Internal verification, or IV, is the sampling of assessors' decisions to confirm they are valid, fair, consistent and safe. It is the check that your marking means what it says, and it is the first thing an external verifier looks at when they arrive. IV does not re-mark everything. It samples decisions across assessors, methods and learners, tests whether each sampled judgement holds up against the criteria, and records the result so you can prove your assessment is sound.
What internal verification is
Internal verification is the sampling of assessors' decisions to confirm they are valid, fair, consistent and safe. Valid means the assessment tested the right outcome, fair means the learner had a proper chance to show it, consistent means another assessor would agree, and safe means the evidence genuinely supports the grade. IV checks all four, on a sample, and records what it found.
It is the first thing an external verifier looks at because it tells them whether your own checks work. A provider without IV is asking that verifier to be the first person who ever checked the marking.
Plan the sampling
Plan your IV sampling before assessment happens, spreading it across assessors, methods and learners, and weighting it towards risk. Cover each assessor, each method, and a range of learners including borderline passes and fails where errors hide. A sample chosen at random after the fact is not a plan, it is an accident.
Write the sampling plan down: who, what proportion, when, and why. It is one of the documents an external verifier asks for first.
What IV actually checks
Internal verification checks that each sampled decision is valid, fair, consistent and safe, by going back to the outcome, the criteria and the evidence. The verifier takes the assessor's decision and asks whether the evidence really meets the criteria, whether the method suited it, and whether another assessor would agree. If not, that is a finding to act on.
IV is not about second guessing every judgement, but confirming the decision sits within what the criteria allow. A sound decision the verifier might have graded differently still passes; an unsound one does not.
Give assessors feedback
Give the assessor clear feedback on every decision you verify, because IV that never reaches the assessor changes nothing. When a decision was sound, say so; assessors need to know what good looks like too. When it was not, explain what the criteria required and how the evidence fell short.
This is how internal verification improves the team rather than just policing it. Feedback from IV tightens the group's judgement, which is why IV and standardisation reinforce each other: standardisation aligns assessors up front, IV catches what still slips.
Record the IV decision
Record each internal verification decision with enough detail to prove the check happened and show what you concluded, because an unrecorded verification is invisible to the external verifier who arrives later. The record needs the decision sampled, the assessor, the verifier, the judgement on whether it was sound, the feedback given, and any action such as re-marking. Keep it tied to the specific learner and outcome.
A clean run of IV records is strong evidence: it shows the thread from marking to check to action across real decisions. It feeds directly into your quality assurance system and your SAR.
IV versus standardisation versus EQA
Internal verification, standardisation and external quality assurance are three different checks that work together, and confusing them leaves a gap. IV samples decisions after marking, standardisation aligns assessors before and during marking, and EQA is the external check on the whole system. The table below sets out who does each and what it confirms.
| Check | Who runs it | When | What it confirms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standardisation | Your assessors together | Before and during marking | Assessors judge the same way against the same criteria |
| Internal verification (IV) | Your internal verifier | After marking, on a sample | Individual decisions are valid, fair, consistent and safe |
| External quality assurance (EQA) | Awarding body or regulator | Periodically, from outside | Your whole assessment and IV system holds up |
Design assessments so they are easy to verify, and IV becomes lighter. Our guide on designing assessments that hold up covers the marking criteria that make sound decisions the default.
Common questions
What is internal verification?
Internal verification, or IV, is the sampling of assessors' decisions to confirm they are valid, fair, consistent and safe. It is the check that your marking means what it says, run on a sample rather than re-marking everything. It is also the first thing an external verifier looks at, because it shows whether your own checks work.
How much should I sample for IV?
Sample enough to be confident every assessor's decisions are sound, weighted towards risk. Cover each assessor, each method and a range of learners, including borderline passes and fails. There is no single fixed percentage for all provision, so plan the sample around where an error would matter most.
Who can be an internal verifier?
An internal verifier should be someone competent in the subject who is not verifying their own marking, because you cannot independently check your own decisions. In a small provider this often means assessors verifying each other's work under a clear plan. What matters is independence from the decision and genuine understanding of the criteria.
What is the difference between IV and standardisation?
Internal verification samples decisions after marking to confirm they were sound, while standardisation aligns assessors before and during marking so they judge the same way. IV checks the quality of individual decisions, standardisation builds consistency across the team. They work together: standardisation prevents drift, IV catches what slips through.
Can Apollo run IV for us?
Yes. Apollo Accreditation helps training providers in the UK and Malta set up internal verification, and can act as an independent verifier where your team is too small to verify itself cleanly. We build the sampling plan, records and feedback loop, so your marking stands up to scrutiny. Book a scoping call to map it to your provision.
Planning a programme, an accreditation route or a quality system?
Book a 30 minute scoping call. We will map the route, the standards that apply and a realistic timeline. No preparation needed.
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