The RSGB have published the ‘1st Annual Report of the RSGB Examination Standards Committee, April 2016’.
The full report can be found here.
Headlines for the report are as follows:
Numbers sitting all three exams are marginally down on 2014
| Year | Foundation | Intermediate | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 1818 enrolled 62 absentees 1756 examined |
730 enrolled 9 absentees 721 examined |
513 enrolled 25 absentees 488 examined |
| 2015 | 1806 enrolled 62 absentees 1738 examined 1% down on 2014 |
707 enrolled 24 absentees 683 examined 6% down on 2014 |
456 enrolled 16 absentees 440 examined 10% down on 2014 |
It is not possible, from the basic statistics provided in the report, to ascertain or estimate the proportion of Foundation students progressing to the Intermediate Exam or indeed the number of Intermediate students progressing to the Advanced exam as the data does nor indicate how many of each exam were re-sits and of course the progression could have taken more than a year. Thus it is entirely possible that people who passed their Foundation exam before 2015 did not take their Intermediate exam until 2015.
Despite the reduction in numbers compared to 2014, the number of exam sessions has increased indicating a reduction in the number of candidates per session
| Year | Foundation | Intermediate | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 591 2.97 students/session |
268 2.72 students/session |
195 2.50 students/session |
| 2015 | 638 2.72 students/session |
263 2.60 students/session |
189 2.33 students/session |
The pass rate has remained reasonably constant with the Advanced pass rate picking up after a dip in 2014
| Year | Foundation | Intermediate | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 85.3% | 92.9% | 70.4% |
| 2013 | 85.7% | 90.2% | 70.2% |
| 2014 | 84.3% | 94.6% | 62.1% |
| 2015 | 84.9% | 92.5% | 68.2% |
Of the total 2861 candidates 51 (1.78%) required special access arrangements including readers, large print and no images.
15 irregularities were reported out of the 1090 exam sessions held. The report acknowledges that the RSGB has not yet achieved its target of auditing 10% of the exams taking place, something that is likely to be harder to achieve over time if the trend in reducing exam sizes continues. Significantly the report does not indicate what proportion of the exams were inspected, but if it was say 5% of the 1090 exams held then the irregularities, assuming they were all unique, amount to over a quarter of all exams inspected having some form of irregularity or deviation from the accepted methods and practice. Some of the identified irregularities were minor, for instance:
- a missing clock;
- failing to display warning notices on doors;
- failure to display start, middle and end times of the exams; and
- failure to read out exam rules.
Although in fairness to the Exam Standards Committee these minor infringements were not specifically itemised in the total of 15 incidents detailed in the report.
From the itemised irregularities forming the total of 15 mentioned were:
- Unauthorised reader present;
- Advanced exam starting 2 hours early;
- Failure to return question papers;
- Candidates not having completed CAPR (Candidates Practical Assessment Record) at the exam;
- Identification irregularities; and
- Late starting of an Advanced exam
