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As part of our commitment to support candidates who have had their January SQE1 results re-issued, we are publishing on this page answers to some of the most commonly asked questions from candidates. Please contact us on SQE1Jan24@kaplan.co.uk if you need any support or have further questions.
Scaled scores are routinely used in high stakes professional assessments, for example, in medicine, accountancy and the New York State Bar. As is the case with these other high stakes professional assessments, not all SQE candidates take the same papers as each other. Multiple papers are used within assessment windows and different assessment windows use different sets of papers. Presenting results as scaled scores allows easy comparison of candidates’ results even when those candidates have taken different papers.
If two individuals with the same ability take different papers, their percentage scores might differ due to variations in the difficulty of the papers. Converting the percentage score to a scaled score allows scores to be directly compared to reflect the candidates’ relative performance against a consistent standard, despite any differences between the papers.
Candidates are given their results expressed as a scaled score figure out of 500. The pass mark is 300. Note: this does not mean that the pass mark for the paper is 60% (please see the worked example below).
The January SQE1 sitting was the first cohort to be assessed over week-long assessment windows for each of FLK1 and FLK2 – the two parts that make up SQE1. Multiple papers were used, and scaled scores were introduced to present the results.
The process of calculating a candidate’s outcome and scaled score involves three steps:
Step three is an additional step that is necessary following the introduction of scaled scores in January 2024. The process prior to January had only two steps.
The Marking and Standard Setting Policy sets out that a candidate’s percentage mark should be rounded to the nearest whole number [integer] before being compared to the pass mark, which has been similarly rounded, to determine whether the candidate has passed the exam.
The issue that has been identified is that with the addition of the third step in the process, we incorrectly moved the point at which the rounding occurred to happen at the end of the third step, rather than maintaining the position of rounding the percentage mark, calculated at step two.
Step 1 - pass mark set as 56.11111% - per the policy, this would be rounded to 56%
Step 2 - candidate achieved 55.55556% - per the policy this would be rounded to 56%
Step 3 - scaled score calculated from the output of steps 1 & 2.
What happened - 56.11111% was set to equal 300 on the scaled score. The candidate’s unrounded percentage mark of 55.55556% was then scaled to a score of 297.62, which was then rounded to 298, indicating that the candidate failed the exam.
What should have happened per the policy - the rounded pass mark of 56% should have been set to equal 300 on the scaled score. The candidate’s rounded percentage mark of 56% should then have been scaled to a score of 300, resulting in the candidate passing the exam.
Calculating the scaled scores for each practice area follows the same process as it does for the overall score, but is carried out separately for just the questions appearing in each area. Each practice area score is converted and placed on the same scale, with a range of between 0 and 500.
The scaled score for each practice area has been included to help candidates review their performance. It provides a measure of how well a candidate has performed in each of the areas of knowledge that are included in the assessment. Because each area is not equally represented in the assessment (i.e. not an equal number of questions per practice area), the average of all the practice area scores does not equal the overall scaled score.
The error related entirely to the calculation of the scaled scores. Some references have been made to this being a ‘marking error’, which could be interpreted as a problem with the marking of the exam and the computerised calculation of the number of correct answers. This is NOT the case. There have been no instances of any changes in the number of correct answers for any candidate.
You are able to request a breakdown of your marks. For SQE1, this request is answered by an output from the system which shows a list of 1s and 0s against question numbers (1 indicating a correct answer, 0 indicating an incorrect answer). We can assure you that thorough checks have been conducted of our systems but if you would like to request a marks breakdown, please contact us at SQE1Jan24@kaplan.co.uk.
The usual Appeals Policy applies following the decision of the Assessment Board to re-issue the results. As per that policy, if you have passed the assessment, you do not have a right to appeal (para 4.1). For those who have failed the assessment, the Appeals Policy sets out the procedure, the grounds for appeal and the deadline to submit an appeal if you decide to appeal the decision of the Assessment Board. In this instance, given the results were reissued on 15th April, the deadline to submit an appeal is 16:00 GMT on Monday 29th April.
There is further information to consider which may be relevant. Before deciding whether to submit an appeal, you should review the grounds for appeal (para 4.2 of the Appeals Policy). You should also note paragraph 6.4 of the Appeals Policy which confirms that appeals cannot result in a changed mark. Specifically, that the First Stage Appeal Panel cannot change a pass mark and cannot change a candidate's marks. Candidates whose appeals are successful will ordinarily be given the opportunity to retake the assessment and have their original attempt discounted.
Before reissuing the results to candidates, thorough checks were completed and the calculations were reviewed in detail. Furthermore, the SRA and Kaplan committed to completing a full review of this incident which will include the same investigation of the incident (see below) that would take place under the appeals process. Therefore, if the sole basis for a candidate’s appeal is the error that has occurred, which they feel may constitute a material irregularity under ground 4.2.2 in the Appeals Policy, they may wish to reconsider proceeding as the review will already be capturing this information.
Kaplan commissioned a review of the reissued marks to provide independent verification and reassurance to all candidates of the accuracy of the reissued marks. This independent review has now been completed and has concluded that the reissued results are accurate. This includes individual marks, quintiles and overall pass/fail outcomes.
A goodwill payment of £250 will be made to all of the 175 candidates who were incorrectly told they had failed the assessment when in fact they had passed.The £250 is NOT intended to cover a candidate’s losses, but any losses can only be understood on an individual basis, hence the need for those affected to contact Kaplan with details of their circumstances. You can reach us on the dedicated email address SQE1Jan24@kaplan.co.uk.
Kaplan is commissioning an independent review of the incident and its causes so we can learn from this and take steps to ensure this does not happen again.
Learn more: January SQE1 results issue
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