Setting up your exam candidates ready for entries

Once you have checked your centre setup and added the exams you'll be offering to your Qualification Offering (you can see how to do this here), the next step is to make sure you have your candidates set up.

Permissions

You'll need the Qualifications: Administer All Students permission to set up candidates. If you don't have permissions, ask your administration team to give you permission using these instructions. 

 

Adding candidates

Adding internal candidates

Candidates are added via Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates.

Click +Add to add students as exam candidates in a variety of ways (by name/year group/course).

 

You can go through and assign UCIs and Candidate numbers to each candidate, if needed, by clicking the empty field.

You can also tick the boxes next to the candidates, then click the Bulk action button to display a list of potential actions.

 

There is a warning banner on this page

Please see our guidance on what to do here: Warning banner on the candidates page

 

Adding external candidates

To make entries for external or transferred candidates on Arbor, you must first create a basic student profile for them on Arbor. They should not be enrolled at your school or have a future enrolment, otherwise they will become an Internal Candidate.

Once you have created the external candidate profile, you can add them as external candidates from the External / Previous Candidates page by clicking +Add.

 

Follow the same process as for internal candidates to assign UCIs and candidate numbers.

 

What are transferred candidates?

These are students who need to sit an exam at a different school to the one that entered them – because they've moved house, been in the hospital, or other exceptional circumstances. For more guidance from AQA, click here.

There can be two types of Transferred candidates, Internal or External:

• Transferred Internal candidates: these are normally Dual Subsidiary students, who are entered into exams by your centre but must sit their exams at another centre. Results included for subject analysis purposes. These students will be shown on the Internal Candidates page.
• Transferred External candidates: candidates that a centre accepts for exam sitting purposes, but whose entries are made by another centre. No results are received so no analysis is possible. These students will be shown on the External/Previous Candidates page and can also be added here.

 

Printing candidate labels

Candidate labels can also be printed from the Candidates pages once candidates have been added. Just tick the boxes next to the candidate names and click the Bulk action button to select Print Candidate Labels. You can then choose what data to include on the label.

  

Candidate UCIs

If the students do not already have a UCI, you can add them from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates. Just click on the UCI field to update the information in the slide over.

You can see more details (including what to do if there's a warning banner) here: Adding and editing exam candidate Unique Candidate Identifiers (UCIs)

 

Candidate numbers (UCN)

Assigning a candidate number

You can add candidate numbers from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates. Just click on the field to update the information in the slide over.

 

You can also tick the students to automatically generate candidate numbers for, then click the Bulk action button and select Assign Candidate Numbers.

Top Tip: Group all your candidates missing a number by clicking the column header.

 

You can then add a number to start assigning from.

 

You can click the field to edit it to a new value.

 

Top Tip: You won't be able to add a Candidate number if another student already has this Candidate Number within the academic year selected and has entries in the academic year selected.

Here you can see what will happen when trying to add a duplicate Candidate Number to an individual.

 

Here you can see what will happen when trying to add a duplicate Candidate Number using the Bulk Action button.

 

Removing candidate numbers

You can add candidate numbers from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates. Just click on the field and delete the number, then click Save Changes.

 

Please note you won't be able to delete the number if there is a UCI. Click into the UCI to delete that, then return to delete the candidate number.

 

You can also remove candidate numbers in bulk, such as for students who took exams in previous academic years where you want to reuse their candidate numbers.

Select the students, and use the Bulk action button to select Unassign Candidate Numbers.

 

In the slide over, you can see whether the numbers can be unassigned or not.

Please note that although this slide over refers to the selected academic year, students can only have their candidate numbers removed if they don't have entries in the current academic year.

 

The in-house candidate number is different

When candidate numbers:

• If the student does not have an in-house exam candidate number, and is given a candidate number, this will become the students candidate number for standard and in-house exams.
• If the student has an in-house exam candidate number, and is given a candidate number, the two numbers will be different.

If you want them to match, go to Students > In-House Exams > Candidates. Use the bulk actions to remove candidates, then re-add the students and manually add the in-house candidate numbers to match the existing ones for standard exams.

Please note this must be done before the student is entered into exams.