AQA, one of the exam boards for GCSE and A-Levels, has announced that they plan to move to digital exams for GCSE and A-levels starting in the 2025-26 year, subject to regulatory approval.

This will see GCSE and A-levels, traditionally done on paper, be moved to digital exams starting with the listening and reading components of the GCSE Italian and Polish exams. 

This means that the exams, which are sat at the end of year 11 and year 13 respectively, will begin to incorporate new technology into the exams. This will affect the 1.4 million people who take the exam from Aqa every year.

In a statement released by the exam board, they explain that they will move to digital exams because students are more familiar with digital formats then traditional paper and pen formats. The statement also assurances that no content will be changed from the courses

This follows on a report published by Aqa last month titled “Making it Click: the case for digital examination in England” where it outlines the reasons why now is the time to start moving to digital examinations. The report argues that digital examinations are better for preparing students for the real world, would benefit those with special needs such as learning disabilities or hearing or visually impaired students and make the examinations more environmentally sustainable.

Aqa has produced a demo which anyone interested in how this may look like can take which features eleven example questions from subjects ranging from French to Maths. 

This seems to be the first step in moving the historically paper based exams to a more digital based one, which will change the nature of exams as we know it.