Cambridge Nationals: Absence, examined unit withdrawals and the terminal rule

For all Level 1/Level 2 Technical Award qualifications offered to 14 to 16-year-olds, such as Cambridge Nationals, there is a requirement to take the exam as terminal assessment, more commonly known as the ‘Terminal Rule’.
This means:

• The examined unit must be taken in the student's final assessment series (when the student is finishing the qualification)
• The non-examined assessment (NEA) units can be taken in any series but must be submitted in a series before the exam is taken, or in the same series as the exam is taken.

For more information, please see our terminal rule guide and FAQs.

Withdrawal of examined unit entries

For students not certificating, examined and non-examined assessment (NEA) unit entries can be withdrawn until a week before results are issued (see key dates).

For students who are certificating:

• you can withdraw NEA unit entries until a week before results are issued (see key dates)
• you cannot withdraw the entry for the examined unit. By withdrawing the examined unit entry, the student will no longer meet the terminal rule

If certificating students are absent from the exam, please submit a special consideration request via the special consideration online portal on Interchange. You must not withdraw the exam entry.

For students who met the terminal rule in a previous series, are entered for an exam resit and decide not to resit, there is a contingency arrangement for them to receive a result. The result would be based on the series when they met the terminal rule. To use this arrangement, you must withdraw all unit entries before the date of the exam and keep the certification entry only in place. Please note you cannot use this arrangement if you withdraw the unit entries on or after the date of the exam.

Students absent from the exam in their final assessment series

If a student is absent from the exam and it is their final assessment series, you must not withdraw the exam entry:

• If the student was absent for good reason, you must submit a special consideration request via the special consideration online portal on Interchange. Details of how to do this can be found on the administration area of the OCR website 
• If the student was absent for any other reason, please contact us for advice
• Withdrawing the entry will mean the student no longer meets the terminal rule and will prevent us from issuing a result based on a partial absence or a special consideration, whichever is applicable