Guidance

Marking Progress: guide to the submissions process

Published 14 December 2023

Applies to England

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.

What data will be collected?

Marking progress data will be collected for GCSE, AS and A level.

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

Uploaded data

Once files have been successfully uploaded, the data will be validated against a set of validation rules. These are detailed in the sections below. If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into our systems and you will receive email confirmation. If the file is unsuccessful at any stage of validation you will receive an email with details of the validation failure. Please correct your file and resubmit it.

Amendments to data

Ofqual staff will not alter data once it has been submitted. If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify us by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

How your data will be used

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and, where required, to produce Official Statistics to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

General completion guidelines

• The collection is for external marked components only, we do not require data on moderated components
• The total number of scripts to be marked should be based on entries, we accept this may fluctuate with withdrawn candidates, late entries, pirate candidates (field 9)
• Where possible please enter a QAN (field 5) and Spec Code (field 6), however based on feedback we have added a field for Specification Title (field 7). This is to help us identify the subject area a component relates to when it does not have a clear one to one relationship with an individual qualification. For example, where a unit/component could relate to a Diploma/Certificate or Award (which all have different QANs and Spec Codes), you can enter -2 for QAN, -2 for Spec Code, but ensure the Specification Title is completed
• Where a component can contribute to multiple options, for example, GCSE History, Religious Studies etc and you have an overarching specification code which groups the options together, please use this in the Specification Code field (field 6). Where there is not an overarching specification code, please use the Specification Title field (field 7) and use -2 in the specification code field
• Numeric values must not have any formatting

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Value
ExamSeries	Exam series data relates to, for example: June 2022	1	^(June)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$	Full month name of exam series and year. For example, June 2022
ReportingDate	Date of reporting the data to Ofqual (dates to be provided)	2	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation	3	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted
QualificationLevel	Level of qualification (general qualifications and other performance table qualifications including.) Applied Generals, Tech Levels, Tech Certs, and Tech Awards	4	^| (GCSE|AS|A level) |$	GCSE, AS, A level
QualificationNumber	Qualification number, for example, 123/1234/1	5	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted or -2 where components can be used against multiple Qans
SpecificationCode	Specification code, also known as Subject Award Code and Cash-in Code	6	^.{1,7}$	1 to 7 characters accepted or -2 where components can be used against multiple spec codes
SpecificationTitle	Specification title also known as subject title designated in the specification	7	^.{1,150}$	1 to 150 characters accepted
ComponentCode	Component code as designated in the specification	8	^.{1,10}$	1 to 10 characters accepted
ScriptsToBeMarked	The total number of scripts to be externally marked for the series	9	^\d{1,7}$	A count or -2
ItemsToBeMarked	The total number of items to be marked for the series. This field is optional but would be useful if it can be provided	10	^\d{1,7}$	A count or -2
ScriptsMarked	Total number of scripts marked	11	^\d{1,7}$	A count or -2
ItemsMarked	Total number of items marked up to date of update to Ofqual (the Reporting Date) This field is optional but would be useful if it can be provided	12	^\d{1,7}$	A count -2 accepted if not provided
PanelSize	The total number of examiners in the panel for the given component (including team leaders)	13	^\d{1,7}$	A count or -2
ExaminersWithdrawn	The total number of examiners who are no longer available to mark (for example because they have been permanently suspended or have quit)	14	^\d{1,7}$	A count or -2
MarkingPlatform,	Optional field to identify the marking platform being used	15	^.{1,20}$	1 to 20 characters of -2

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance. please contact:

Data services

Ofqual
2nd floor, 1 Friargate
Station Square
Coventry
CV1 2GN

Email [email protected]