Education CommitteeFurther Supplementary evidence from Ofqual (Annex D)

Multiple Entries

1. Are multiple entries allowed? If not, when were they prohibited?

There’s nothing to stop a centre entering a student for the same subject with more than one AO. There is no obvious way to police this since AOs don’t cross-check entries with one another (and even then centres could use a different candidate number if they wished). Obviously there would be an additional entry cost, and there are practical difficulties if it’s done in the same series because the exams will be timetabled on the same day, so students will have to be supervised separately to sit all the exams. It’s also worth noting that only one result will count for performance tables.

2. Does Ofqual collect or has Ofqual in the past collected data on multiple entries (numbers of candidates, which subjects. types of centres)?

We don’t. The only way to get data on this would be to ask AOs to cross-check their centre/candidate data for each subject, which probably wouldn’t be proportionate! I suspect the cost and practical issues mean the number is tiny. But if ACME have evidence that it is more widespread, we’d be happy to look at that.

In addition, through the common timetabling arrangements it’s likely that if a candidate was entering more than one specification in the same subject they would suffer from timetable clashes—although this would be less with unitised qualifications. Also, they cannot count the outcomes from two qualifications leading to the same title in performance table measures. They would fall within the same leap code (group of subjects) and only one result can be accepted.

May 2012