An important announcement has just been made by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) regarding a major change to their Special Considerations policy. Notably, the permitted time allowed to make a claim for special considerations is going to be reduced from 7 days to 48 hours after your exam, with effect from 2024. Here, we assess what this means for you as a CIPS learner.
Special considerations relate to “…a post-assessment allowance undertaken by the Awarding Body to reflect temporary illness, injury or indisposition that occurred at the time of assessment.” The idea is to give learners a fair adjustment or allowance in the event that they have been disadvantaged in some unforseeable way.
There are many examples of special considerations, such as:
Falling sick during an exam
Close family bereavement
Disturbance and disruption during an exam (such as a fire alarm or building evacuation)
A technology failure during an exam that is beyond the fault or control of the learner (e.g. a systems failure from Testreach)
Unfair assessment conditions, including unreasonable exam questions.
In each and every case, CIPS as the Awarding Body needs to make a judgement call based on the evidence it has, as to whether the learner has been disadvantaged in some way and what kind of fair remedy is available to offer the learner.
The current CIPS policy states: “Any special consideration granted cannot remove the difficulty the learner faced at the time of assessment and can only be a relatively small adjustment to ensure that the integrity of the assessment is not compromised.” Typically this a +5% discretionary award on the marks awarded during assessment, but sometimes it might offer a learner the opportunity to re-sit the exam at no additional cost.
As a regulated Awarding Body, CIPS is obliged to offer a reasonable period of time for special considerations, however these also cause them an additional administrative burden and a delay in the processing of exam results. By reducing the available time for exam candidates to make a valid claim from 7 days to 48 hours, CIPS is hoping to speed up its ability to process exam results.
In effect, anyone making a claim for special considerations once the 48 hour window has expired will lose their right to have their claim considered.
So what do you need to do if you feel that some kind of disturbance, disruption or unfair distraction occurred during your exam?
First, try to speak to the exam invigilator as soon as you can. Make them aware of the disturbance you have suffered and its impact on you. Ask them to make a record in their Invigilator’s Report back to CIPS.
As soon as you leave the exam room, if you need any guidance, give us a call or drop us a line. We will talk through the difficulties you have suffered and give you an indication as to whether we think you have a case for special considerations and if so, how to make it.
Complete the CIPS Special Considerations application (within 48 hours of your exam) and include any supporting evidence, such as a Doctor’s or Hospital letter.
We strongly recommend you contact us as soon as you can for any help or guidance we can offer. Making appeals can seem trivial or unwelcoming - and we understand that many of you do not wish to “make a fuss”. However, this policy has been specifically designed to offer you a fair opportunity to address any disadvantages that you may have experienced during your exam.
If you are affected by anything mentioned within this post, then do please drop us a line to discuss. Exams are tough sometimes, but they also need to be fair - and we will do everything possible to offer you the guidance required to make them fair. Good luck to all our Cordie learners!!