A-level Drama and Theatre: NEA changes for 2022 exams

Published: Monday 12 Jul 2021

Ofqual has published the arrangements for non-exam assessment (NEA) and fieldwork for students entering for exams in 2022. Here are the changes to A-level Drama and Theatre (7262) you need to know about for summer 2022:

  • Component 2 – we’ll allow students to complete a monologue. Further guidance can be found on our website
  • Component 3 – we’re still finalising the details on the visiting exam and will provide full details on this shortly
  • Component 3 – we’ve reduced the required number of extracts from three to one. However, we’ll accept all submissions and mark all work (whether one, two or three extracts have been explored)
  • Components 2 and 3 – we’ve reduced the timing requirements to one and a half minutes (monologue) and three minutes (duologue/group)
  • Components 2 and 3 – we’ll need to apply a penalty to any performances that do not meet these minimum requirements in the same way as in previous series
  • Components 2 and 3 – we’ll allow students to submit alternative evidence where it hasn’t been possible to produce a recording of a live performance. Full guidance on alternative evidence can be found on our website.

We’ve amended the mark schemes for Components 2 and 3 to allow for the monologue in Component 2, shorter performances that may not be able to apply the methods of a practitioner fully and to allow alternative evidence to be submitted. The updated mark schemes can be found on our website. You'll be able to use ‘Covid-19’ on the NEA, fieldwork and live performance centre declaration form as the reason students haven’t been able to attend a live theatre performance.

Ofqual is planning a consultation on summer 2022 towards the end of this term. We’ll provide further updates and guidance about the summer 2022 exams as soon as we are able to.

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