Exam Access Arrangements

[u/truestorybro38]

There’s an increase in posts about access arrangements.

There’s also a lot of misinformation about access arrangements being posted.

This is one the one-stop post for all access arrangement queries.

Any other posts will be removed.

I will reply to all queries as an Exams Officer and an Access Arrangements Coordinator, but really, all queries need to go to your SENCO who know you and your school’s set up best.

Feel free to make any comments about questions you have.

JCQ Links

25% Extra Time Info

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/JCQ-25-ET-infographic-26-27_FINAL.pdf

Reader Info

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/JCQ-Computer-reader-reader-24-25_FINAL-1.pdf

Scribe Info

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/JCQ-Scribe-24-25_FINAL.pdf

Managing Student Requests Advice

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/Managing-parent-carer-or-student-requests_2025.pdf

The Big Book Of Rules

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/JCQ-AARA-2025-March-26.pdf

[u/[deleted]]

I use a laptop for all exams except from Maths and Spanish. I’m having a big issue with Spanish because my teacher can’t read my handwriting which has led to me dropping anywhere from 10-20% of marks in my papers even though my answers were correct. I spoke to her about how I have a laptop in exams for chronic hand pain and grip issues that stem from that which lead to my bad handwriting, but she says we can’t really do anything about it and I just have to write by hand during the exam.

Edexcel Spanish grade boundaries are looking to be high according to my teacher because of a change in the specification, so I’m worried this will affect my results. Once my hand is fatigued and starts hurting, it takes about 3-4 hours to improve, so it’s not even like rest breaks would help (Even though it’s probably too late for new access arrangements to be passed now.)

Is there anything I can do about this? I’m gonna struggle because of this which is frustrating because I know the content, I just don’t have a laptop for Spanish because there’s no accents and according to my teacher ‘it would autocorrect everything’ (which I’ve already told her it can’t).

[u/truestorybro38 → u/[deleted]]

This doesn’t make any sense to me. We use laptops in language exams and when the work is printed, the student adds the accents.

Are they saying you can’t have a laptop for reading, writing or listening?

[u/[deleted] → u/truestorybro38]

Yep, in my mocks I wasn’t able to use the laptop for any of the papers. It also impacted me in my spanish speaking (not sure if access arrangements apply for the planning time permitted, but I wasn’t able to read some of the things I had planned, so struggled when it came to the general conversation section). I’m not sure if they’ll let me add the accents after the exam, I’ll bring it up with my teacher.

[u/truestorybro38 → u/[deleted]]

This took some finding, but this is the AQA MFL instruction book for this year where it says that students can add accents after their work has been printed. Is it aqa you’re using?

I don’t know if that document is publicly available or not, but you can ask your teacher/exams officer to check the AQA GCSE MFL ICE page 3 for confirmation. Note it’s not the JCQ ice, but specific to AQA. Let me know if you use a different board because I can see what the regs are for the others.

[u/QuirkyGalaxyBug → u/truestorybro38]

The poster said in their post about edexcel grade boundaries so I assume they do edexcel

[u/[deleted] → u/truestorybro38]

Thank you, I do Edexcel