06 Aug 2021
Today’s update highlights the extra resources and guidance we have created to help you prepare for results and support students and their families.
We have included a reminder of our post-results checks and appeals processes for schools using school-assessed grades for June 2021.
You will also find an update on the November 2021 series, including:
- information about entries and withdrawals
- guidance on running exams
- a reminder about component exemptions, adjustments, carry forwards and school-assessed grades.
Finally, you can give us your feedback on the June 2021 series and help us prepare for 2022 by answering our short survey.
June 2021 series
With less than one week until results day, today’s update highlights the extra resources and support we have created for schools, now available on our website. These resources and support will help you communicate results, as well as next steps, to students and their families.
Results release
We plan to release results on the following dates*:
- Cambridge Pre-U: 9 August 2021 at 00:01 BST/UTC+1. Schools can release these results to their candidates on 10 August 2021 from 08:00 BST/UTC+1
- Cambridge International AS & A Level: 10 August 2021 at 06:00 BST/UTC+1
- Cambridge IGCSE/O Level: 12 August 2021 at 06:00 BST/UTC+1.
* release dates may be different in countries where we have a different arrangement, such as working with us via a government ministry.
Preparing for results day
We know many of you have questions about results day, and how this year may be different due to the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. All candidates will receive their results at the same time, regardless of whether they sat their exams or are receiving school-assessed grades.
We have guidance and support on our Preparing for results day. This includes information on when and how results are released, accessing results, and using our candidate results service. It also includes guidance on sharing school-assessed grades with candidates.
Managing results day
Results day is again likely to be different this year for many of you due to the potential public health challenges involved in bringing together large groups of candidates to collect their results. To help you think through how to plan and manage results day at your centre, we have prepared some guidance on Managing results day.
Supporting students and families
Students and their families may have questions about results. Make sure your students know how to contact you if they have questions or need advice on next steps. For those receiving school-assessed grades, they may want to know how their grades have been worked out and why the process we have used is fair.
We have published guidance to help students and their families understand the process for awarding school-assessed grades in this series. It also explains the options available to students if they are not happy with their results.
Post-results checks and appeals
For the June 2021 series, we are offering post-results checks and appeals services for centres using school-assessed grades, so you can ask us to check your candidates’ grades. You can find all the guidance, including:
- Guidance on post-results checks and appeals for school-assessed grades in June 2021- a supplement to the Cambridge Handbook
- Centre Review factsheet
- Deadlines for post-results checks and appeals
- A factsheet for students and parents
- Guides to help you submit your requests through Cambridge International Direct and submit evidence through Secure Exchange.
This guidance applies to Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge O Level and Cambridge International AS & A Level. You can find separate guidance for Cambridge Pre-U.
November 2021
Reminder to make your entries
The first-time entry deadline for November 2021 is 16 August 2021. Wherever possible, make sure you submit your entries by the deadline. After 16 August you can still make entries until our late entries deadline on 21 September, but you will be charged a late entry fee.
Withdrawals
We understand that you may need to withdraw candidates for Covid-specific reasons and, to support you, we have extended our withdrawal deadline until 21 September 2021. We recommend that you keep your entries on Direct until as close to 21 September 2021 as possible, to reduce the administration work you may need to do if you withdraw candidates early and then re-enter them. Until 21 September 2021 you can withdraw candidates on Direct and still receive a credit. This also means you can make entries early to ensure early receipt of question papers, and also be confident that you can withdraw candidates if you need to.
During the exam series, if candidates have to miss every component of a syllabus for a Covid-specific or medical reason, you can still withdraw them until 25 November 2021 and you will receive a credit. If this happens, email us so we can arrange the withdrawal and credit for you. We generate invoices weekly. We recommend you pay for the entries you know you have made within normal payment terms and the credit will follow.
Supporting you to run exams in November 2021
We are planning for exams to go ahead wherever it is safe and permissible to do so. To support you as we move closer to the November series, we have a range of support and guidance available.
Guidance for running exams
Our guide to running exams, for exams officers and heads of centre, will help you run November 2021 exams safely and securely. Use this, as well as the guidance in our current Cambridge Handbook, when planning the exams in your centre.
Component exemptions, adjustments and guidance
Component exemptions, component adjustments and guidance for components are available in our November 2021 series.
Carry forwards - interactive guide
We appreciate that many of you have questions about carry forwards. To help you decide which entry option is right for your candidates, we have developed an interactive guide.
School-assessed grades
For countries or regions within countries where directives from national or local authorities mean exams cannot take place, we will switch to school-assessed grades. We expect this to use the same assessment method we used for the June 2021 series and will share more details about this as soon as possible.
June 2022
Share your feedback - help us prepare for the June 2022 series
To inform our plans for June 2022, we would like to learn about the experiences of schools that entered candidates in the June 2021 series. We are also seeking feedback from all schools planning to enter candidates in June 2022 on a proposed portfolio of evidence model to replace exams if necessary.
If you haven’t already shared your experiences of using school-assessed grades with us, we would be very grateful if you could complete our survey.
Stay in touch
View our latest updates on our Covid-19 information pages.
If you have any questions, you can review our frequently asked questions or contact us via the Help website.
For British Council Partner Schools or Cambridge Associate schools, please contact your local British Council representative or Cambridge Associate.