Jon Wood

Vice President for Qualifications Processing
Pearson

Jon Wayth  

Headteacher
ELIS Villamartín

 

Jon Wayth, Headteacher at ELIS Villamartín, had the opportunity to visit the London headquarters of Pearson, our main examination board for International GCSEs and International A Levels. In London Jon was fortunate enough to meet Jon Wood, who is the Vice President for Qualifications Processing at Pearson, which means he is the overall person responsible for the safe delivery and processing of all examinations taken by our students.

The collaboration between the examination board and well-regulated centres is fundamental to guaranteeing fairness and comparability for students worldwide. As an official examination centre for Pearson, the ELIS schools play a vital role in maintaining the integrity of the examination system. We are responsible for the secure storage and handling of confidential materials, complying with rigorous protocols for invigilation, candidate identification and incident management, and ensuring that every learner sits their exams under consistent, internationally recognised conditions.

We asked Jon Wood some questions to better understand his role and the processing of these important examinations once they leave the school.

For the summer exam series, our students sit the exams in May and June, so why do students not receive examination results until August?

That’s a great question, and I can understand why learners and their parents who might be used to a different education system ask it especially! There are a few features of a British education system which are important to highlight to help understand the later results release date, from logistical to quality assurance. These features take some time, and that time is critical to ensure transparency, fairness and accuracy for every learner.

The first thing to say is that all schools return their completed exam papers to us for marking; they are not marked by the teachers in the schools themselves. We receive paper scripts from all over the world, then digitise them by scanning one sheet at a time before we upload them on to our marking systems.  We use something called ‘ePen’ technology which allows for the online marking of scripts by our markers. We divide each script (exam paper) into what we call ‘items’, which are individual student responses to questions, and then allocate these to our markers. This means markers can mark the same item many times, but not the whole script. All our markers have the relevant teaching experience and undergo training and standardisation to ensure consistent marking throughout the marking process. ePen technology provides our senior examiners and assessment experts with real-time monitoring and quality control functionality to supervise the marking process. Once marking is completed, further multiple quality assurance checks are performed to ensure accuracy and the maintenance of standards.  We then move to awarding grades based on the raw marks allocated to questions. This involves setting what we call ‘grade boundaries’ using statistical analysis and expert judgement to ensure the comparability of results from one year to the next. Only then – and after some more final quality assurance checks – can we release the results to students!

How many Pearson Edexcel examinations are taken around the world each year?

Over 3.5 million learners sit our exams annually in more than 110 countries across the world. We mark 10 million exam papers on behalf of the Department for Education in England.

Can you tell us what happens behind the scenes at a Pearson exam centre once students submit their exams?

Scripts arrive at our facility via various couriers. They are sorted by subject and entered into our Materials Management System. Each package is then opened, checked, and prepared for scanning. The scanning process creates a digital image of each script, personalised to each candidate, which markers use to mark responses.

Pearson exams are taken by students all over the world. What are some of the challenges in making sure the process is fair and consistent internationally?

We have time-zone and exam management procedures in place, meaning we closely monitor exam start times to ensure centres follow our protocols and maintain fairness across time zones. We also have regional papers available for different time zones in different parts of the world – these different papers reduce the risk of security breaches whilst being equal in terms of their level of demand and the skills and knowledge being assessed. Lastly, through our Global Content Policy we ensure our assessments are accessible and relevant, regardless of where learners sit the exam.

Looking ahead, how do you see international exams and the processes involved evolving in the next 5 years?

Our onscreen assessment offer provides learners with more choices in how they sit their examinations, with both onscreen and paper options available in some subjects. Over the next five years, we plan a wider rollout of onscreen and remote options and continued innovation to address security.