While at the 2025 NAFSA Annual Conference, I attended a seminar titled “International Credential Evaluation: Secondary-Level Credentials.” [1] This four-hour presentation was a thorough rundown of secondary school qualifications which placed particular focus <a name="_Int_0GhtcJWA">on the topic of external</a> examinations. These are final tests administered by a national or regional education board, in contrast to school-run tests as are common in the Americas. Some further <a name="_Int_IITjI3o8">context</a> regarding these credentials, their salient features, and how to work with them follows below.

The purpose of external examinations

Externally administered examinations are commonly used in countries and regions where there was a history of colonial rule (such as by the British and French), and in places where there may not be any other mechanisms or infrastructure in place to assure quality control at the institutional (school-by-school) level. In these cases, such exams serve to provide a framework for standardization of curriculum and quality control, direct students to either academic or vocational streams, and provide clear benchmarks to meet for university admission.

Drawbacks of external approach

The “quality control” aspect of these exams regularly comes under scrutiny, as extreme failure rates are commonplace with some long-established exam boards. [2] This has led many private schools to bypass their local boards and instead offer more prestigious exams from international partners. [3] By <a name="_Int_2uMRwcqA">their nature</a>, the structure of these exams can lead to inflexible and rigid curricula that may not reflect the diversity of career fields in today’s landscape. In the classic model of these exams, the day-of-exam result is the only metric under consideration, and months' worth of schoolwork is not factored into the assessment.

Tip: School-issued transcripts of internal results (provided to you alongside board exams) can serve a valuable function in providing an alternate set of grades from which to base your assessment.

Recent developments in external exams

The subject selection of some of the more prominent boards (Central Board of Secondary Education, West African Examinations Council etc.) have been updated over the decades with more diversified offerings to address criticisms of inflexibility. Some now experiment with a hybridized scoring approach that factors in pre-exam assessments to better integrate internal schoolwork. Examination weighing (aka the value of the individual subject relative to the total score) for most boards has been refined judiciously to prevent the situation where one failed subject <a name="_Int_zqBRckmx">tanks</a> a student’s entire result.

Verifying and evaluating these credentials

Most of the state and country-wide exam boards now have public databases where you can verify results – most exams offered in the last 10 years should be <a name="_Int_hFCsXU1d">verifiable</a> in this manner. Otherwise, you can submit individual requests for authentication once you’ve determined the board’s policies on older verifications. These policies and processes are often not clearly stated on the boards’ public websites. In that case, you can have Veri Once perform these verifications as we have extensive experience with these credentials and know how to proceed.

To evaluate these results, you have to research the content, weights, and grading scales for each exam and board. How do these subject weights compare to U.S. Carnegie Units? Do the subjects meet college preparatory requirements for U.S. admission?

Tip: Some boards offer public guidelines on how their exams can be evaluated in comparison to U.S. high school standards. Search the web or request physical publications from the boards with this information to help formulate your equivalencies.

In most regions that run external exams, they are often administered at a lower secondary and higher secondary level, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the framework in place before evaluating. If the student is still enrolled and has not yet sat the exam, you would have to judiciously factor internal transcript results with the earlier lower secondary board results to get an accurate evaluation and GPA of their in-progress schoolwork. Veri Once has an experienced team of veteran evaluators who can properly assess and equivalate high school examinations in any configuration.

[1] “NAFSA 2025 Workshops.” NAFSA, 7 Jun. 2025. <a href="https://www.nafsa.org/nafsa-2025-annual-conference-expo/nafsa-2025-workshops" style="color:#467886; text-decoration:underline">https://www.nafsa.org/nafsa-2025-annual-conference-expo/nafsa-2025-workshops</a>

[2] Anand, Nisha. “6.5 million failed 10, 12 board exams 2023; UP, MP boards worst performers.” Business Standard, 22 Aug. 2024. <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/6-5-million-failed-10-12-board-exams-2023-up-mp-boards-worst-performers-124082100904_1.html" style="color:#467886; text-decoration:underline">https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/6-5-million-failed-10-12-board-exams-2023-up-mp-boards-worst-performers-124082100904_1.html</a>

[3] “International curriculum.” Cambridge International, 7 Jun. 2025. <a href="https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/why-choose-us/benefits-of-a-cambridge-education/international-curriculum/" style="color:#467886; text-decoration:underline">https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/why-choose-us/benefits-of-a-cambridge-education/international-curriculum/</a>

Juan Garibaldi has 17 years of experience as a credential evaluator and works as Director of Credential Evaluations at Veri Once.