Question: who is marking your GCSE? Answer: an AI examiner

Traditional exams may soon become a thing of the past as bots help assess pupils' achievement in education revolution

- Rachel Sylvester Political Editor

As pupils prepare to get their A-level and GCSE results this month, an education revolution is under way that could make the traditional exam - sat by pupils together in a hall on a single day - a thing of the past.

Teenagers would instead take personalised papers, working through levels in their own time, under proposals for “adaptive assessment” made possible by artificial intelligence.

Mary Curnock Cook, chair of Pearson, which owns the Edexcel exam board, said: “You could potentially get rid of the idea that everybody does their maths GCSE on 23 May at nine o'clock in the morning, which I think is daft. Why do we expect all children born at any time within a 12-month window to be ready for their exam on that precise day? You should be able to let people take their assessment when they're ready for it.”

Exam boards are already trialling AI examiners, using machines to "double mark" papers alongside a human assessor. Some tests are delivered digitally.

"The real prize is to have adaptive testing, which would completely change the face of how we assess and how students engage," said Curnock Cook, former chief executive of Ucas, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. "If you get a question wrong, the next question it serves up will be easier. The nirvana is a massive national test bank of assessment questions that you take when you're ready at any time.

"Some subjects, such as languages and maths, could be done like piano exams. You do grade 1 when you're ready for grade 1, and grade 2 when you're ready for grade 2. You build up competence and knowledge, and work through the levels. Teaching would be by stage, not age." Any reform would need to be introduced carefully, she stresses, but the concept is gaining support. Charles.

Clarke, the former Labour education secretary, believes a more flexible system would better capture the different abilities of every child.