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Rules guide

How students should acknowledge AI.

AI tools, like ChatGPT, can write or change text for you. JCQ, the group that writes the shared rules for the main exam boards, says when students may use them in coursework and what they must record. This guide is for teachers and students alike.

Last reviewed
2 Nov 2026
Checked against
JCQ documents effective 1 September 2026

In short

  • Only use AI if your teacher says you can for this piece of work.
  • Each time you use it, record the tool, the date, what you asked, what it gave you and how you used it.
  • Keep what you asked and what it gave you as screenshots, and hand them in with your work.
  • Work that isn’t your own, or AI use you don’t mention, breaks the exam rules.

Can I use AI at all?

Only where the rules for that piece of work allow it. The rules are different for different subjects and assessments, and your teacher will tell you whether you can use an AI tool. If you’re not sure, ask before you use one.

Two things are never allowed:

  • AI tools in an exam, or anything else run under exam conditions.
  • AI translation tools to produce work for assessment.

For teachers: students doing NEA (non-examination assessment: coursework marked in school, then checked by the exam board) must be given JCQ’s Information for candidates: AI before they start. Your exam board’s specification can set tighter rules for your subject.

What to record each time

If AI is allowed, you must say you used it, and show what it produced. For each use, write down:

  1. The tool: its name.
  2. The date: when it gave you the content.
  3. What you asked: your question or prompt, word for word.
  4. What it gave you: the full answer.
  5. How you used it: a short explanation in your own words.

If the AI tool used sources to give its answer, credit those too. If AI changed your wording, keep your original version as well, so your teacher can see what changed.

Tools built into the apps you write in count too. If a grammar, spelling, rewriting or translation tool changed your words, record it.

For example: “Used ChatGPT on 14 Oct 2026. I asked for three ways to narrow my research question. I picked the second idea and rewrote the question myself. Screenshot attached.”

Keep it so it can’t be edited

“in a non-editable format (such as a screenshot)”
JCQ AI Use in Assessments, September 2026, on keeping prompts and outputs

What this means: take a screenshot of your question and the AI’s answer, rather than copying the text into a document you could change later. Save it straight away.

Hand these in with your finished work. Your teacher needs them to check the work, the AI content and how you used it. If they aren’t there and your teacher thinks AI was used, the school follows its own policy on what happens next.

Your declaration

When you hand in, you sign a statement that the work is your own. Read it carefully before you sign: by signing, you confirm that you have acknowledged and referenced any AI you used. Your teacher signs a statement too, confirming that, to the best of their knowledge, any AI use was acknowledged properly. Electronic signatures are allowed.

What breaks the rules

JCQ’s AI guidance gives examples. Each of these is breaking the exam rules:

  • using AI so the work no longer shows your own work, analysis, evaluation or calculations
  • not fully acknowledging AI, including when you used it for information, guidance, planning or the structure of your work
  • using a translation tool to turn work written in another language into English
  • handing in AI content as if you wrote it

This can bring serious penalties from the exam board. The safe habit is simple: if in doubt, write it down and ask your teacher.

What about AI checkers?

“can produce both false positives and false negatives”
JCQ AI Use in Assessments, section 8, on tools that guess whether AI wrote something

What this means: software that guesses whether AI wrote something can get it wrong both ways. A clear record of how you made your work, with dated drafts and your AI notes, is the best way to show it’s yours.

What this looks like in your subject

JCQ’s rules apply in every subject, and some exam boards add their own. Pick your exam board to see what it says for each subject. Where we found no board guidance, JCQ’s rules apply.

Your exam board

OCR

Computer Science (A level NEA). AI can help with debugging and explaining errors, but you must reference every use, show how you adapted what it gave you, and marks are only given for your own independent work (OCR, AI in A Level Computer Science NEA).

EPQ. OCR lists using AI to write your title, research questions, rationale, production log entries, research, final outcome or evaluation as inappropriate. It also warns that AI tools can give wrong or biased information and fake references (OCR, AI in the Extended Project Qualification).

English (A level NEA). AI may only be used at the planning and teaching stages, such as early research on critics or an essay’s basic structure. Writing an essay, close analysis of a text, or rewriting your work is not allowed (OCR, AI in English).

History (A level NEA). AI may only help at the planning and teaching stages, never by writing all or part of your essay or rewriting your work (OCR, AI in history).

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

AQA

Computer Science (A level NEA). The candidate record form asks you to declare any materials, including AI tools, that you haven’t acknowledged in the work (AQA 7517/C candidate record form). We found no other CS-specific AI guidance from AQA.

EPQ. AQA’s 2026-27 production log includes the AI wording (AQA, autumn 2026 projects update).

Design and Technology (NEA). For GCSE, AQA allows AI renders of your own sketches, drawings and CAD models to discuss with your client, but not AI-made sketches presented as yours. Keep your prompts, screenshots and a note of how you adapted the result (AQA, AI guidance for GCSE D&T).

Not covered here: English and History. JCQ’s rules apply, and check AQA’s own guidance for your specification.

Eduqas

Computer Science (A level NEA). Eduqas requires original code, and a discussion after your prototype where you explain it (Eduqas A Level Computer Science specification). We found no CS-specific AI guidance from Eduqas.

English (A level NEA). AI must not create assessed content, an AI summary of an article must be acknowledged with the tool’s full name and the date, and poor referencing breaks the rules (Eduqas, Managing AI in English NEA).

Design and Technology (NEA). AI may enhance or render your sketch only if your original sketch is in the work, and lots of AI images earn no more credit than a few hand-drawn sketches (Eduqas, AI use in D&T assessments FAQ).

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

Pearson

History (A level NEA). You must not use AI to choose your works, plan your assignment or write it, and any section copied from AI can’t count towards your mark (Pearson, A level History coursework AI guidance).

Design and Technology (NEA). Pearson asks for a record of every AI use, with a copy of the prompt that can’t be edited, such as a screenshot, and a short note on how you used it (Pearson, AI in Component 2).

Not covered here: Computer Science, EPQ and English. 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.

From first idea to hand-in, on the record.

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