Home Ed Exams

Where to Start with Exams for Home Educators

Welcome to your one-stop springboard for some key sources of information to help home educators who want to take exams. This page brings together the most useful resources, links, and guidance to help you navigate the exams process from outside of the school system. If you want to know about costs, options, when to book, or what on earth IGCSEs are anyway - one of these links will give you the answers!

Overall Exams Support and Information

Start here for comprehensive support and community resources. These platforms provide ongoing help, information and discussion forums, from other home educators who have been there and done that.

HE Exams Wiki

Comprehensive community-run knowledge base with detailed guides on all parts of the exam process. Particularly useful for subject specific advice and for community information about local exam centres.

Visit HE Exams Wiki

HE Exams Facebook Group

Active community for questions, support, and shared experiences

Join Facebook Group

HEQA YouTube channel

The Home Educators' Qualifications Association webinar series talks through all things exams for home educators

Visit HEQA YouTube

Learn What You Live exams guide

A free downloadable pdf guide and workbook that walks you through the exams process step by step

Get downloadable guide

Exam Board Specifications

Direct links to official exam board websites for specifications and past papers. These are the backbone of understanding exactly what your child needs to learn and how they'll be assessed.

AQA

GCSE

View AQA website

CAIE (Cambridge)

International GCSE

View CAIE website

Edexcel (Pearson)

GCSE & International GCSE

View Edexcel website

Cambridge OCR

GCSE

View OCR website

WJEC (Eduqas)

GCSE

View WJEC Eduqas website

WJEC (CBAC)

GCSE - Wales only

View WJEC (Wales) website

CCEA

GCSE - Northern Ireland only

View CCEA website

Finding Exam Centres

Finding a suitable examination centre can be one of the trickiest aspects for home educators. These links give a place to start to find approved centres in your area that accept private candidates. Be aware that neither of them are complete! One of the best places to go is to ask the locals - most areas will have a Facebook support group.

HE Exams Wiki: Finding an Exam Centre

Detailed community run guide on how to find and approach examination centres

Read Exams Wiki Guide

JCQ Centre List

Official list of approved examination centres across the UK (primarily for GCSEs although some centres list International GCSEs too)

Search JCQ Centre List

Access Arrangements

If your child needs special arrangements for their exams (such as extra time, a scribe, or alternative formats), these resources provide information on what is likely to be involved.

HE Exams Wiki: Introduction to Access Arrangements

Community information about access arrangements for home educators

Read Exams Wiki access arrangements page

JCQ Guidance for Access Arrangements

Official guidance from the Joint Council for Qualifications

View JCQ Guidance

CAIE Guidance for Access Arrangements

Specific guidance for Cambridge International examinations

View CAIE Guidance

Statistics and research

Some links for the stats and policy nerds out there.

Exam access outside the mainstream

Presentation of research on typical home educator exam approaches

Watch the presentation

Research and statistics substack

Home education research and policy substack (mostly), including a focus on exam access.

Read the substack

Ofqual statistics

All sorts of statistics about Ofqual regulated qualifications, including grade outcomes and subject combinations.

View Ofqual analytics

About this site

This site was created by Katie Finlayson, to provide a simple landing place to access information useful to home educators who are considering taking exams such as GCSEs.

This information and links were last updated in July 2025. Do check official sources such as exam board websites and JCQ regulations for the most up-to-date guidance and requirements.

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