During 2025/26, we are delivering Cambridge Advanced Nationals: Admin Essentials online training events each month.
You can book on a future session on our Online Training and Events page. If you are delivering Cambridge Advanced Nationals in your centre, we would encourage you to book on one of our live sessions, this will give you an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the administration of our new qualifications.
If you were not able to attend our September session, you can access a copy of the presentation below:
FAQs from our September 2025 event
Thank you to those that attended our first event in September, we had a good range of questions during the event and these are summarised below:
- Registrations and entries
- Basedata and A2C
- Claiming qualifications of different sizes
- Moderation
- Results
Registrations and Entries
What is the deadline for registrations?
There are no specific deadlines for registrations but you must register the student before you make your first unit entries, so we encourage you to register the student at the start of their course.
Will one registration allow you to claim Certificate at the end of Year 12 and the Extended Certificate at the end of Year 13? Will we be charged for two registrations?
You only need to register students for the subject once. You do not need to re-register and pay the registration entry fee again if you request certification for both the Certificate and Extended Certificate for a subject. Certification entries are free.
Would you have to re-register if you certificate after 1 year?
No, you only need to register the student for the subject once. You don't need to re-register the student if you certificate after a year.
Is there a deadline/cut-off point for getting refunds for withdrawn registrations?
You can withdraw and receive a refund if you have not made any unit entries for the student. This must be requested within two years of registration.
Are we going to have to make individual entries for NEA moderated units?
Yes, you need to make NEA unit entries for the series you would like the unit moderated in. These will show as the February series for Moderation Window 1 and the June series for Moderation Window 2. NEA unit entries can be made via your MIS or Interchange.
If students are sitting January exams and wish to resit the exam in the June series, as results are not released until March, is their leniency on late entry fees for June series for any resitters?
There is an extended entry deadline of 4 April for students resitting the same unit from the January series in the June series. This means you can wait until January results are issued for the student in March. You can then make the resit entry until the extended deadline of 4 April without late fees.
Can you register and make unit entries on the same day?
- If you are using A2C, you can send both files at the same time. Registrations are in the Annual/September series and unit entries in Jan/Feb/June series so these will be separate files.
- If you are using Interchange, you need to allow a short time for the registration entry to be processed by us before you can submit the unit entry - Interchange will tell you when attempting to make the unit entry if the registration entry has not yet been processed.
What are the entry deadlines for the Exam entries for January and June?
- January series: 21 October
- June Series: 21 February
- June series extended resit deadline for exam resit entries from January: 4 April
What are the entry deadlines for the NEA entries for February and June?
- Moderation Window 1 (February series): 21 November
- Moderation Window 2 (June Series): 21 February
- Moderation Window 2 extended resit deadline for NEA resit entries from Window 1 in Window 2: 15 May
What is the deadline for certification entries?
Certification entries should be made at the same time as your unit entries in the students final series. However there are no late fees if you do it after this and late certifications after results are also free.
Basedata and A2C
Is there separate basedata for the NEA units?
Yes, in addition to the Annual/September registration basedata (9A) there is:
- January series basedata (1A) for January exams
- February series basedata (2A) for Moderation Window 1
- June series basedata (6B) for Moderation Window 2 and June exams.
Can we withdraw registrations via EDI?
Yes, you are able to submit amendments and withdrawals via EDI/A2C for Cambridge Advanced Nationals.
With Cambridge Technicals, I did not make any entries via EDI for the internally assessed units; the subject teachers uploaded all information into Interchange. Will I now need to submit the moderated unit entries or will the process be the same?
You will need to make entries for the NEA units for the window they will be moderated in before teachers can submit marks (number of criteria achieved). Submission of marks can be done by either Teachers or Exams Officers once NEA unit entries have been made.
Do you expect a version 2 of the base data to fix errors we are getting trying to import it for registrations?
The version 1 registration basedata (9a25) on the Cambridge OCR website is correct but we've made an update to the qualification data that MIS suppliers use. This has been sent to all MIS suppliers and might take a little while to flow through to them all. This should be resolved shortly if it is not currently working for your supplier.
Can I submit unit entries via a different method to registration entries? I made registration entries via Interchange, can I submit unit entries via A2C?
