With your marking schedule in place, it’s time to start marking.
A well-designed marking schedule should do much of the hard work for you. It provides a consistent guide for awarding marks, helps reduce guesswork, and ensures students are assessed fairly against the learning outcomes.
Is the question answered correctly?
Check if the student’s answer matches the learning outcome being assessed.
- Look for evidence of understanding, not just keywords.
- Consider the level of thinking required:
- Recall → correct facts
- Explanation → clear meaning
- Analysis → reasoning or application
- Accept different valid answers if they demonstrate correct reasoning, and do not penalise minor errors if the main understanding is correct.
Awarding of marks
Once you have determined that an answer is correct, the next step is deciding how marks should be awarded.
- Break marks into clear parts or steps.
- Award marks for:
- Identifying key ideas
- Explaining clearly
- Applying or analysing (higher marks)
- Give more marks to complex thinking and fewer to simple recall.
- For longer answers:
- Consider what a basic, satisfactory, or strong response might look like.
- Always show how the final mark is built up, not just the total.
- Consider what a partial answer would look like and what a complete answer would look like.
Fair and consistent
Consistency is important, especially when multiple markers are involved. Before marking all papers, review a small sample to check that the marking schedule works as intended.
- Use the marking schedule or rubric throughout the marking process to ensure all students are judged consistently.
- Include sample answers or key points where appropriate.
- Use clear marking notes and avoid vague terms such as “good”.
- Allow flexibility for valid alternative answers.
- Check that marks reflect the importance of each learning outcome.
Ask: “Would another lecturer give the same mark?”
For more:
Preparing to Write Your Exam Paper
Writing Marking Schedules for Exams
Marking Students’ Exams