GCSE short course, GCSE full course, AS, A level, App A Level Dbl, App A Level Sgl, App AS Dbl, App AS Sgl, AEA, Project L1, Project L2, or Project L3,
Original unit raw mark	Original unit raw mark	10	^\d{1,3}$	Up to 3-digit integer accepted -2 also accepted
Post EaR raw mark	Post EaR raw mark	11	^(TBD|\d{1,3})$	Up to 3-digit integer or TBD accepted -2 also accepted
Original unit UMS	Original unit UMS Unit UMS fields should be overall unit UMS values, even if row of data being reported relates to subcomponents.	12	^\d{1,3}$	Up to 3-digit integer accepted -2 also accepted
Post EaR UMS	Post EaR UMS Unit UMS fields should be overall unit UMS values, even if row of data being reported relates to subcomponents.	13	^(TBD|\d{1,3})$	Up to 3-digit integer or TBD accepted -2 also accepted
Original qualification UMS (modular) / Scale score (linear)	Original qualification UMS (modular) or Scale score (linear)	14	^\d{1,3}$	Up to 3-digit integer accepted -2 also accepted
Post EaR qualification UMS (modular) / Scale score (linear)	Post EaR qualification UMS (modular) or Scale score (linear)	15	^\d{1,3}$	Up to 3-digit integer accepted -2 also accepted
Original qualification grade	Original qualification grade	16	^(A*|A*A*|A*A|A Star| A Star A Star| A Star A|AA|AB|BB|BC*|BC|C*C*|C*C|CC|CD|DD|DE|EE|EF|FF|FG|GG|UU|A|B|C*|C|D|E|F|G|Q|U|X|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|1-1|2-1|2-2|3-2|3-3|4-3|4-4|5-4|5-5|6-5|6-6|7-6|7-7|8-7|8-8|9-8|9-9|-2)$	One of the following list: A, A Star, AA, A Star A Star, AA, A Star A, AA, AA, AB, BB, BC, BC, CC, CC, CC, CD, DD, DE, EE, EF, FF, FG, GG, A, B, C, C, D, E, F, G, Q, U, X, 1-9, 1-1 to 9-9 and any of the grades listed, followed by a number from 1-5 for example, C3. -2 also accepted
Post EaR qualification grade	Post EaR qualification grade	17	^(A*|A*A*|A*A|A Star| A Star A Star| A Star A|AA|AB|BB|BC*|BC|C*C*|C*C|CC|CD|DD|DE|EE|EF|FF|FG|GG|UU|A|B|C*|C|D|E|F|G|Q|U|X|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|1-1|2-1|2-2|3-2|3-3|4-3|4-4|5-4|5-5|6-5|6-6|7-6|7-7|8-7|8-8|9-8|9-9|-2)$	One of the following list: A, A Star, AA, A Star A Star, AA, A Star A, AA, AA, AB, BB, BC, BC, CC, CC, CC, CD, DD, DE, EE, EF, FF, FG, GG, A, B, C, C, D, E, F, G, Q, U, X, 1-9, 1-1 to 9-9 and any of the grades listed, followed by a number from 1-5 for example, C3. -2 also accepted
Unit code	Unit code	18	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted
Unit title	Unit title	19	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted
Unit max. raw mark	Unit maximum raw mark For rows of data that relate to subcomponents, the value entered, should be the subcomponent maximum raw mark.	20	^\d{1,3}$	Up to 3 digit integer accepted
Total No. of unit entries	Total Number of unit entries	21	^\d{1,6}$	Up to 6 digit integer accepted
Total No. of awards/certifications	Total Number of awards or certifications	22	^\d{1,6}$	Up to 6 digit integer accepted -2 also accepted
Service	Type of service for example, 2	23	^(1|2|P2|3)$	One of the following list: 1, 2, P2, 3
Marking method	Marking method	24	^(Full Script Paper Based|Full Script Electronic|Item Based Electronic|Internal Assessment)$	One of the following list: Full Script Paper Based, Full Script Electronic, Item Based Electronic, or Internal Assessment
Date received	Date received For service 3, the value entered, should be the date the moderator received the sample.	25	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	DATETIME in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits), a space, hour (2 digits), a colon, minutes (2 digits), a colon, seconds (2 digits).
Date completed	Date completed	26	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	DATETIME in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits), a space, hour (2 digits), a colon, minutes (2 digits), a colon, seconds (2 digits). 2999-12-31 00:00:00.000 or ‘still in process’ accepted
Completed within deadline	Completed within deadline	27	^(Y|N|TBD)$	One of the following list: Y, N, TBD
Reason	Grade change reasons for qualification grade changes of 2 or more	28	^(1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17)$	One of the following list: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. See Annex A below -2 accepted where there wasn’t a qualification grade change of 2 or more

Annex A

Grade change reasons for qualification grade changes of 2 or more	Code to be entered for this field
Work not seen or marked by original examiner	1
Error in totalling of marks by original examiner (for example, examiner did not add up marks correctly)	2
Error in transferring marks from paper script to exam processing system (for example, discrepancy between marks on script and marks on exam board system)	3
Error in inputting marks on online marking system by original examiner (for example, mark incorrectly input)	4
Error in centre submitting marks (for example, incorrect mark submitted for non-examination assessment)	5
Original marking or processing had incorrectly dealt with a candidate rubric error and/or answer in wrong answer space.	6
Original marker unable to read candidate response (for example, illegible handwriting)	7
Application of special consideration during post-results (where the component or qualification was also subject to a review of marking)	8
Missing script located at review (for example, original script not marked).	9
Processing error (for example, scanning, scaling, grading)	10
Auto-marking error (for example, wrong answer key)	11
Outcome of malpractice investigation (for example, mark change due to estimation of marks)	12
Marking – misapplication of levels based mark scheme	13
Marking – misapplication of points-based mark scheme	14
Marking – unusual candidate response (for example, candidate response not covered by the mark scheme)	15
Moderation – misapplication of criteria by original moderator (for example, error by original moderator)	16
No mark change – grade change due to changes on other component(s).	17

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance. please contact:

Data services

Ofqual
2nd floor, 1 Friargate
Station Square
Coventry
CV1 2GN

Email Data.Services@ofqual.gov.uk