What does special consideration mean in exams?
For this episode, Sophie quizzed John about the basic principles of the special consideration process in exams and the procedures involved.
What is the definition of special consideration?
I have a working definition, which comes from one of the exam boards, Pearson. It says that special consideration is a post-examination adjustment that compensates candidates who were suffering from a temporary illness or condition or who were otherwise disadvantaged at the time of the examination. So basically, it's the recognition of difficult circumstances for a student at the time they do their exams and then an adjustment that happens to the student's outcome, which takes that difficulty into account.
That's interesting because I always thought until this moment that it was about circumstances that might have happened leading up to exams, but it seems to be during the exam period only. Is that right?
It extends to a period before the exams, but what it doesn't take into account is the sort of things that have happened a long time ago. So if in the middle of last year, you had an accident or a family member died, but those things are not imminent when you're doing your exams, then you'd be unlikely to be successful for a special consideration application. So for example, if you had an accident, if you've recovered, and the injury that you suffered is not in any way causing you issues now, you'd be unlikely to be successful.
Do you get applications from kids who just don’t fancy it today, or overslept? Because you must get some great applications for this, no?!
You do get a mix, I would say, of ones where you feel, this is a realistic application, and then others that get put forward to you that you know stand no chance of being successful. In those cases, we would push back and say that this really wouldn't fit the criteria for special consideration. It’s important to emphasise right now that schools and exams teams do not make the decisions about special consideration. The exam boards decide whether or not a candidate is eligible for special consideration. All we do is put the applications forward. So the advice I'd give to any new exams officer is to always say that they can't prejudge the outcome of a special consideration application.
So when do students find out? Is it literally at results?
You can find out whether or not your application has been successful quite soon after you make the application, but you won't find out what impact it's had on the outcome until results. Because obviously you're not meant to know anything about results until the results come out. So just getting back to what I was saying about new exams officers, I would always say that you can't prejudge the outcome of a special consideration application either in terms of whether it will be accepted, or in terms what kind of adjustment will be made if it is accepted.
It's really important to be clear with people before you put an application in that that is the case, because people will ask you questions - will this be accepted? What will I get from it? And basically, you're not in a position to answer either of those questions. You may have a fair idea. You may have a very strong hunch as to whether it will be accepted and what sort of adjustment will be made, but you should never commit to that because it isn't your decision. It's the exam board's decision.
Can parents and students themselves apply for it?
No, it has to be done through the schools. We do it through the secure online systems that only we have access to with the exam boards. It’s another hidden part of our job that people don't really see. And it’s important. It’s really important. So there are two basic types of special consideration: firstly there's special consideration for a disadvantaged candidate. That is basically someone who does sit the exam, but they're experiencing some disadvantage while they're doing it. So they might be ill, they might have suffered a recent bereavement, and that will affect in some way their ability to carry out that exam to the best of their ability. So disadvantaged candidate is one type of special consideration.
And then secondly the other type is absent candidate. When a candidate misses an exam completely, special consideration can also be applied for. Absent candidate comes with certain conditions - they have to have completed another portion of the qualification to be granted an absent candidate special consideration. So what that means, for example, would be, say they were doing GCSE maths, and there are three papers. If they missed paper one, and say they missed paper two as well because of a severe illness, but they sat paper three, they could then receive special consideration for their absences in papers one and two.
They have to have completed 15% at least of the qualification to be granted special consideration for absence. Special consideration for absence will only be granted in quite severe cases. I get inquiries every year - what will happen if my child misses an exam? And obviously, special consideration does exist for those situations in the most severe cases. But our advice to parents is always the best situation is that the student sits an exam, because again, we can't prejudge the outcome. We don't know whether or not a special consideration for absence would be accepted. So we couldn't promise anything in terms of a student missing an exam, that it will be OK, because it might not. We would always give the advice that unless it's an absolute impossibility, the student should do everything they can to sit the exam.
For more information see the JCQ guide to the special consideration process: Guide_to_spec_con_process_2023_24_FINAL.pdf (jcq.org.uk)