The death of the exam paper as GCSEs and A-Levels go digital by 2030
December 25, 2024
Original Article:
The UK's largest exam board is set to phase out the exam paper as we know it with a shift towards digital assessments by the end of the decade.
Pearson says it will begin offering History and Business Studies GCSEs as on-screen exams from 2027 before offering other exams including A-Levels from 2030.
The board's managing director, Sharon Hague, says she is expecting schools to move towards 'increasingly digital' exams because of demands from pupils, who would prefer to use a mouse and keyboard than pick up a pen.
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Regulator Ofqual will have final say on whether the exams can be performed on a digital device, and says it is 'open to innovations'.
Data suggests more than 7,000 exams were sat on screen in 2022, doubling to just over 14,000 as of 2024.
The majority of these were for, appropriately, Computer Science, while around 5,000 were for International GCSE and A-Level exams sat by pupils at international schools.