Exams Officer Conference Autumn 2017 Jane Parsons (OCR Customer Support Manager)

Agenda OCR Customer Support OCR Admin Updates and News OCR Qualifications The Exams Office Statement of Marks

OCR Customer Support Team

OCR Customer Support What support is available from OCR?

OCR Admin Updates and News

OCR Admin Updates and News

OCR Admin Updates

OCR Qualifications

OCR Qualifications

The Exams Office

Linear vs. Modular New qualifications: withdrawal of the existing qualifications Modular qualifications units – UMS Linear qualifications – components raw marks only (No UMS) Exceptions e.g. History Old system – new qualifications OCR CSMs across the country have been receiving vast amounts of feedback regarding the reporting from the summer series with regards to the new linear qualifications and the component grades for the new qualifications not being available within the base data. I thought I would offer an overview and update on the situation. New qualifications: withdrawal of the existing qualifications spanning a number of years (2016–2018) we are experiencing a ‘mixed economy’ with modular and linear qualifications running alongside one another. There are some exceptions, e.g. History, which has a unitised structure but still works like a linear qualification. The units are treated in the same way as components and, although results will be issued at unit level, raw marks will be used rather than UMS.

Data Systems As you are all aware with the reform we are now seeing the implementation of the new linear qualifications, 9-1 grades and new endorsements. We are using the existing systems and files for these new qualifications. The data that is exchanged is vast and small changes are not possibel without causing great risk to the data exchange.

What is OCR doing? Committed to making improvements June 2017 series? Development underway for June 2018 Types of reports We recognise that the current results statements are not easy and have increased work load, we are committed to making improvements to the current system. We have been committed to this for some time and did attempt to introduce a new type of report for the June 2017 series. Due to the amount of work to ensure that other changes were implemented (new 9-1 grades and endorsements)changes that had to be implemented there was too much risk involved with making any further changes and having sufficient time to carry out thorough testing before the release of results. We could not put the download of results at risk so this had to be postponed until Summer 18 series. We are now in full development to find a worked solution for you. We are looking at different ways in which we can make the statement of results to encompass the grade, mark and component marks on one document. We are also looking at how we might be able to offer his in PDF and CSV so that if possible you could use it to feed into your MIS. (((be very careful not to overpromise here))) If you have any questions then please do raise these as we go through the update, plus there will be an opportunity at the to raise these.

Thank you