You’ll have 3 months to complete all exams, however, learners are usually able to complete the examinations much sooner. We recommend booking the exams as soon as possible, in case retake exams are needed to be booked.

Step-by-step guide to your Functional Skills course:

• Upload some valid UK photo ID
• Complete the Maths and English Initial Assessments
• Pass the practice tests
• Read through the exam procedures / pre-booking tasks
• Book your exams in once all enrolment is complete!

If you have not sat or passed all of your exams within the 3-month exam duration, you will have to pay for the exam again. You will however not need to resit any passed exams if you passed during the 3-month duration. For example, if you pass your writing exam within the 3-months but fail your reading exam and you need to book another reading exam after 3 months, you will need to repurchase the exam only product again, but you won’t have to resit the writing exam.

Writing: 33 out of 54 marks (61.1%)

Reading: 20 out of 30 marks (66.6%)

Speaking & Listening: Pass/Fail

Yes, this exam and certificate is Ofqual regulated and accepted by universities and employers as a GCSE Equivalent.

There are 3-exams that you need to complete for English, including a Reading Exam, Writing Exam, and a Speaking & Listening Assessment. The Reading and Writing exams are completed back to back, and the Speaking & Listening assessments are run every other Wednesday via Zoom. 

If you want your Writing and Reading exams to be paper-based exam, you will need to opt to sit your exams in our London test centre.

Online Examination

Reading: 1 Hour Examination

Writing: 1 Hour Examination

Speaking & Listening: 90 minutes Assessment

Exam slots are available Monday - Saturday every week. We require two working days for exam bookings.

These slots are subject to availability.

If you cannot attend your exam or miss your exam with less than 3-working days notice, you will need to pay the retake fee if you wish to reschedule your exam.

If you are able to provide 3-working days notice, we can reschedule your exam with no fees. You must receive confirmation from us (via email) to confirm that your exam has been rescheduled. If you have not received an email with a changed exam date, your exam has not been rescheduled. Please ensure you receive this email.

If in the unfortunate event you are not successful with your examination, please see below:

• Speaking and Listening Retake = £80.00

• Reading Retake (Remotely invigilated) = £75.00

• Writing Retake (Remotely invigilated) = £75.00

• Reading and Writing Retake Combined (Remotely invigilated) = £140.00

You can retake as many times as you like. 

You can request for your examination to be re-marked; however, this is subject to a £80.00 remarking fee.

When you have finished your enrolment and passed your practice tests, you’re ready for your exams! Simply choose a date using our online booking calendar available on your course dashboard which will be made available when your progress bar is all green.

You can get extra time providing you email the evidence to [email protected]. The subject line should read: ‘Extra time needed in the exam’. An example of evidence would be a Doctor’s letter stating the reason for the extra time needed in the exam. The extra times available are 25% or 50%, however, 50% of extra time is only offered in exceptional circumstances.

Results can take anything up to 32 working days to be generated, but we usually see them within a couple of weeks.

Your certificate is automatically generated and will be sent to you by email once your results are in - usually within 7 -10  working days.

This certificate lasts a lifetime!

Approximately 15 minutes after purchase, you will receive your login details by email, including a link and instructions to log into your course. You can also find your learning portal by clicking on the ‘student login’ button on our website, or by clicking here; lms.thelearningstation.co.uk

No matter what course you’re doing, you must complete both tests and the full enrolment as it is part of the UK government requirement needed for our enrolment procedure and compliance. They are important because they tell us what level you’re currently working at.