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Exam MarkingWhy do it?This is something that teachers do to improve their teaching, as well as to make a few pounds.Exam markers are an essential, but underpaid part of the examining system. ApplyingIf you apply to one of the examination boards listed at the end of this page you will be sent the usual application form asking for details of your teaching experience, including the syllabus taught.Fewer and fewer experienced teachers are willing to take on examination marking for the low pay on offer, so the boards have had to recruit ever less experienced teachers. There are tales of third year sundergraduates being taken on! Apply early. If you have substantial experience the boards will snatch your arm off. Apply for more than one related subject and to all the different exam boards. For example, if you teach physics, apply for physics, combined science, modular science and electronics. Why apply for so many different subjects? All markers have to attend meetings associated with the exam paper. These are usually 1 day meetings, though 2 day meetings are not uncommon. You MUST be able to attend the meeting. Applying for many subjects means that you are less likely to lose out because you are unable to attend the standardisation meeting. AcceptingIn your first year's examining you should make sure that you will only have one exam paper to mark at a time and try to minimise overlap between marking periods. Use an office planner or diary to plan your marking commitments.In your second and subsequent years of marking you can allow more overlap between marking periods, allowing you to accept more offers of marking, and earn more money. How much does it pay?You will not become rich martking school exam papers, but it can form a very useful part-time income that fits around your full-time commitments.Your first hundred papers will be very slow, starting at 4 papers an hour and working up to 8 an hour by the time you are on your hundredth paper. After that you should expect to speed up considerably as your understanding of the mark scheme improves. Most examiners average between 12 and 14 papers an hour across the whole 300-500 they are marking. Only experienced examiners will mark 20+ papers an hour. Multiply the rate by 12 to work out how much per hour you will earn. That looks good? The exam boards deduct the tax before paying you, so knock off 40% for income tax, less good. You can expect to be paid six weeks or so after the end of the marking period. What do you need?Desk and floor space and lots of it. A cooperative postman helps too, otherwise you will have to go into the central post office every day to collect undelivered parcels.Quality time is the other big requirement. Some examiners do a few hours before school every morning. Some do 2-3 hours each evening. Most do the bulk of the marking at the weekend. You will not be able to have a normal family life for the weekends of the marking period. You are not allowed to do any marking in a public place. Public places include trains, car parks and schools. You cannot take exam papers to mark in your non-contact time at work! |
Preparing for the standardisation meetingMark 10 papers, using the draft mark scheme. Use a skewer instead of a pen. Your marking will need to be changed after the standardisation meeting. If you use a pencil, as the exam boards usually suggest you will have to rub out all your pencil marks, this takes for ever.Make sure yopu are familiar with the exam paper and the syllabus. Make a list of points to raise as you invisibly mark your first 10 scripts. The standardisation meetingExaminers are usually divided into small teams, each with a team leader. Team leaders are experienced examiners who have a good record for sticking to the mark scheme.The team leaders will have had several days of meetings before the main standardisation meeting, so should have a good grasp of the mark scheme to be used. The mark scheme has already been decided before the main standardisation meeting. It is not up for discussion by all 300 examiners at that meeting. This saves time and avoids parliament type scenarios with examiners shouting out their points. Exact procedures differ, but someone will go through the final mark scheme. This will bear little resemblance to the initial one that you will already have been sent through the post. The teams will usually then mark about 10 photocopied exam papers and go through them, discussing how the mark scheme should be applied. After the meetingProcedures vary again, but examiners will need to mark about 10 exam papers and send these off to their team leaders for checking. Send these off as soon as you possibly can. Continue marking, but slowly until you have had feedback from your team leader.Once you have the go-ahead you can mark away. The most important point after this is consistency. You must be consistent in your marking. If you realise half way through that your understanding of the scheme was flawed you have tyo keep marking to the same, opriginal standard that you did your first 20 papers. Course Work ModeratingCourse work deadlines come well ahead of examination periods, so you could fit in some before the exam marking period.Only apply to one exam board in your first year. It is very difficult to moderate to 2 slightly different interpretaions of national guidelines. Pay per hour is similar to exam marking. Training and standardisation meetings are similar, too. This work needs LOTS of desk space and storage though. Each school on your list sends you 20 or so student portfolios containing all their coursework. You will have lots of large parcels lying around for 2-3 months. The paperwork associated with coursework moderation is phenomenal. It varies across the different exam boards, but there are about 10 different forms to fill out for each school you are moderating. These include a lengthy report to each school on their marking. Schools are not always cooperative, frequently sending you incomplete or late samples of work. You have to accept that all schools cheat on coursework, the only crime is being so obvious that you are found out. If you have high principles then coursework moderation is not for you. Your work consists of checking that the marks awarded by the students' teachers are roughly in line with the national standard. Schools' marks may deviate from the national standard by a certain amount. Teachers' marks within a school tend to be averaged out and few adjustments to schools' marks are made. Canny teachers have learned exactly how much over the standard they can afford to be without having their coursework marks scaled down by a moderator. |
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