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Exam Information

This section of the website is designed to provide you with all the information you need to know regarding internal and external assessments whilst at Winstanley College.

The college has brought together all the information which parents and students may find useful regarding the exams. This can be found in the exams handbook below:

Exam Handbook

Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments

Access arrangements are agreed upon before an assessment. They allow candidates with special educational needs, disabilities or temporary injuries to access the assessment and show what they know and can do without changing the demands of the assessment. The intention behind an access arrangement is to meet the particular needs of an individual candidate without affecting the integrity of the assessment. Access arrangements are the principal way in which awarding bodies comply with the duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’. A reasonable adjustment for a particular person may be unique to that individual and may not be included in the list of available Access Arrangements. How reasonable the adjustment is will depend on a number of factors including the needs of the disabled candidate/learner. An adjustment may not be considered reasonable if it involves unreasonable costs, time frames or affects the security or integrity of the assessment.

Examples include 25%-50% extra time, the use of a scribe, the use of a laptop in exams, access to rest breaks, questions read out, and sitting the exams in a small less daunting room.

Students can self-refer for assessment and teachers can also refer students with the support of feedback from recent assessments. For more information about applying for access arrangements contact support@winstanley.ac.uk or go into the Library and speak to one of our Support Staff who will be happy to help.

Winstanley College Access Arrangement Procedure

Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ)

The Joint Council for Qualifications is a membership organisation comprising the eight largest providers of qualifications in the UK. The JCQ provides a single voice for its members on issues of examination administration and, when appropriate, qualification and wider education policy. Please read the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) information for candidate’s documents found on their website for further information regarding examinations/assessments for this academic year.

Below are a number of useful links to JCQ documents:

Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) information for candidates

Internal CAP assessments timetable

We will hold Common Assessment Point assessments throughout the year to monitor and support students progress.

Assessment Schedule

Mock exams dates

W/C 25^th November (upper 6^th)
W/C 24^th February (upper 6^th)
Thu 1^st – Thu 8^th May (lower 6^th)

When do the external examinations take place?

Final examinations are due to take place during May/June of Y13. Qualifications such as BTECs, OCR Cambridge Technicals, and WJEC Level 3 have examinations/assessments that take place throughout the year.

More information about exam dates can be found on the exam board websites:

When will examination results be issued?

A/AS Level, BTEC, EPQ, OCR Cambridge Technical, Eduqas/WJEC Criminology - Thursday 14th August 2025. GCSE – Thursday 21st August 2025.

Further details regarding the results days above will be communicated directly to students/parents nearer to the time.

Exams absence reporting

If you are going to be absent from your exam, then please report your absence to the attendance officer 01695 633244. Please also inform the exams officer: exams@winstanley.ac.uk

University admissions tests

Some universities and courses require applicants to sit additional admission tests as part of their UCAS application. The results of these tests are used to shortlist applicants for competitive, oversubscribed university courses such as Medicine and Law and for highly selective universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and Warwick. The admission tests at your local Pearson Professional Centres-UK during a window of availability (usually August-December) details of which are available on the test websites.

It is a student’s responsibility to ascertain if they are required to sit an admission test as part of the application to their selected universities/courses and register to take it before they begin applying to university through UCAS. Any associated fees are payable by the student and must be paid before you are registered for the test.

The current requirements for admission tests are all available online, the tests most commonly taken by Winstanley College students are:

University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)

Create a UCAT account via the Pearson Vue website. https://wsr.pearsonvue.com/testtaker/profile/create/SignUp/UKCAT. Using the account, book a test at a local test centre. Tests taken in the UK are £70.

Law National Aptitude Test (LNAT)

Create an LNAT account via the Pearson Vue website. https://wsr.pearsonvue.com/testtaker/profile/create/SignUp/LNAT. Using the account, book a test at a local test centre. Tests taken in the UK are £75.

Engineering and Science Admissions Test (ESAT)

Create an Undergraduate Admissions Test UK (UAT UK) account via the Pearson Vue website. https://wsr.pearsonvue.com/testtaker/profile/create/SignUp/UATUK. Using the account, book a test at a local test centre. Tests taken in the UK are £75.

Test of Mathematics for University Admission (TMUA)

The following University of Oxford admission tests are also delivered via Pearson Vue:
- Classics Admissions Test (CAT)
- History Admissions Test (HAT)
- Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT)
- Modern Languages Admissions Test (MLAT)
- Physics Admissions Test (PAT) for Physics, Materials and Engineering Science
- Philosophy Test (PHILAT)
- Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA)
- Biomedical Science Assessment (BMSAT)
- Ancient History and Classical Archaeology Test (AHCAAT)