Home Ed Exams Jargon Buster!
Access arrangements Accommodations put in place to assist students who have special educational needs/disabilities or other difficulties. These can include use of technology such as a laptop or reader pen, extra time, opportunities for breaks during the exams, a separate room, scribe, reader, etc. Students who think they may need such arrangements must discuss their needs with their exam centre as early as possible in the process; some centres are more helpful than others
A-Level Advanced level. The exam normally taken by students in England/Wales in the year in which they have their 18th birthday. One route to university entry [different universities may specify 2, 3 or 4 A-Level passes for entry to their courses]
AQA an exam board
BTEC a vocational qualification offered by colleges. This can be an alternative route into university
CIE [Cambridge] an exam board
Edexel [Pearson] an exam board
Exam Board A body registered to set and administer the GCSE ad IGCSE exams. There are a few different exam boards. When researching exam centres, be sure to check which Board or Boards the centre caters for. This will be the primary deciding factor for which Board's exams you can take. Also, the content and presentation of their exams differs slightly, so students may find they prefer one to the others.
Exam centre The place where the student will actually write the exam papers. These may be state or private schools, colleges or specialist centres. No exam centre is required to accept private candidates, and those that do charge a widely varying fee, so ensure that you understand their charges when you book.
GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education. The exam normally taken by secondary school pupils living in England/Wales/NI. School pupils sit these exams during the year in which they have their 16th birthday. For most subjects, these exams involve coursework and are therefore difficult to arrange outside of a school setting. Exceptions are noted on the “subjects” page.
IGCSE International GCSE. These are designed to be taken by students living abroad and for this reason do not generally involve any element of coursework or continual assessment. They are therefore the preferred option for home educated students for most subjects.
Marking scheme a detaied explanation of the marks available for each question
NVQ National Vocational Qualification: offered by colleges and does not involve exam assessment
Past papers Papers from previous years, normally available via the website of the relevant Exam Board and vital for revision/practice prior to sitting the exam.
Private candidate A student who sits an exam at a centre where he/she has not attended any courses
Specifications [specs] An outline of the learning requirements and precise exam arrangements for each exam. Different Exam Boards have different specs. One may have a single long paper while another has 2 shorter papers. For certain subjects, there may also be a choice of specs - for example, Edexel English Language has a spec A which involves being thoroughly familiar with a set literature anthology, or spec B, which has no anthology but demands a greater element of original writing. Study specs carefully to decide which will suit you best.