Before submitting marks/grades
These are the things you need to know or complete before submitting your marks to us.
Exams Administration
Information and resources for exams officers to plan ahead and stay on track throughout the whole exams lifecycle, from entries to results day.
Quick links
- NEA advisers
- AQA led teacher online standardisation (T-OLS)
- AQA led face-to-face teacher standardisation
- Check whether T-OLS is available for your subject
- Standardisation within schools (Internal standardisation)
- Applying for centre consortium arrangements
- Exemption from an assessment (eg due to a disability)
- Informing students of their centre-assessed marks
NEA advisers
If your subject includes non-exam assessment, it’s likely you’ll have an NEA adviser.
Advisers are experienced teachers and moderators who can provide guidance and support throughout the academic year on delivering NEA.
NEA advisers can:
- explain new specification requirements
- share teaching ideas
- discuss general processes and planning and approaches to NEA tasks.
They can’t discuss examined components or moderation outcomes.
NEA adviser contact details for each subject are available via Centre Services > Pre-exams > NEA Advisers from mid-September at the start of each academic year.
If you don’t have an assigned adviser, please contact eos@aqa.org.uk
If you need support applying the assessment marking criteria, we recommend you complete teacher standardisation as outlined below before contacting your allocated adviser.
AQA led teacher online standardisation (T-OLS)
Teacher standardisation is led by AQA, and is strongly recommended (in addition to internal standardisation) if marks have been significantly adjusted or if a specification is being taught for the first time. In any case, we advise that centres complete external teacher standardisation every year to help maintain standards and avoid the need for adjustments in the future.
This is normally done online, referred to as teacher online standardisation, or T-OLS.
For most subjects, you will need to standardise non-exam assessment work through our T-OLS system on Centre Services.
T-OLS is available at any time and can be accessed by all teachers in a department. You can see sample work that's been marked by the lead moderator, then mark it yourself to get instant feedback on how you compare to the standard.
How to access and use T-OLS
- Check that T-OLS is available for your subject using the drop-down below.
- Log in to Centre Services (if you don't have a login, see our Centre Services help page)
- Select Pre-exams tab, then Teacher Online Standardisation from the list of services (this will take you to the e-AQA log on page until mid-September).
- Select Level > Subject > Component in the online standardisation system, then familiarise yourself with the information.
- Select View Assessment Criteria to study the assessment criteria, then move on to view examples and moderator’s comments explaining each one (where available).
- Mark a sample piece of work – recording your marks and notes on the mark sheet as you go – and then submit for instant feedback.
- Study your feedback and compare your marks to the lead moderator’s. Repeat for all the available pieces of work.
- You can then share and discuss the feedback with your department.
Contact your NEA advisor if you have any questions.
Check whether T-OLS is available for your subject
This drop-down lists subjects available on T-OLS for 2025/26. We aim to have most components available by the end of January 2026.
- Applied General
- A-level
- ELC
- FCSE
- GCSE
- Projects
AQA led face-to-face teacher standardisation
Only one attendee per school or college can attend face-to-face standardisation. This is except for Art and Design events, where a school or college can send two attendees per series, and different delegates to A-level and GCSE events.
Face-to-face teacher standardisation is only available for the subjects listed below.
Find a convenient event location and book your place.
Materials are published at the end of the series of events in the 'Resources' section on Centre Services (except for Art and Design where the materials are published after the first event in the series).
If you have any questions, please include your qualification level, subject and event reference code in the email subject field (eg, GCSE Art and Design ARTGSF1) and email to events@aqa.org.uk
Standardisation within schools (Internal standardisation)
Marking of non-exam assessment (NEA) work must be consistent with marking by all teachers delivering the same specification. Internal standardisation is compulsory and carried out in a school or college, normally overseen by the head of each department.
Internal standardisation must be delivered according to the criteria and guidance in the subject specification, and be confirmed on the centre declaration sheet. Failure to do so could disadvantage some or all of your students.
Good practice for internal standardisation may involve:
- all teachers marking some sample pieces of work, and identifying differences in marking standards
- discussing any differences in marking at a training meeting for all teachers involved in the assessment
- referring to relevant reference material, such as previous work or examples from our website
- teacher standardisation, as outlined above.
Applying for centre consortium arrangements
You must let us know if you’re working as part of a consortium of centres with joint teaching arrangements where students are entered through different centres. You can apply through the JCQ Centre Admin Portal, which you can access via Centre Services.
You need to apply by the following dates:
- November 2025 series: 1 October 2025
- January 2026 series: 31 October 2025
- June 2026 series: 31 January 2026
Exemption from an assessment (eg due to a disability)
If a candidate is unable to complete an NEA assessment due to a disability, please email accessarrangementsqueries@aqa.org.uk with a detailed explanation and attach a completed JCQ application for an exemption. When submitting your marks/grades for the rest of your cohort, you should input an ‘absent’ status if available, otherwise a ‘Not Classified’ (NC) grade for these students. If the application is approved, it will supersede any absent or NC grade submitted.
Informing students of their centre assessed marks
Students must be told the mark given by their school or college for a centre assessed component. Schools and colleges are required to have a process in place for students to appeal their marks. This process must be completed before submitting marks to us by the published deadline. For more information see the JCQ website.