For new teachers who want to get fully setup and debriefed, follow the tabs above/below.
Step 1: Get students to sign up for UKLO
We wish to ease the process and provide assistance for teachers with new materials provided below:
Step 2: Assign a level for your students
This is our basic guideline (students can skip levels/ do levels above or below their recommended level)
| UKLO Level | Age | Year Group | Key Stage Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakthrough | 7 – 11 years old | Year 3 – 6 | KS2 |
| Foundation | 11 – 14 years old | Year 7 – 9 | KS3 |
| Intermediate | 14 – 16 years old | Year 10 – 11 | KS4 |
| Advanced | 16 – 18 years old | Year 12 – 13 | KS5 |
Step 3: Sign up on the UKLO Portal
Once you have a list of interested students with their levels assigned, you will need to tally up the total number of students as your predicted total to submit to the UKLO Portal.
Please sign up for your school and fill in all details in the forms by clicking the picture below. In case you get stuck, please have a look at our full instructions.
Step 4: UKLO Noticeboard and Messages
The most important pages for you on this website is this page (Teacher’s Room) and the noticeboard that details all times, dates and extra information for the UKLO Season this year. Please have a look at the Noticeboard
For the latest news from the UKLO Chair, check out the UKLO Messages
Step 5: Congratulations!
You are fully set up and ready to rumble! Proceed to Stage 2 for specific information of the exams you’ll be running (including deadlines and exam procedures).
Breakthrough/Foundation/Intermediate
Important Information:
| Exam Duration | 90-120mins |
| Exam Conditions | Only requires teacher supervision, and teachers are free to make arrangements at their discretion. Students may work in teams and the competition can be spread across a number of timetabled lessons. |
| Extra Time | Students can be granted extra time if they would qualify for extra time in school or public examinations. We rely on teachers using their discretion in this matter. |
| When to schedule the exam | Timing is up to you as you mark your own scripts. |
| Deadlines | You mark these competitions yourself, so there’s only one deadline, in mid March (see exam arrangements). This is when you should try to finish entering all your competitor details and marks so that we can include them in calculating the national award thresholds for each competition. |
On the Exam Day: Portal, Print
Electronic copies of the UKLO Exam Questions will be provided to you before the Exam Week on the UKLO Portal. The time they’ll be released is in exam arrangements. You will need to log in and download them, and then print them out.
Mark and Submit
Once you have finished marking, you need to submit the total number of points for each student via the Portal system.
Advanced
Important Information:
| Exam Duration | 2.5 hours |
| Exam Conditions | Strict public examination conditions. Students work individually |
| Extra Time | Students can be granted extra time if they would qualify for extra time in school or public examinations. We rely on teachers using their discretion in this matter. |
| When to schedule the exam | Within the Exam Week: Second week of February (see exam arrangements).If you’re entering competitors for the Advanced competition the exam must be within this week. |
| Deadlines | Deadlines (see exam arrangements): 1) Late January: You tell us via the portal roughly how many competitors you expect to enter this year so that we can assign a marker to you. 2) End of the exam week: By this time you should have entered the names and demographics of your competitors in the portal. You must upload your scripts by the end of the Friday evening (unless you have made alternative arrangements with the marking coordinator – marking@uklo.org). |
On the Exam Day: Portal, Print, Scan, and Submit
| Portal, Print | Electronic copies of the UKLO Exam Questions will be provided to you before the Exam Week on the UKLO Portal. The time they’ll be released is in exam arrangements. You will need to log in and download them, and then print them out. |
| Scan | Scan your candidates’ scripts. If you are entering multiple candidates, please bundle their scripts in a small number of pdf files as this makes them more convenient for the markers to handle. This pdf will include only the answer sheets and presented as follows [Student A’s Answers][Student B’s Answers][Student’s C….]; there is no need to scan the question paper. Students should write their names on every answer sheet they give in. Please check your pdf file in case you scanned any of your student’s papers upside down. If you are scanning double-sided sheets, please see the helpdesk for assistance in how to scan them. |
| Submit | The pdfs must be submitted for marking via the UKLO Portal. Each school is assigned a marker who will have your email address, so that they can communicate with you. |
Round 2
Important Information:
You will learn which of your competitors has got through to Round 2 on Results Day for the Advanced competition.
