Issued by: Orqual

Just over 75,000 students in England sat Pearson's A Level maths exams but failures in design and delivery of the assessments caused significant public concern.

Ofqual has issued a Chief Regulator’s Rebuke to the exam board Pearson for serious breaches around its 2025 A Level maths exams.

Just over 75,000 students in England sat the exams in 2025, but failures in the design and delivery of those assessments caused significant public concern.

The exam board accepted that, in repurposing contingency exam papers from 2022 as assessment papers in 2025, it had produced some content that was “unreasonably similar” to its 2022 A Level maths papers.

Pearson acknowledged that students who noticed similarities between their first 2025 maths paper and the first 2022 paper might have been able to predict the questions on the planned second paper, and therefore replaced the planned second paper with a contingency paper.

However, as this contingency paper was not designed in conjunction with the first paper, it did not ensure the same degree of content coverage, meaning that some topics were over-assessed and others under-assessed.

Pearson has accepted that this substitution “did not ensure the same degree of content coverage as the original pairings” but “nonetheless provided coverage that was in line with the specification”.

Ofqual concluded that the results could be trusted for progression to university and other destinations.

The regulator has accepted analysis by Pearson that indicated any effect on students’ results was “so small as to be statistically insignificant” but added that “a sound outcome” did not “diminish the seriousness of the failures identified”.

While the regulator described the failures as “serious” and “entirely avoidable”, it decided to issue a rebuke rather than a fine, taking into account Pearson’s assurances on the validity and reliability of results, its admission of the breaches and co-operation.

Sir Ian Bauckham, Chief Regulator at Ofqual, said:

"Tens of thousands of students sat these exams trusting that they had been properly designed and delivered. The failures by Pearson caused anxiety, stress and uncertainty at a time when students needed it least.

"The problems that arose were foreseeable and preventable. We will always act to protect students and maintain confidence in qualifications."

Ofqual has today published the Notice of Chief Regulator’s Rebuke issued to Pearson Education Limited [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-of-chief-regulators-rebuke-pearson-education-limited]

The rebuke is a non-statutory instrument as part of Ofqual’s commitment to proportionate regulation while maintaining rigorous standards.

Non-statutory means it can be used to influence an awarding organisation’s behaviour and to support compliance. Ofqual’s policy aims to ensure awarding organisations resolve issues early wherever possible.

Notes to editors

• Please note, this case is about incidents in 2025, not the current exam series.

• This rebuke was issued in May, but publication of the action was deferred while exams were taking place to prevent potential disruption to students.

• The Chief Regulator’s Rebuke is a non-statutory enforcement tool introduced by Ofqual in October 2025. It is used for cases serious enough to warrant a public outcome, but where the circumstances do not merit a financial penalty. Further information is available in Ofqual’s Supporting compliance and taking regulatory action guidance [https://tinyurl.com/2s3maj2x].

•Ofqual’s Supporting compliance and taking regulatory action guidance sets out how it will use its powers to take regulatory action [https://tinyurl.com/2s3maj2x].

• Previous cases can be viewed in Regulatory actions and interventions by Ofqual [https://tinyurl.com/3er2xynv].

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