Student and parent support

Controlled assessment

Controlled assessment units are only found in Functional Skills English specifications. If you want to take one of these assessments as a private candidate, you must have a school/college which agrees to conduct all the work required for the course.

As a private candidate, you are responsible for finding a school which can supervise, authenticate and mark the controlled assessments that are necessary for these qualifications.

  • You can only sit controlled assessments at an AQA approved school or college.
  • Controlled assessments must be conducted by staff at the school or college. They must:
    • accept you for all elements of task taking and task marking, including preparation and analysis prior to task taking
    • authenticate your controlled assessment
    • keep your work securely between sessions
    • mark your work.
  • Relatives of private candidates will not be able to conduct controlled assessments.
  • You will have to be available on the dates and times specified by your school or college to undertake all elements of the controlled assessment; the timings of sessions may vary.

Carrying forward controlled assessment marks

Functional Skills English are modular qualifications. If you have already sat the controlled assessment unit before, the result of that unit remains available for use in a future award.

You do not need to request that the result is re-used or carried forward.

Deadlines

Please note that entries for controlled assessment units will not be accepted after the submission deadline date.