2026 PE and Sport exam infographics now available

Jan 14, 2026 4:44:59 PM

Making the invisible exam architecture visible

Dear PE colleagues,

We are now firmly into the second week of January 2026. Many of you will already have had those first lessons back with your exam groups. Some of you will have been straight into content. Others will have been checking holiday homework. Some will have dived into revision already.

Wherever you are, I want to make a simple but important point:

Your students cannot revise effectively for an exam they cannot see.

They need to see the shape of the paper, the skills it demands and the history of how content has been examined. And you and I need an easy way to show them that, to plan from it and to talk about it.

That is exactly what our 2026 PE and Sport infographics are for. They are now live for every relevant qualification on TheEverLearner.com.

What are the 2026 infographics?

For 2026, my team and I have built a full set of qualification-specific exam infographics for:

✅ GCSE PE – AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC/Eduqas (Paper 1 and Paper 2 as appropriate)

✅ IGCSE PE – CIE Paper 1

✅ A-level PE – AQA, Edexcel, OCR (all relevant papers)

✅ AS PE – CIE Paper 1

✅ Cambridge Nationals – Sport Science R180 and Sport Studies R184

✅ BTEC – Tech Award Sport Component 3; Level 3 Sport Unit 1; Sport and Exercise Science Unit 2

✅ Cambridge Technicals – Level 3 Sport Unit 1

✅ NCFE - L1&2 Technical Award in Health and Fitness

✅ IBDP – Sport, Exercise and Health Science (SEHS) – Paper 1a, Paper 1b, Paper 2

For subscribers, the infographics are available via the Revision 2026 Hub when you are logged in. They are included in all of our subscription tiers – Bronze, Silver and Gold.

For non-customers, we have released simplified versions that you can download freely.

These versions show exam structure and skills but do not include the Hot Topics analysis. They are our freemium offer to the sector, and I would love you to use them.

What's on an infographic?

Let's take AQA GCSE PE Paper 1 as an example.

On a single page, your students (and you) can see:
✅ The overall paper structure – sections, total marks, exam duration
✅ A clear view of marks per section and marks per minute
✅ The command word profile of the paper – the real mix of ‘Identify’, ‘Describe’, ‘Explain’, ‘Analyse’, ‘Evaluate’, ‘Justify’ and ‘Discuss’
✅ The AO1 / AO2 / AO3 breakdown across the paper
✅ A visual history of where the marks have been placed by topic in previous series – our Hot Topics layer for subscribers

In other words, it is not just a "poster". It is a forensic summary of how the exam has actually behaved and what it is asking of students.

Now, contrast that with our IB SEHS infographic.

This is a new qualification in terms of exam history. We don't yet have years and years of data. So, for SEHS, the emphasis is different:
✅ Clear outline of Paper 1a, Paper 1b and Paper 2
✅ Emphasis on question types and structures, rather than mark-history heat maps
✅ A strong focus on skills and command words, because that is where we can already see patterns, even with new specifications

Same principle. Different context. The infographic still makes the exam architecture visible and discussable.

Why infographics matter: skills via content, not content via skills

You and I know that PE and Sport exams are not just "content tests". They are direct measures of metacognition and exam technique.

Three things are especially important:

1) Skills are more stable than content

The specific topics examined can and do change from year to year. But the skills – describing, explaining, applying, analysing, evaluating – and the command words that signal those skills are remarkably consistent. Our infographics show this clearly. They are as much about exam skills as they are about content.

2) Infographics are inherently metacognitive

When you stand in front of an infographic with your class, you are not teaching "the spec". You are teaching students to think about thinking in an exam:

- How long will I spend on each section?
- Where do the higher-tariff questions sit?
- Which command words dominate my paper?
- Which assessment objectives am I weaker at?

This is metacognition. And, I would argue, it is desperately needed in our subject.

3) They link content mastery and exam technique

On their own, infographics do not teach the full course content. Nor should they. Instead, they sit at the point where content mastery and exam technique meet. They allow you to say to a class:

"Here is what this exam actually looks like. Here are the skills you need. Now let's use our lessons, our revision and our assignments to build those skills via the content, not the other way round."

Our 2026 infographics are part of that bigger ecosystem you may have heard me talk about already:

Skills via content, not content via skills.

Three ways to use the 2026 infographics in January

There are dozens of ways to use these, but I want to propose three concrete, realistic approaches you can take this month.

1. Department briefing and alignment

✅ Use the infographics as a departmental tool first
Print them in colour (A3 if possible) for:

PE office walls
Department meeting handouts
NQT / ECT / non-specialist induction packs

✅ In your next department meeting:

Put the relevant infographic in front of everyone teaching that course.
Ask simple-but-powerful questions:

- "Where are our students likely to bleed time on this paper?"
- "Which command words are going to cause problems?"
- "Which AOs are most exposed for our current cohorts?"

