Cambridge Assessment exam papers shipping

Cambridge Assessment exam papers shipping

Summary

The 2018 summer session is underway and we are thinking about the millions of students taking our exams this year. Cambridge Assessment aims to impact positively on people’s lives around the world, helping learners demonstrate and fulfil their potential, opening up opportunities for employment and further education. Our globally recognised qualifications are not just taken by students in the UK, so we thought now is a good time to look at our reach worldwide. In this Data Byte, we explore how many paper exams we ship across countries.

What does the chart show?

The figure shows the number of exam papers despatched in 2017 from our print and operations facility in Cambridge, UK for each shipping destination. Jurisdictions were identified by ISO 3166-1 country codes and classified using the United Nations area codes methodology. Exam papers from all qualifications and from all our boards were combined. Exams taken online account for a large part of Cambridge Assessment’s portfolio and are not considered here.

This is an interactive map. You can zoom in and out and pan around the map. Hover in the top right corner and several options will appear. Click “Reset” to return to the initial view of the world. The exact number of papers shipped for each jurisdiction can be found by hovering on the jurisdiction. You can also hide or unhide traces by clicking on them in the legend.

test_world

Why is the chart interesting?

In 2017, Cambridge Assessment delivered paper-based assessments to over 170 jurisdictions. The United Kingdom was the country with the largest number of exams taken with 4.2 million papers shipped, followed closely by India (3.7 million) and China (3.4 million). Spain, Singapore, Pakistan and Italy all received over one million exam papers. Other jurisdictions received around 90,000 exam papers on average.

Cambridge Assessment provides paper-based exams in every single Eastern European country; around 90% of jurisdictions in South-eastern, Southern, Western and Eastern Asia, Western and Southern Europe; and more than 60% in Central Asia, Americas, Africa and Northern Europe. We also work in Australia and New Zealand but less often with smaller islands in the Oceania territory. Our exams reach some of the most remote locations in the world, including St Helena and Tristan da Cunha Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as Tonga Islands in Polynesia. You can be a 'Cambridge' student no matter where in the world you live.

Further information

More on Cambridge Assessment’s impact on the global education community, as well as where we’re headed to next, can be found here.

Research Matters 32 promo image

Research Matters

Research Matters is our free biannual publication which allows us to share our assessment research, in a range of fields, with the wider assessment community.