General Procedure

Oxford Open Learning will email all students who we believe are sitting exams in the summer series in the preceding autumn. We provide detailed instructions about how to find a centre and how to book your exam below.

We can’t book exams for you but we can provide a lot of help. We have details of over 30 centres ( marked in blue on our centre finder map) who will reliably offer most subjects and who often give our students a 10% discount. In addition, Tutors and Exams are an organisation with nine exam centres around the UK, they offer all subjects and they are specialists in Access Arrangements and SEN.

Our centre finder map gives information about many other places that you could try, but policies do change every year so there is no guarantee. You will also find a list of exam centres who say they will help Private Candidates on the JCQ, AQA and Edexcel websites.

These days exam centres get booked up very early, so although the official deadline for summer exams is the 21st February, you should start looking at the beginning of the Autumn term. 

Many centres will no longer take Private Candidates after Christmas. You might have to contact several centres before you find one to help and this can be time consuming. It is also a good idea to compare prices as these can vary greatly, please use our Exam Centre Finder map or first of all contact your old school if you have one locally.

If you intend to sit in November then the procedure is the same but you need to book in July and we do not send out email reminders.

If we do not know when or where you are sitting your exam, or you do not follow our instructions, then we cannot help you if anything goes wrong. Please keep us informed of your intentions.

Exams with no Coursework or NEA

The Edexcel IGCSE and AQA GCSE courses that we offer (except English GCSE), also most of our A Levels, do not have Board examined coursework/NEA.

These exams are quite simple to book once you have found a centre. You will find your exam entry code in the Introduction to your course and in the entry codes section of this website.

This is how to book;

  • Look for centres as early as possible. Nowadays many have on-line booking so fill in the form and pay the fee. It is that simple.
  • If you have shopped around and found a centre without on-line booking, you will probably need to speak to the exam officer and if you have any special needs please let them know straight away. This is important as getting assistance can be time consuming and expensive.
  • The centre will provide an entry form for you to fill in and details of how to pay.
  • There is nothing else to do except get the exam venue, dates and starting times from the exam officer and remember to turn up at the correct time for any orals and your written exams.
  • No other exam board forms are required.

Exams with Coursework/NEA

We offer the following subjects with coursework/NEA;

AQA GCSE English and A Level, English Language, English Literature and History. If you are studying any of these subjects you should  make your exam entry with Oxford Open Learning, as explained below.

Coursework/NEA is not the same as Tutor-marked Assignments.

For students sitting these exams we will contact you with full instructions and the required exam entry forms.

Below is what you should do to register for your exam:

  1. First locate a “host centre” near to you, by following our instructions above for finding a normal exam centre. DO NOT just fill in an online entry form or you could end up being entered twice and paying twice.
  2. You will then need to explain to the exam officer that OOL will make your exam entry but they, the local centre must agree to “host” you as a transfer candidate for the written papers only. [Please note that if you are sitting at Tutors and Exams the procedure could be different]
  3. Ask your host centre to confirm their fee for invigilating only and the date for payment, preferably by email . We cannot book your exam until you have located a host centre.
  4. Provide our exams office jenny@ool.co.uk with the host centre details by returning the exam entry form we send to you. You will also need to pay us for your entry/transfer fees. That is the exam booking completed.

Autumn Exams

There are no longer any winter A levels.

Autumn GCSE: AQA English and Maths only in November. Students must 16 years old.

Autumn IGCSE; most IGCSEs are available

Students wishing to sit in November will be responsible for meeting the entry deadlines themselves, we do not send out reminders. Deadlines can be found on the Edexcel and AQA websites.

Below are a few suggestions about how to improve your chances of booking an exam place and maintaining good relations with your exam officer;

Very Important Guidelines for keeping your Exams Officer happy

  • Follow the instructions we send out carefully and make sure that you know your exam board and specification entry code. Do not approach an exam centre with no information or the wrong information. You will find everything you need to know about booking on this website, in the exam information we send out or in the Introduction to your course.
  • Once you have found a centre, please do not keep pestering your exam officer with questions which can be answered by reading your course folder, this web page, the exam board web pages or the information we send to guide you through the exam process. If in doubt contact our office or your tutor first.
  • Make sure that you provide your exam officer with a reliable contact phone number and your address. Exams officers who have to spend hours trying to speak to a private candidate understandably get very frustrated. Always give them Oxford Open Learning’s phone number (01865 798022) as well as your own details, so that they have at least one reliable contact during office hours.
  • Do not be late for exams or fail to turn up without telling anyone. If you are withdrawing from an exam or are unable to get there on the day, please make it a priority to tell your exam centre. Exam officers get extremely stressed if they have to delay the start of an exam for their own students while they try to make contact with a missing private candidate.
  • Always pay your fees even if you do not sit the exam. The exam officer will often have had to do as much work for candidates who have withdrawn as for those who sit their exam.
  • Please treat your exam officer with courtesy and respect. They are not obliged to help you and if they do they are trusting that you will not take up a disproportionate amount of their time.
  • If you provide an email address or a stamped addressed envelope the exam officer will always be able to send your results to you even if you are unable to collect them in person. Results are not given out on the telephone.
  • Please always say “Thank you”. Exams officers go to a lot of trouble to help our students and they do this voluntarily, they are in no way obliged to help you or any other Private Candidate.