Smart IA Support June 2025

Modified on Mon, 30 Jun at 10:32 AM

What has happened?

Between 6th June and 19th June, due a technical issue, answers to exact-answer questions containing capital letters and blank spaces were erroneously marked incorrect. This will have negatively impacted some learners’ scores and IA outcomes.

Who is affected?

Not all users will have been impacted, depending on their answers, questions presented, and the pathway their adaptive IA took. Your organisation will have received a sheet detailing which students have been impacted and whether we recommend they resit their IA.

How has CENTURY re-calculated scores?

Due to the adaptive nature of the test, a straightforward re-mark is not always possible. Our curriculum team analysed in the detail the answers of 30 users, and using their professional judgement assessed what they considered a fair result would be. We used these findings to estimate scores more widely.

1-2 questions marked erroneously; no score adjustment required
3 questions marked erroneously; an adjustment of one sub-level e.g. E3 high would become L1 low
4 questions marked erroneously; an adjustment of one sub-level e.g. E3 high would become L1 mid
Where 5 or more questions were marked erroneously it was not possible to estimate the score due to the impact on the adaptivity of the test and a resit is recommended.

Should users resit their IAs?

We know many users find IAs in English and maths challenging or onerous. We only recommend resitting where it would have the scope for a positive change to their placement in English and maths.

If, however, their resitting would not result in the organisation changing their level (for example, if they have for other reasons already been placed in L2) there may not be benefit to learners in resitting

How do we reset IAs?

We want to minimise the administrative burden to your teams. In your sheet of resitters, there is a check box for whether you wish them to resit. If you can provide this to our team we can do this for you.

Alternatively, you can reset the Smart IAs manually yourself in the platform in the usual way, please see here.