Awarding: This is the part of the process where students' grades are determined based on all the evidence available.
Cashing-in: If you have taken a unitised or modular qualification you can receive an overall subject grade when you have completed all the units or modules that make up that qualification. Your school or college will send in a cash-in code to Edexcel in order for this to happen.
Centre: A school, college or other establishment approved by an awarding body to offer qualifications, enter students for examinations and conduct the awarding body’s examinations.
Coursework: This is a piece of work that you complete during your course, typically an assignment, project or investigation, which is usually marked by your teacher then sent to the awarding body for moderation. (Also see internal assessment.)
Declining: If you receive a subject grade for a unitised course that you are not happy with, you can ask your school/college to decline your grade so that you can take some of the units again and maybe improve that overall grade. Please note that this does not apply to modular GCSE courses.
External assessment: Question papers and assessment tasks that are set and assessed by the awarding body, usually taken under timed and supervised conditions.
Grade: This is when your performance in individual units is combined to give an overall assessment of your work for a qualification.
Ineligibility: If a school or college wishes to claim an overall grade for a student for a specific subject, they enter a cash-in code for that student at the time the entries are submitted. Sometimes students are not eligible for an overall grade. Usually, this is because a student has not taken the required number of units, or has taken a combination of units that does not qualify the student for an overall grade. This is normally because the correct number of compulsory units has not been taken.
Internal assessment: An assessment task that is supervised and assessed by your school or college, but checked by the awarding body.
Moderation: This is the process the awarding body uses to check that internal assessment is reliable, fair and conforms to the standard required.
Re-mark: This is when your work is re-assessed by a senior examiner after results are received. Please note that re-marking can only be requested by your school or college.
Rubric: A set of instructions or guidance provided for students completing examinations or assessment tasks.
Script: A student’s written response to an examination or assessment task; a completed examination paper.
Special arrangements: Special arrangements are requested by a school or college before an examination or assessment to help a student with a disability or a learning difficulty access the questions and present responses.
Special consideration: Special consideration is given following an examination or assessment. This is to ensure that a student who has a temporary illness, injury or indisposition at the time of the examination is given some compensation for those circumstances or difficulties.
Specification: A description of the content, assessment arrangements and the requirements for a qualification.
Ucas: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
UMS: This stands for Uniform Mark Scale. UMS is a nationally agreed mark scale that is used to report the results of each unit and qualification grade in all unitised qualifications. The mark you are given for a piece of coursework or the mark that is given to an examination paper (the raw mark) is converted automatically to UMS.
Unit: This is the smallest part of a qualification that can be separately assessed.
Unitised course: This is a course which is made up of a number of components (units) which are all assessed separately, but when combined, contribute to the overall grade you receive for the qualification.