| Exam Duration | 3.5 hours |
| Exam Conditions | Strict public examination conditions. Students work individually |
| Extra Time | Students can be granted extra time if they would qualify for extra time in school or public examinations. We rely on teachers using their discretion in this matter. |
| When to schedule the exam | Competitors who win a Gold in the Advanced competition will be invited to take part in the Round 2 competition in March (see exam arrangements), which is also held in schools but marked by us. You will receive an email invitation to pass on to the successful pupils, and you will be asked to tell us whether they will be taking part in Round 2. Round 2 must be scheduled for a specific day chosen centrally by UKLO, and must be timed so as to include a fixed anchor point – usually 2.00. If this is not possible, competitors must be supervised to prevent use of phones between their exam time and the anchor time. |
| Deadlines | The end of the Round 2 exam day: Submit pdfs via the UKLO Portal |
On the Exam Day: Portal, Print, Scan, and Submit
| Portal, Print | Electronic copies of the UKLO Exam Questions will be provided to you at least a day before the exam day on the UKLO Portal. The time they’ll be released is in exam arrangements. You will need to log in and download them, and then print them out. |
| Scan | When you are scanning your student’s answer sheets, please check your pdf file in case you scanned any of your student’s papers upside down. If you are scanning double-sided sheets, please see the helpdesk for assistance in how to scan them. |
| Submit | The pdfs must be submitted for marking via the UKLO Portal. |
Breakthrough,Foundation and Intermediate
Certificates are issued on demand once you submit your points via the Portal system, including Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.
Advanced
You can download your Advanced results and your Advanced certificates, including Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, from the UKLO Portal on Results Day.
Round 2
The results for Round 2 are generally announced to teachers about a fortnight after the competition. Certificates of participation are issued by email to the teacher’s registered email address, and may also include a Distinction or Merit award.
Click here for more information on certificates
Thank you so much for competing in UKLO this year, and we hope to see you again next year for more interesting and fun linguistics puzzles!
Why are the total number of marks for each question different to the total number of marks in the marking rubric?
A UKLO question (for example) may say (20 marks) given on the question paper, but in the marking scheme it says 51 points for that same question. This is because UKLO distinguishes marks and points. Marks are the official scores calculated by the portal on which we base the results, and points are given by markers of the exam paper. Marks show the relative challenge, and therefore importance, of individual problems, rising from 5 for Problems 1 and 2 to 25 for Problems 9 and 10. Once markers submit their points into the UKLO Portal, they get turned into official marks by our algorithms.
Why is the final total not simply the sum of the marks for individual problems?
Because it presents the total marks as a percentage of the total available marks. For example, the total available marks for the Advanced competition is usually 15 + 20 + 20 + 25 + 25 = 105, so the total score for a competitor is the sum of the marks for all the problems x 100/105.
For any other questions, please visit our UKLO Helpdesk, as well as older documents explaining the entire process
What to do:
- Decide which level to enter your students into
- Register
- Arrange a time to sit the examination
- Print out UKLO exam questions
- Sitting the examination
- Scan the exam answers
- Submit them to the UKLO Portal
- Wait and Download Certificates and Results (Advanced and Round 2 Only)
1. Decide which level to enter your students into
As a basic guideline, we recommend assigning levels to students based on their year group (N.B. Age Range is there just as a rough guideline). There are no restrictions entering your students at a level higher or lower than their recommended guideline (e.g. students from KS3 could do Intermediate/Advanced if they show the ability to do so). To gauge the level, please see some of the presentations below showcasing some of our questions at each level, and past exams for the full list of questions.
