WJEC ENGLISH LITERATURE

Appendix 2
Guidance on WJEC administration of coursework
The 5 steps
1. Centres are required to assess their students’ work by applying the relevant assessment
grids, which appear in Appendix 3, and which also appear in the Teachers’ Guide and
specification.
2. It is vital that all candidates complete a coversheet and that both candidate and
teacher sign the coversheet to authenticate the work. According to JCQ regulations, if a
signature is missing, the centre is asked to obtain it, or risk a mark of zero for that candidate.
3. Where possible, internal moderation should take place, with teachers, or just one teacher,
moderating the work of colleagues by inspecting a sample.
4. Once standards within the centre have been agreed, a sample of work must be selected
and sent to the external moderator. Exams officers will receive moderator details. In
addition to the work, a marksheet must be sent, listing the sampled candidates only, in rank
order. The work must be sent by May 15.
5. A moderator’s report on the work of the centre is sent to the Exams Officer normally by
early September.
For advice on how to select the sample, please consult the online Internal Assessment
Manual:
ht tp://www.wjec.co.uk /uploads/publications/2019.pdf
Note: The moderator may contact the centre to request further samples, so you are advised
to keep the rest of the candidates’ work, (those not sent off as the sample) complete with
coversheets, together in a safe place.
The coversheet and marksheet for recording the sample can be downloaded from the
subject area of the website via these links:
http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/6369.doc
http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/6371.doc
Candidates must record the word count for their responses, and for Section A include a
bibliography where appropriate.
While WJEC does not penalise for excessive length, we advise that candidates risk
penalising themselves through a possible loss in focus and organisation. We suggest a
tolerance threshold of 10%, although this is a rough guide only. For example, for a word
count of 750 in Section B, we would tolerate an excess of 100-150, but candidates must
appreciate that producing a much longer piece makes it difficult for moderators (and
teachers) to ensure a fair assessment of all candidates’ work.
There is no requirement to hand-write any of the work, and no particular requirements
regarding word-processing in terms of such matters as line spacing or font. It is important
that the work is easy to assess for both teacher and moderator.
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