✅ Agree one or two department-wide moves:

For example: "We will explicitly teach ‘Evaluate’ and ‘Analyse’ using these question types in the next three weeks."
Or: "Every teacher will show the infographic to their classes and talk about marks per minute."

For non-specialists and new colleagues, this kind of conversation is gold. It takes them straight to the real demands of the exam, not just a list of topics.

2. Baseline conversation with each exam class

Sometime in the next fortnight, I would urge you to run a 15–20 minute "paper architecture" segment with each exam group you teach.

For that class:
1) Show the infographic on the board and, if you can, put a printed copy in front of each student.

2) Ask them:

"What do you notice?"
"Where do you think you will gain most of your marks?"
"Where are you most likely to miss marks?"

3) Guide them to:

Notice the balance of short and extended questions
Notice the pattern of command words
Notice the time pressure (marks per minute)

Then, crucially:

4) Ask them to write, in their books or on the infographic:

One thing they feel confident about on this paper.
One thing they feel worried or unsure about.

This simple activity achieves three things:

It surfaces metacognitive beliefs about the exam.
It gives you a diagnostic feel for where they are psychologically with their paper.
It opens the door to linking this to our PE Exam Technique work (more on that below).

If you are using The EverLearner, you can then point directly to where, on the platform, students can work on those weaker skills.

3. Planning a realistic spacing and revision map

Infographics are also excellent planning tools.

✅ For you
Use them when designing:

Your in-class revision lessons
Retrieval practice sequences
When to drop in mock questions or mini-assessments

✅ For your students
Encourage them to:

Stick a copy in the front of their revision folder or exercise book.
Use highlighters to colour: Topics they feel "strong" on and topics they feel "uncertain" about
Pencil dates next to each section to indicate when they will revisit that area before the exam.

This is where spacing enters the conversation. Instead of "I'll revise PE in May", they can see:

"I'm going to hit this paper in pieces across January, February, March, April and May – aligned with how the paper actually behaves."

Again, for subscribers, this dovetails perfectly with the rest of the Revision 2026 ecosystem: Hot Topics, the National Mock Exam, live revision shows and teacher and student notes.

How the infographics connect to the PE Exam Technique course

Many of you joined us for the "Raising PE results in 2026" webinar on Monday, 12th January (thank you again if you did). In that session, I emphasised that:

Content alone is not enough. We must teach content mastery and exam technique.

The 2026 infographics are one of the bridges between these two pillars.

On the infographic, students see:
✅ Command words
✅ Assessment objectives
✅ Question types

In the PE Exam Technique – Powered by The Roadmap course (Gold subscriptions):
✅ Students are explicitly taught what those command words mean.
✅ They see how to respond to different question types.
✅ They learn strategies for paper processing and time management.

In practice, this might look like:

You show the AQA GCSE Paper 1 infographic.
Students notice there are multiple ‘Evaluate’ and ‘Analyse’ questions.
You say:

"If you are not confident with ‘Evaluate’ as a skill, I want you to complete the ‘Evaluate’ lessons in our Exam Technique course this week. Then we'll come back to this infographic and work on a specific question."

This is content mastery and exam technique, wrapped up and ready to use, but still flexible enough for you to adapt to your own context.

For customers: go and use them

If your school is already a subscriber to TheEverLearner.com:
1) Log in.
2) Click the Revision 2026 button.
3) Select your course, and you will see the Infographic clearly listed.

My request is simple:
Use them this month.

Print them.
Put them in front of students.
Talk about them.
Plan from them.

They are built, quality-assured and already waiting for you.

For non-customers: start with a free infographic

If your school does not yet use TheEverLearner:

You can still download a simple version of our exam infographic for your course in 2026.
These show exam structure and skills and are designed to be useful even if you never become a customer.

If, having used them, you think:
"We could do with more of this – with Hot Topics, mocks, live revision and Exam Technique teaching integrated,"

Then that conversation is open to you:

For revision packages and subscriptions (including Gold, which gives you the Exam Technique course), you can contact our team or visit the links below:

Find out more about The EverLearner Revision Package ↗️

Find out more about TheEverLearner full-access subscriptions ↗️

Or you can simply keep using the free materials for now. They are there because the sector needs them.

As ever, I would value your feedback on how you use the infographics with your classes and departments. I am always interested in stories of what actually happens when these things hit real classrooms.

Here's to making 2026 the year our PE and Sport students can see their exams clearly—and are prepared, in both content and skills, to meet them.

James

PE Revision FREE resources

2026 PE and Sport exam infographics now available

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