Rules guide

General advice or detailed help: what teachers must record.

JCQ, the group that writes the shared rules for the main exam boards, lets teachers review a student’s work and give advice. General advice needs no record. Help that goes further must be written down and taken into account when the work is marked. Here’s where the line falls.

Last reviewed: 2 Nov 2026
Checked against: JCQ coursework and NEA instructions 2026-27

In short

General advice that leaves the student to decide what to change doesn’t need recording.
Anything more, like pointing out specific errors or saying how to fix them, is detailed help. Write it down.
The mark must reflect what the student achieved without that help.
Your subject’s specification can be stricter than JCQ. Where it is, it wins.

Which rules apply to you

The EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) follows JCQ’s Instructions for conducting coursework. GCSE and A Level NEA (non-examination assessment: coursework marked in school, then checked by the exam board) follows JCQ’s Instructions for conducting non-examination assessments. Both say the same thing about help, and both apply from 1 September 2026.

What counts as general advice

Unless your specification says otherwise, you may review a student’s work before it is handed in for final marking. If your advice stays at a general level, so the student takes the lead in making changes, you don’t need to record it or change the mark.

For example:

“Read your conclusion against the assessment criteria. Does it answer your question?”
“Some of your sources aren’t referenced yet.”
Explaining the assessment criteria to the whole group.

These examples are ours, to show the idea. The test is whether the student still has to work out what to do.

“Generally, one review should be enough”

JCQ Instructions for conducting coursework 2026-27

What this means: one review is usually enough for students to understand what the assessment criteria ask. Repeated reviews of the same draft start to look like help.

What counts as detailed help

JCQ gives these as examples of help beyond general advice:

detailed suggestions on how to improve the work
detailed indications of errors or omissions
writing frames for the task, such as outlines, paragraph headings or section headings

So “Your third paragraph contradicts your data in table 2; swap it for this point” is detailed help. So is handing out a set of headings for the write-up. The NEA instructions add that centres must not provide model answers or task-specific writing frames.

What to write down, and where

“any help given to the candidate has been recorded”

JCQ Instructions for conducting coursework 2026-27, Appendix 1

You sign this line for each student. To back it up, record any help beyond general advice on the record form your exam board provides for the component. Some forms have a box for it: several of AQA’s NEA forms, for example, ask for details of additional assistance. Keep a short, dated note of what you said or showed, and on which part of the work.

Before you give detailed help, check there is a way to record it and take it into account in marking. If there isn’t, don’t give it. JCQ treats failing to record help beyond general advice as malpractice: breaking the exam rules.

Help from other people

Students must tell their teacher if they get help from anyone else, such as a parent, tutor or friend. The teacher then records what kind of help it was. Parents may talk about the work, but must not give direct advice on what to include.

How recorded help affects the mark

Where a student has had help beyond general advice, the mark you give must represent what they achieved without it. In practice, look at the criteria the help touched and don’t credit the part that came from you.

For NEA, the instructions say the help is either taken into account when you mark, or sent to the board’s examiner, depending on how the component is assessed. Check your board’s form to see which.

Check your subject’s own rules

Where a specification sets its own rules, they come before JCQ’s general instructions, and some are stricter. Pick your exam board to see what it says in five subjects. Read your specification, and ask your exams officer if you’re unsure.

All exam boards (JCQ)

Computer Science. JCQ counts detailed indications of errors as help beyond general advice, so fixing a student’s code, or pointing to the line with the bug, is detailed help to record (JCQ NEA instructions 2026-27).

Your exam board

OCR

Computer Science (A level NEA). We found no CS-specific rule on teacher help from OCR, so JCQ’s rules apply.

EPQ. OCR’s EPQ (H857) allows spoken guidance on progress but no written feedback from teachers, and drafts aren’t marked or annotated (OCR H857 specification).

English (A level NEA). Advice stays general, and where a student needs more, the mark must reflect their unaided achievement (OCR H472 NEA guide).

Not covered here: History and Design and Technology. JCQ’s rules apply, and check OCR’s own guidance for your specification.

AQA

Computer Science (A level NEA). On drafts you may ask questions and highlight the marking criteria, but must not comment on or suggest improvements. Give the mark for the student’s unaided work and record extra help under “Details of additional assistance” on the candidate record form (AQA 7517 NEA administration; AQA 7517/C candidate record form).

EPQ. AQA’s 2026-27 EPQ form carries JCQ’s line that any help given to the candidate has been recorded (AQA 7993 candidate record form 2026/27).

English (A level NEA). When checking drafts, don’t comment or suggest improvements, though you may ask questions and highlight the marking criteria (AQA 7712 NEA administration).

History (A level NEA). The same draft rule as AQA English. The marking framework says you may tell a student their analysis of an interpretation is weak, but not how to improve it or where the weakness lies (AQA 7042 NEA administration; AQA History NEA framework for confident marking).

Design and Technology (NEA). AQA’s A level D&T lets you review drafts and give generic feedback, such as advice on resources or reminders of the sections the folder needs. You can’t correct the work or give templates, model answers or writing frames. Any support given to one student that the whole class didn’t get must be recorded on the candidate record form and the mark adjusted (AQA 7552 specification).

Eduqas

Computer Science (A level NEA). We found no CS-specific rule on teacher help from Eduqas, so JCQ’s rules apply.

English (A level NEA). Guidance on redrafting must only be general observations (Eduqas A level English Language and Literature specification).

Not covered here: EPQ, History and Design and Technology. JCQ’s rules apply, and check Eduqas’s own guidance for your specification.

Pearson

History (A level NEA). You must review the first complete draft with general guidance only, which may say if part of the task is missing or given too little attention, and you can’t provide templates or model answers (Pearson A level History coursework guide).

Not covered here: Computer Science, EPQ, English and Design and Technology. JCQ’s rules apply, and check Pearson’s own guidance for your specification.

Sources

We review this guide each September, when the JCQ documents change. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.