| UKLO Level | Age | Year Group | Key Stage Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakthrough | 7 – 11 years old | Year 3 – 6 | KS2 |
| Foundation | 11 – 14 years old | Year 7 – 9 | KS3 |
| Intermediate | 14 – 16 years old | Year 10 – 11 | KS4 |
| Advanced | 16 – 18 years old | Year 12 – 13 | KS5 |
2. Register (Click Here)
First make sure that you yourself are already registered on the portal as the contact teacher for your school or college. The entire UKLO Season builds up to the end of January and ends around August ( finishing with IOL). The registration process varies with the level. Please note: Students cannot register for UKLO by themselves, as all information regarding the students needs to be keyed in by the teacher within the teacher’s UKLO Portal account.
| Advanced | Deadlines (see exam arrangements): 1) Late January: You tell us via the portal how many competitors you expect to enter this year so that we can assign a marker to you. 2) End of the exam week: By this time you should have entered the names and demographics of your competitors in the portal. |
| Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate | You mark these competitions yourself, so there’s only one deadline, in mid March (see exam arrangements). This is when you should try to finish entering all your competitor details and marks so that we can include them in calculating the national award thresholds for each competition. |
3. Arrange a time to sit the examination
| Advanced | Exam Week for Round 1 is the second week of February (see exam arrangements). If you’re entering competitors for the Advanced competition the exam must be within this week, and you must upload your scripts by the end of the Friday evening (unless you have made alternative arrangements with the marking coordinator – marking@uklo.org). |
| Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate | Timing is up to you as you mark your own scripts. |
Extra time: students can be granted extra time if they would qualify for extra time in school or public examinations. We rely on teachers using their discretion in this matter.
Competitors who win a Gold in the Advanced competition will be invited to take part in the Round 2 competition in March (see exam arrangements), which is also held in schools but marked by us. You will receive an email invitation to pass on to the successful pupils, and you will be asked to tell us whether they will be taking part in Round 2. Round 2 must be scheduled for a specific day chosen centrally by UKLO, and must be timed so as to include a fixed anchor point – usually 2.00.
| Round 1 (Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate) | 90 – 120mins |
| Round 1 (Advanced) | 2.5 hours |
| Round 2 | 3.5 hours (to be confirmed) |
4. Print out UKLO exam questions
| Round 2 | The exam paper will be made available on the UKLO Portal a couple of days before the test date given in exam arrangements. |
| Round 1: Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced | Electronic copies of the UKLO Exam Questions will be provided to you before the Exam Week on the UKLO Portal. The time they’ll be released is in exam arrangements. You will need to log in and download them, and then print them out. |
5. Sitting the Examination
| Advanced and Round 2 | Strict public examination conditions. Students work individually |
| Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate | Only requires teacher supervision, and teachers are free to make arrangements at their discretion. Students may work in teams and the competition can be spread across a number of timetabled lessons. |
For more details see the UKLO Charts below.
6. Scan the exam answers
| Advanced and Round 2 | If you are entering multiple candidates, please bundle their scripts in a small number of pdf files as this makes them more convenient for the markers to handle. This pdf will include only the answer sheets and presented as follows [Student A’s Answers][Student B’s Answers][Student’s C….]; there is no need to scan the question paper. Students should write their names on every answer sheet they give in. Please check your pdf file in case you scanned any of your student’s papers upside down. If you are scanning double-sided sheets, please see the helpdesk for assistance in how to scan them. |
| Breakthrough, Foundation, and Intermediate | These are marked by teachers and require no scanning |
7. Submit them to the UKLO Portal
| Advanced and Round 2 | The pdfs must be submitted for marking via the UKLO Portal. Each school is assigned a marker who will have your email address, so that they can communicate with you. |
| Breakthrough, Foundation, and Intermediate | You need to submit your marks via the Portal system so that it can issue certificates for your competitors. |
8. Wait and Download Certificates and Results (Advanced and Round 2 Only)
Results day for the Advanced competition in Round 1 is found in exam arrangements. This is when you can download your Advanced results and your Advanced certificates, including Gold, Silver and Bronze awards; so this is also when you learn which of your competitors has got through to Round 2. The results for Round 2 are generally announced to teachers about a fortnight after the competition.
If you have any other questions, please have a look at our FAQs, as well as older documents explaining the entire process