Special consideration
Support for students affected by illness, injury, or other events outside of their control.
Ofqual defines special consideration as any adjustments given to a student who has temporarily experienced an illness, injury, or other event outside of their control at the time of the assessment which significantly affects their ability to:
- take an assessment
- demonstrate what they can do in an assessment
Special consideration is only for things that happen immediately before or during an exam or assessment that has a material effect on a student’s ability to take that exam or assessment, or on how they performed. To be eligible for special consideration students must have been fully prepared for the assessment and have covered the whole course. Students are not eligible for special consideration because their education was disrupted, either by the pandemic or for any other reason.
Ofqual requires exam boards to:
- have clear arrangements for giving special consideration
- publish details of those arrangements, including what special consideration is available, and how students qualify for it
We do not specify what special consideration exam boards should give, or how they should determine eligibility for it.
However, all the exam boards offer three different types of support for students who are affected by circumstances outside their control, all of which are types of special consideration:
- changes to the way assessments are taken for students with temporary injuries or illnesses (sometimes referred to as ‘access arrangements’).
- a small number of extra marks for students whose exam performance is affected by temporary illness, injury, indisposition, or an unforeseen incident.
- awarding the qualification even though the student was absent from an exam or formal assessment (a student must have completed at least one component to be eligible for this type of special consideration).
JCQ provide more information about these different types of support.
If a student’s ability to complete some of their assessments, or to fully demonstrate in their assessments what they know, understand, or can do, is affected by a temporary illness, injury or other event outside their control, the exam board should be notified as soon as possible.
The exam board can explain what support they can offer, and how to apply for it.
A school or college should not wait until the student has completed the assessments, or until after results are issued, before contacting the exam board as this may mean the student misses out on additional support.
The JCQ deadline for submitting special consideration requests for summer 2022 is 5 July.
An exam board should always explain why it has decided not to give a student a special consideration or to make a different consideration to that requested. Our rules mean the exam boards must have a process for appealing that decision. If a school or college doesn’t agree with the exam board’s decision, it should follow that process. We will usually only consider complaints about an exam board once the appeal has been concluded.