Fiducia TogetherExaminers' report
Also called Principal examiner's report, Chief examiner report
What the examiners said about last year's candidates. Free, specific, and almost nobody reads it.
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.
What it is
After each series, boards publish a report on how candidates performed question by question — what was done well, what was misunderstood, what lost marks.
Where it applies
Every subject and every board.
How it works
These reports are unusually blunt. They say things like "many candidates described rather than evaluated", or "few candidates referred to the second source at all", and those sentences recur year after year.
They are effectively a list of the mistakes most people will make in your exam.
How to use it in your work
Read the report for your subject for the last two years. It takes half an hour and it tells you where the easy marks are being dropped.
Turn each criticism into a checklist item for your own answers.
Where to get help
Your exam board's website, alongside the past papers.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.