Registration entries are in a different 'series' to unit entries and certification entries and can be made via a different method.
Is the registration the same as Cambridge Technicals but unit entry same as Cambridge Nationals?
Essentially yes!
- Registrations are made in the Annual/September series, like Cambridge Technicals
- Unit entries are made in the individual assessment series (January, February or June) like Cambridge Nationals.
The main difference for Cambridge Advanced Nationals registrations are they are by subject and not by specific qualification size like for Cambridge Technicals.
Claiming qualifications of different sizes
With Cambridge Advanced Nationals, can you 'top up' from the Certificate to the Extended Certificate - like with Cambridge Technicals?
You can claim different sizes for Cambridge Advanced Nationals but this works differently to Cambridge Technicals.
When you register a student, you register for the subject eg ‘Applied Science’ and not the size, ‘Applied Science Extended Certificate’ – instead you make a certification entry (sometimes known as 'cashing-in') when you want to claim each size of qualification. This means you don’t need top-up entry codes, just certificate or ‘cash-in’ when you want to claim each size.
We want to follow the same structure as Cambridge Technicals. Complete the Certificate size in Year 12 and get a result, then top up to Extended Certificate in Year 13 and get a result ('1+1'). Is this possible?
Yes, certification for the Certificate size qualification is available in the first year by making a certification entry at the end of Year 12. You can then make another certification entry for the Extended Certificate in Year 13. Certification entries are free of charge.
If I register students on the subject and certificate in June of Year 12, that will give us a result for the Certificate. How do I then carry that forward into the Extended Certificate if no top-up entry is needed?
You simply continue to make unit entries for the Extended Certificate units and then make an Extended Certificate certification ('cash-in') entry at the end to claim the Extended Certificate.
Can we make late certification requests for a student who completes Year 12 but then doesn't return to Year 13 or would we need to wait to the next available series?
Yes, you can make a late certification request for the June series from results day until the post-results deadline (usually mid-September). You do not have to wait until the following January series. If you miss the post-results deadline, you can make a certification entry only for the next available series.
Moderation
Where are the assignments for NEA published. How often do the NEA set assignments change?
The assignments are released 1 June each year on Teach Cambridge and are live for two years.
- The assignments released 1 June 2025 (Set A) are intended for the new cohort who started this September to use during 2025/26 and 2026/27
- The next set (Set B) will be released 1 June 2026 intended for the cohort starting September 2026 to use during 2026/27 and 2027/28.
Are NEA marks submitted in interchange?
NEA marks (total number of criteria achieved) are submitted via our new Moderation Service, accessed via My Cambridge. This will be available from 5 January 2026.
Will we need to upload samples of work if we choose a face to face visit?
Yes, the work for the six students in the sample must be uploaded for both virtual visits and face-to-face. This is so the same quality assurance process can apply.
Will June NEA Moderation results be released in time for UCAS applications?
Yes, June NEA unit results are confirmed on Level 3/A Level results day and qualification results sent to UCAS.
Results
Is there a minimum UMS needed to pass overall?
- All Extended Certificate (360 GLH) size qualifications require 120/300 UMS for a Pass.
- Certificate size (150-180 GLH) qualifications vary according to the subject and can be found in section 6.4: Grading and awarding grades in the specifications.
Are AAQ's included in the Vocational checkpoints?
Yes, they will be in year two of the course, the checkpoint details for the first year are still to be confirmed.
Will there be a Cambridge Advanced National tracker like the Cambridge Technicals Progress Tracker?
A progress tracker, similar to our Cambridge Technicals Progress Tracker will not be available initially but we looking at this for next year.
Is there a Near Pass grade - like Cambridge Technicals?
There is no Near Pass (R grade). With the hurdle approach used in qualifications like Cambridge Technicals, a near-pass was introduced as a safety net for students to achieve an overall qualification result when an examined unit was not passed.
Cambridge Advanced Nationals uses a different, full compensation approach. All marks contribute towards the overall qualification result, including when the unit grade is unclassified (u). For an overall qualification, students need enough marks (UMS) from across the units taken to reach the Pass boundary for the qualification.
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