GCSE Religious Studies: updates to our assessments for 2026

We are committed to making sure we have the best assessments for all learners, and to make sure that happens, we constantly review our papers.

We have listened to your feedback, and analysed item-level data, and for the summer 2026 exams and onwards, we are excited to announce that we are making some light but meaningful changes to both our GCSE Religious Studies Specification A (8062) and Short Course (8061) papers.

GCSE Religious Studies Specification B (8063) is not affected by these changes.

What will the changes look like?

• In response to your feedback, we are replacing the word ‘contrasting’ with the word ‘different’ in the 4-mark AO1.3 items across all Themes and the Practices sections. We hope this increases the clarity of these items.
• The AO1 5-mark questions across all sections will be replaced with a 6-mark item. The question stems for these items will not change, but the mark scheme rubric will now better reward students for their application of the source of authority as well as its identification.
• Each section of the exam paper will now take the format 1, 1, 4, 6 ,12 marks. Therefore, the multiple choice, 4-mark influences and AO2 12-mark items (and associated spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) marks) will remain the same and these have not changed.
• We are replacing the 2-mark question with 1-mark short response questions. This will reward students for accurate subject knowledge more consistently.

The changes will increase the clarity of our exam papers by simplifying language and will help to maintain the validity of the assessment going forward.

We are also updating the mark schemes to add extra clarity for teachers and examiners.

The changes will affect students taking exams in summer 2026 and onwards. Students sitting exams in May 2025 will not see any changes to the exam papers.

See our summary of changes for summer 2026

The way you teach has not changed, and there has been no change to the specification content. The updated specification with the amended scheme of assessment will be available on our website in the summer term 2025.

Our supporting resources

To make sure you have everything you need to prepare your students for the improved assessments, we have got a full support package and resources lined up to guide you through the changes.

We have updated our sample assessment materials (SAMS) with the updated item types in place so you can see how the papers and mark schemes will look from summer 2026. The updated SAMS for GCSE Religious Studies A and GCSE Religious Studies Short Course are available on our website.

We have produced a new set of Answers and commentaries 8062 / 8061 to exemplify the updated items. We are also updating our teaching guides and they’ll be available soon.

In the coming weeks we will also provide free on-demand eLearning courses on Getting Started and Mark Scheme Guidance and Application to include the relevant updates. The materials on Exampro are also being updated to reflect this change.

Want to find out more? Join our Curriculum Connect

We want to make sure you feel supported in your teaching and to answer any questions you might have. So, we are inviting you to join our free online events on 25 March and 8 April, where you will get to hear about the changes in more detail and ask us any questions.

You can register for our Curriculum Connect now.

• Curriculum Connect: Updates to the AQA GCSE Religious Studies A and Short Course specifications

We would like to stay in touch, so please make sure you update your email preferences on our website. In the meantime, if you have any questions you can get in touch with us by email at religiousstudies@aqa.org.uk or call customer support on 0161 957 3881. We’re here, ready to help.