Ofqual has ordered all examination boards to make changes to their assessments in time for next year’s exams.
The watchdog has also said that examination boards must address concerns about the “design and underlying principles behind their mark schemes”.
An investigation found that a large number of questions were not effective in differentiating between students of different abilities, especially the most able.
It also identified problems within some mark schemes, in that the principles for what constitutes a correct answer were often unclear.
Also, marks being awarded for speaking were “very high” according to Ofqual, and the relationship between students’ marks on different assessments was “generally weak”.
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