Programme policy

Appealing a result

Last updated 2026-08-12

When you can appeal

If you believe a result is wrong, you can raise an appeal from your profile for 30 days after the attempt was graded. After that the result is settled.

The window exists for a reason worth stating plainly: a credential that can be reopened at any time is not something an employer or a customer can rely on. If something exceptional happened outside that window, contact your administrator directly — the door is not bolted, it is just no longer self-service.

What to write

Say what you think went wrong and which part of the result you are disputing. You do not need to phrase it formally or guess at the mechanism. “Question 3 had two answers that both looked correct to me” is a better appeal than a theory about the marking engine.

Only you can appeal your own result, and only one appeal can be open against an attempt at a time.

What happens

A person reviews it. In doing so they can:

• Re-derive your result from the exam paper you actually sat and the answers you actually submitted, and see whether the recorded mark comes out again.
• See exactly what you were shown, in the order you were shown it, including the options offered on each question.
• Check whether the question itself is sound — every item is monitored for whether it behaves sensibly across everyone who has answered it, and an item that the strongest candidates get wrong is treated as suspect.

Your answers are re-graded against the paper as it was when you sat it. Exam papers are stored immutably and addressed by their contents, so a later edit to a question cannot change what you are judged against.

What can come of it

Three outcomes, and you will be given the reasoning for whichever one applies:

The mark was wrong. Re-grading does not reproduce the recorded result. The result is corrected.

The process failed you. The marking was right, but the sitting was not — an outage, a broken question, time lost to something outside your control. The attempt is voided so you can sit it again, and it does not count against you.

The mark stands. The evidence supports the original decision. You still get an explanation of what was checked and what it showed; a rejection you cannot understand is not a rejection you can accept.

You can withdraw an appeal at any time before it is decided. Withdrawing is not a decision against you and is not held against a later one.

What is recorded

Everything: that you raised it, what you wrote, who decided it, what they looked at, what they concluded, and when. Whoever decides is named in the record. The reviewer must record what evidence they actually consulted, so a resolution cannot claim consideration that did not happen.

What this does not cover

Appeals are about grading. If a credential has been revoked, that is a separate act with its own stated reason, and disputing it is a separate conversation — raise it with your administrator directly.