Last year saw a rise in the number of students needing to take compulsory English and maths resits in England.
Colleges say this, combined with a bulge in the number of teenagers coming through the system, means they are “under immense pressure this exam season”.
Catherine Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said colleges were having to find extra invigilators, hire external buildings and pay for transport to and from those buildings.
“This all comes at a significant cost at a time when college finances are stretched,” she said.
Teacher strikes over pay last year caused more disruption for this year’s GCSE candidates while they were in Year 10.
Additionally some students have had to deal with their school buildings closing on safety grounds – especially those identified as having a dangerous type of concrete called Raac.
Students at some Raac schools have been unable to access design and technology work rooms, laboratories and other specialist spaces for much of the year and are worried about the impact on their results.
Caroline Vile, head teacher at Ellesmere Port Catholic High School in Cheshire, is among those calling for special consideration, telling the her students were not on “a level playing field”.
But the Department for Education has said it was “not possible to make changes to exams and assessments for only some groups of students”.
