Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations
| Formation | 1998[1] |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Examination board |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, UK |
Region served | England, Wales and Northern Ireland |
Parent organization | Cambridge Assessment (UCLES) |
| Website | www.ocr.org.uk |
OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations[2]) is an examination board that sets examinations and awards qualifications (including GCSEs and A-levels). It is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards.
OCR is based in Cambridge, with an office in Coventry. It is part of the University of Cambridge's Cambridge Assessment, which operates in over 160 countries and will celebrate its 160th anniversary in 2018. OCR delivers GCSE and A Level examinations in the United Kingdom whereas for other countries Cambridge Assessment operates the examination board Cambridge International Examinations (CIE).[3] An important distinction between OCR and CIE is that the British exam board OCR is required to comply with UK government regulations and CIE with international GCSEs and GCE A Levels is not.[4]
History
The name OCR reflects the fact that it was created in 1998 through the amalgamation of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) and the Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board (RSAEB).[1] At the time of the merger, UCLES's qualifications were offered by two wholly owned subsidiaries: the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessments Council (OCEAC) for A Level and the Midland Examining Group (MEG) for GCSE and Certificate of Achievement. RSAEB offered vocational qualifications. After the merger, the OCR name replaced all previous names. The overall supervisor for the merger was Joseph Dudley.
UCLES had previously taken over the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (founded 1857) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board (founded 1873).[1] The University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board (O&C or OCSEB) were acquired by UCLES in 1995; earlier, it had taken over the Southern Universities Joint Board (SUJB). The acquisition of RSAEB was completed in 1998 brought a new range of qualifications and activities to the UCLES Group because RSEAB's principal activity was in vocational qualifications.[1]
The formation of OCR represented the culmination of several decades of corporate activity on the part of UCLES, activity that came about as a response to the policies of successive British governments towards public examinations and the provision of qualifications as well as moves to strengthen the regulatory framework.
Cambridge Assessment is a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge, making Cambridge the only British University to maintain a direct link with a school exam board.
Incorporated Examination Boards
- East Anglian Examinations Board (EAEB) - partial
- East Midland Regional Examinations Board (EMREB)
- Midland Examining Group (MEG)
- Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council (OCEAC)
- Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (OCSEB) / (O&C)
- Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
- Southern Regional Examinations Board (SREB)
- Southern Universities Joint Board for Schools Examinations (SUJB)
- University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES)
- University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE)
- The West Midlands Examination Board (WMEB)
Key Statistics 2017
Around 17,000 individual exam questions were set by OCR this summer.
760 different exam papers are now produced by OCR, compared to 627 in 2016.
…plus 1, 241 specially modified exam papers in braille or enlarged print compared to 1,168 in 2016.
More than 800 examiners were involved in writing question papers.
Over 59m pages were printed this year, with 27,000 boxes sent out.
Around 2.5m GCSE and A Level exam papers are marked by OCR examiners in the space of just a few weeks. In this short timeframe, 836,000 pieces of candidate work which have been marked by teachers from 30,000 schools and colleges are then moderated (sampled) by examiners (called moderators).
Nearly 1,600 items (Question Papers, inserts, resource booklets etc.) were sent out in 2017 compared to more than 1,000 in 2016.
OCR’s systems process 7m marks an hour at peak time – that’s 2,000 marks a second.
OCR holds over 1,000 marking meetings every summer.
13,000 people (over 90% of whom are teachers or ex-teachers with a relevant degree) examine for OCR.
On average 350 GCSE papers are marked by an OCR examiner.
Controversies
1998: All the UK schools examinations and vocational qualifications of the UCLES Group were transferred to OCR. Subsequent Physics syllabuses released by OCR included the fictional units the "Ocrawatt" and "Ocrajoule" due to overzealous find-and-replace on MEG's part[1] (in previous and later syllabuses, the units were correctly written as "Megawatt" and "Megajoule".)
2008: The answer to one question in a GCSE Music paper was given away by accident in the copyright declaration printed on the back of the question paper.
2011: OCR set an impossible maths question .[2] In addition, there were errors in Section B of the Latin Literature paper, confusing names of both authors and characters. 2011 also saw the start of, by now regular, social media protests against the content in exam papers. An A2 Biology paper on Control, Genomes and Environment (F215) had a large emphasis on Ecology, deemed by many students to be ‘unfair’. This issue was made public on a Facebook page which generated support from thousands of students.[3] The Times and The Times Educational Supplement reported on this story.[4]
2015: The then Chief Executive of OCR suggested that students should be allowed to use Google and the Internet to research information during examinations. This statement evoked a heated debate with support on the one hand and criticism on the other.[7][8][9]
2017: A question in the reformed OCR GCSE English Literature exam swapped the surnames of the families in the play Romeo and Juliet, asking how Tybalt's hatred of the Capulets influenced the outcome of the play, when in fact, Tybalt is a Capulet himself [10]. OCR apologised, undertook to ensure no candidates would be disadvantaged [11][12][13] while the regulator Ofqual stated it was "very disappointed to learn of the error".[14] OCR also apologised for "poorly wording" an A Level Psychology Paper and assured candidates that it could correct it in its marking. [15] Ofqual asked OCR to go through all its remaining papers again to make sure there were no further errors.[16] Social media was again widely used by students to express concern that the formula for [null standard] deviation was not included in the A Level Biology paper. [17][18]
The exams regulator, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) reports on the frequency of errors from all exam boards annually.