How to Build a Strong Portfolio of Evidence After UAE Exam Cancellation 2026

What Alternative Assessment Actually Means in Practice

When an exam board cancels written exams and moves to alternative assessment, they’re doing something specific. They’re asking schools to construct a grade for each student based on the evidence of that student’s performance accumulated over the year. The final written exam, which in normal circumstances would be the primary evidence, simply isn’t available. So everything else becomes the record.

This happened in the UK in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. The process wasn’t perfect, and it generated plenty of debate. But what became clear was that students who had strong internal records, consistent class performance, well-marked coursework, solid mock results, had outcomes that reflected their actual ability reasonably well. Students who had been coasting and planning to pull things together in the exam room found themselves without that option.

The UAE situation in 2026 is different in its cause but similar in its structure. IB students have moved to the Non-Examination Completion Model. OxfordAQA has confirmed its IGCSE and A-Level exams won’t run. Other boards are yet to formally announce, but schools are already preparing. Whatever form the alternative assessment takes for your specific board, the underlying logic is the same: your grade will come from evidence that already exists, plus whatever is collected between now and when schools submit.

What Counts as Evidence — and What Probably Doesn’t

Not everything you’ve done this year carries the same weight. Understanding the difference saves a lot of anxiety about the wrong things.

What generally counts

Formally marked coursework that was submitted and returned with a grade. This is probably your strongest evidence because it’s been assessed against the mark scheme and the mark is already on record. If you have coursework components, these are the first things to locate and account for.

Mock exam results. If your school ran a formal mock in January or March, that result is significant. It was sat under exam conditions, it was marked against the actual paper’s mark scheme, and it reflects performance on full-length exam material. Most boards weight this heavily.

In-class tests and unit assessments that were formally marked and recorded. Regular chapter tests, end-of-unit assessments, and any internally set tests where marks were given and documented by the school. These build the picture of consistency over time.

Marked assignments and essays with written feedback. Particularly for humanities, English, Economics and Business Studies, written work that’s been marked and returned with comments is strong evidence of a student’s ability to produce examination-standard responses.

Teacher observation notes and records from classroom participation. Less formal but still part of a teacher’s holistic picture when arriving at a predicted grade. You can’t manufacture this retrospectively, but it’s worth knowing it factors in.

What probably doesn’t count

Homework that was completed but never formally marked or graded. The effort was real, but there’s no verified mark attached to it, which means there’s nothing the board can audit.

Self-assessed work or peer-marked work that was never verified by a teacher. Same issue.

Revision you’ve done since the cancellation was announced. This matters for your own understanding and possibly for future assessments, but it doesn’t change the existing evidence record for this cycle. The record is what it is up to the point the board closes submissions.

How to Collect and Organise What You Already Have

This part is practical and immediate. The goal is to have a clear picture of your evidence record for every subject before your teachers finalise their assessments. You can’t change what’s already been done, but you can make sure nothing gets overlooked.

Go through every subject, one by one. For each subject, list every piece of formally assessed work you can identify: coursework components, class tests, mock results, marked essays, graded assignments. Write down the mark or grade for each piece where you know it, and flag the ones where you’re not sure of the mark.

Then compare that list against what your school actually has on record. Schools maintain assessment records, but gaps happen. A test that was marked in class but never uploaded to the school system. A piece of coursework returned as physical paper that the teacher hasn’t formally logged. These aren’t common but they happen, and they’re worth checking.

Keep physical and digital copies of everything you can access. Scan marked papers if you have them. If you have feedback documents, save them. If coursework was submitted online and you have access to the marked version, download it. You probably won’t need these, but having them means you can raise specific evidence in a conversation if needed.

Organise it by subject, then by type: coursework first, then mocks, then unit assessments, then regular marked work. Add the date and the topic or unit to each item. A simple spreadsheet or even a notebook page per subject is enough structure. The point is that you can look at any subject and quickly see what the evidence picture looks like.

Why Your Mock Results Matter More Than You Thought

If you sat a mock exam earlier this year and weren’t happy with the result, this part might be uncomfortable. But it’s worth reading clearly rather than avoiding it.

Mock results are typically the single strongest piece of evidence in an alternative assessment. They’re the closest thing to a real exam that exists in your record. They were sat under exam conditions. They were marked against an actual mark scheme. They give the board a direct comparison point against what the external paper would have tested.

This means two things depending on where you are.

If your mock went well, it’s your most powerful piece of evidence. Make sure the result is on record, that you know the mark, and that your teacher is aware of the result when they’re putting together their assessment of your performance.

If your mock didn’t go well, the picture is more complicated. A poor mock result doesn’t necessarily mean a poor final grade, because teachers have the discretion to consider the full evidence picture and account for factors like illness, disruption, or a clear upward trend in other assessments. But a poor mock result without compensating evidence elsewhere is genuinely a problem under alternative assessment in a way it wouldn’t be if a final exam were still available. The final exam was always the safety net. That option doesn’t exist now.

If you’re in that position, the right move is to have a direct conversation with your subject teachers, not to ask them to ignore the mock, but to understand what other evidence they’re drawing on and whether there’s anything outstanding that could be completed and formally assessed. Some schools have run additional assessments specifically for this situation. Ask whether yours is doing so.

Coursework, Assignments and Class Tests

For subjects with a coursework component, that work is probably your most secure evidence. It’s been assessed, marked, and is on record. The grade is effectively already decided. What matters now is that nothing about it gets lost in the submission process from school to board.

Ask your teacher to confirm that your coursework mark has been formally recorded and will be included in the school’s submission. This sounds obvious, but the administrative side of alternative assessment is more complex than usual and things can fall through. A brief, professional email or conversation asking “can you confirm my coursework mark is included in the evidence submission?” is entirely reasonable.

