Challenges to GCSE and A-level grades fell by 25 per cent last summer, the exam regulator Ofqual revealed today.

More than 427,000 challenges were made by schools in 2016, down on 572,400 last year.

But the proportion of challenges which resulted in a grade change has remained fairly consistent: from 19 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent this year.

The new figures show that 67,900 GCSE and A-level grades were changed after schools demanded remarks - compared to more than 90,000 last year.

In the report from Ofqual today, the exam regulator suggests the drop in reviews may be a result of changes to performance measures in schools and universities being more flexible about taking students who hadn’t met their offer.

The report follows changes made by Ofqual to their enquiries and appeals system this summer. Under the new measures, exam boards were not be allowed to change a mark unless there has been a “clear marking error”. 

Sally Collier, chief regulator of Ofqual, said: “Quality of marking is a very important issue for us. The ability to have marking reviewed, and corrected if necessary, is critical to a fair qualifications system.

“To help us understand this year’s reviews statistics more fully, a thorough evaluation of the changes to the review process will be conducted, to check that errors were indeed identified and corrected, and that legitimate marks were unchanged.

“We are also auditing exam boards’ quality assurance processes around marking to see what improvements can be made.”

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