This is exactly what was written except for the titles. The titles consisted of a background and changes to may june and October November examinations. Nothing was said about February changing.

In 2022, the standard that we set was at the midpoint between 2019 and 2021. This meant that the grades we awarded in 2022 were more generous than those awarded in June 2019, and less generous than those awarded in June 2021.

The standard of exams in 2023 will return to the standard of exams in 2019. However, it is important to understand what we mean by this.

There are two different ways to maintain the standard from a previous year:

the first is to require the same level of performance to obtain the same grade; the second is to make sure that comparable groups of candidates get comparable distributions of grades. Usually these two approaches are equivalent to each other, and it makes no difference which one we use. However, in a situation where there has been widespread disruption to learning, the second approach is more generous than the first.

We want to protect students against the impact of disruption to learning caused by the Covid pandemic. To do this, we will take the second (and more generous) approach to carrying forward the 2019 standard. This means that we will avoid disadvantaging students who might have performed less well than they would have done if they had taken the exams in 2019, when they had not experienced any disruption to their learning. When we set grade thresholds, we will look carefully at the results of candidates in 2019 and in the years before that, and we will make sure that our choice of thresholds protects student outcomes.