For marked assignments and class tests, the same principle applies. If a test result was logged by your teacher, it’s in the system. If it was marked and handed back but not logged, it might effectively not exist from the school’s record-keeping perspective. Ask your teachers to check their records match what you remember receiving marks for.

Subject-specific considerations are worth thinking about too. For English Literature and Language, marked essays throughout the year are strong evidence of writing ability and analytical skill. For Maths, a series of consistently marked chapter tests that show accurate working is valuable. For Sciences, any internally assessed practical components that were formally graded are significant. For Economics and Business Studies, marked case-study answers and essay-style assignments demonstrate the exact skill the exam would have tested.

Understanding Predicted Grades and Having the Right Conversation

Predicted grades are not guesses. Teachers are required to base them on evidence and to be able to justify them if challenged by the board. But teachers are human, working under unusual pressure, managing large numbers of students across multiple subjects. It’s possible that a predicted grade doesn’t fully reflect everything that’s on record.

The right way to approach this is not to go to your teacher and say “I think I deserve a higher grade.” That conversation rarely goes well and puts both of you in an awkward position. The right approach is to ask how the predicted grade was arrived at. Which pieces of work are being considered? What’s the evidence base? Is there anything in the record that’s missing or that they’d like you to clarify?

That kind of conversation is productive. It treats the teacher as a professional doing a difficult job, and it gives you specific information about what’s informing the grade. If a strong piece of your work was overlooked or if there’s a discrepancy between what you remember being marked and what they have on record, this conversation is how that comes to light.

For subjects where you feel there’s a significant gap between your predicted grade and your actual ability, be specific about what evidence exists. Don’t appeal to general effort or how hard you’ve worked. Point to specific marked work with specific results. “My January mock was 78% and my unit tests in November and December averaged 74% — is that reflected in the prediction?” is a useful question. “I’ve been working really hard” is not.

Mistakes Students Make Right Now That Hurt Them Later

A few specific things are worth naming directly because they’re tempting and they cause problems.

Producing polished new work and presenting it as existing evidence is not a grey area. It’s academic dishonesty. Boards audit submissions, teachers have records, and the consequences of being found to have submitted fabricated evidence are significantly worse than having a lower grade on record. Don’t do this.

Assuming the school has everything handled and doing nothing. Schools are managing an enormous administrative process under unusual conditions. Oversight happens. Students who proactively check their own record and flag anything missing are much better protected than students who assume everything is fine.

Stopping all academic work because exams are cancelled. This one is understandable. The motivation to study when there’s no exam to study for is hard to maintain. But university conditional offers still exist. Some boards may run assessments in other formats or at later dates. And the knowledge you’re building now carries into whatever comes next, whether that’s A-Level, university, or further study. Stopping entirely is almost always a decision students regret.

Having emotional conversations with teachers about grades rather than evidence-based ones. If you’re frustrated, that’s completely fair. The situation is genuinely difficult and it’s reasonable to feel that the process is unfair. But those feelings are better directed elsewhere than at the conversation about your predicted grade. Keep that conversation factual, specific, and professional. It will be more effective.

Waiting until the school announces its submission deadlines before doing anything. By then, the window to add evidence or correct records may have closed. The time to act is now, not when the process is finalised.

Why You Should Keep Studying Even Though Exams Are Cancelled

This isn’t about being a high achiever for the sake of it. It’s practical.

Some boards are still to announce their plans. If you’re a Cambridge, Edexcel, or AQA student and no cancellation has been confirmed for your specific qualifications, exams may still happen in some form, at a different date or through an adjusted format. Students who stopped preparing in April and then received a revised exam schedule in May found themselves in a difficult position during the 2020 situation. Don’t put yourself there.

University conditional offers. If you have a conditional offer based on your grade predictions, that offer exists regardless of how the grades are awarded. Universities don’t withdraw conditions because exams were cancelled. They still expect you to meet the grade requirement, achieved through whatever legitimate process the board uses. The grade target hasn’t changed.

The knowledge compounds. A-Level students who stop engaging with their subject material now will arrive at university with a gap in their understanding that shows up in the first term. The subjects don’t stop mattering because the exam did. A student who keeps working through Chemistry or Economics now will be noticeably better prepared in September than one who spent the same time doing nothing.

Additional assessments are possible. Some schools, working with their boards, may run additional formal assessments to generate new evidence for students who need it. If those sessions happen, you want to be in a position to do well in them.

Questions Students Are Asking Most

What to Actually Do Today

Take one subject. Go through everything that was formally assessed this year. Write it down with the marks where you know them. Then ask yourself whether your teacher’s record matches your memory of what was marked and returned.

Do that for every subject. It takes a few hours. It’s probably the most useful thing you can do this week.

Then, if there are gaps or discrepancies, contact your teachers. Keep it factual. Give them specifics. Let them close the loop or explain the difference.

After that, keep working. Not because there’s an exam to prepare for, but because the grade that comes from this process reflects the student you were all year, and there may still be opportunities to demonstrate the student you are right now.

The situation is genuinely disruptive and the frustration about it is fair. But the students who come out of it in the strongest position are the ones who respond to it practically rather than waiting for it to resolve on its own.

Key Takeaways

• Alternative assessment uses the evidence record built over the whole year — coursework, mocks, class tests and marked assignments — not a single end-point exam
• Your first action should be mapping every piece of formally assessed work across every subject and checking it matches your school’s records
• Mock results carry the most weight of any single piece of evidence because they’re the closest proxy for the written exam that no longer exists
• Conversations with teachers about predicted grades should focus on specific evidence, not general effort or appeals for higher marks
• Keep studying — university conditional offers still stand, additional assessments may happen, and some board decisions haven’t been made yet