Our Inside Exams podcast series is back

Published: Thursday 14 Nov 2019

We’ve launched a second series of our Inside Exams podcast that takes listeners behind the scenes at the UK’s biggest exam board.

Following on from the success of the first series, another eight episodes have been recorded covering topics including assessment design, exam integrity and malpractice, and what the future holds for exams. A new episode will be released every other Monday.

Maths teacher Craig Barton of mrbartonmaths.com returns to host series two, which features more interviews with AQA staff, alongside stories from teachers and exams officers

Produced by the award-winning team at Fresh Air Production, all podcasts will be available on download or streaming from iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts and many other apps, or on the AQA website. You can also access via a smart link which will take you to the best player for your device.

Roderic Gillespie, Interim Deputy CEO and Director of Qualifications and Markets at AQA, said:

“The first series of Inside Exams was a great success and really well received – but we had so many more topics to discuss that we just had to do another series.

“We hope series two will prove just as interesting to teachers, students and parents, and give them some real insight and a better understanding of how exams and assessment work.”

Craig Barton said:

“Series one of Inside Exams revealed just how clueless I was about the inner workings of an awarding body. I learned so much that improved my day to day practice.

“But series two has taken this to another level. Contexts, technology, and even malpractice – we cover it all. A must listen for any teacher of any subject.”

Neil Cowling, founder and managing director of Fresh Air Production, said:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be launching the second series of Inside Exams. Podcasts are a great way for an organisation like AQA to open up and offer audiences a better understanding of what it does.

“Craig’s enthusiasm on his mission to explore the inner workings of AQA has been infectious, and we’re thrilled with the reaction we’ve had to the podcasts. I hope teachers all over the country enjoy series two even more than series one.”

The first two episodes, available now, are:

• Reviewing assessments: a date with data – How do exam boards review their assessments?  Craig Barton gets some answers from AQA’s assessment design manager, chair of examiners for biology, and head of curriculum for history.
• Standardisation: super-standardise me – What is standardisation? Craig Barton talks to Ian White, AQA’s preparation and support manager, and preparation coordinator Jo Harland about how examiners are trained to mark, and former head of English Ryan Wilson explains how he feels marking class work differs from marking assessments.

Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #InsideExams.

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