Education has been heavily impacted globally by the pandemic, yet educational knowledge and expertise do not seem to be strongly referenced in policy discussions and decisions about, for example, closing and reopening schools, the effectiveness of distance learning, or the most appropriate forms of assessment. Examinations policy in ‘normal’ times contains a number of tensions, for example, concerns to maintain standards while recognising improvement, along with questions of fairness, parental pressures, and issues around public understanding of assessment practices. These are heightened in crisis, generating intense public interest, raising questions regarding governance and regulation and increasing pressure on political leadership. This seminar presents findings from current research to offer some possibilities for understanding the sources of knowledge and the forms of expertise that were mobilised or not in relation to examinations policy in England in 2020, where the cancellation of national examinations, and outcry about the impact of the algorithm that replaced them, led to a very public policy reversal.