Exam marking fair pay?

Absolutely no chance of the AI needing a hotel room either.

Surely AI marking is coming.

There's already a credible system in existence for my subject.

My mum is retired and marks papers twice a year, has done since I was a kid, it was always our families holiday money. I don’t think she’s ever worked out her hourly rate. It still pays for a holiday, but it’s a term time holiday for 2, it definitely wouldn’t fund a fortnight for a family of 4 in the summer holidays! So in that sense it is less well paid than it used to be.

Where I teach (not UK) there was a huge shortage of people applying for marking. Much wringing of hands and complaints about the difficulty in getting people to agree to mark/stick at it once they started/applied the marking scheme consistently etc. Pay rates for the work were hugely improved, a combination of in person/online marking conferences held/all exams papers now marked online. Guess what ? There is no longer any shortage with getting applications to do the work. It’s demanding and responsible work and should be paid as such.

I don't like online standardisation.. I miss the days of a hotel and proper discussion. How much money have they saved axing that!! We don't see that money.

However I like marking the clips online and don't miss bundling up piles of exam papers. It's portable and I do quite like marking lots of o one question at once. Ie a 2 mark definition. It does keep you on track I think.

Pay is hideous.

I actually find difficult handwriting easier to mark onscreen when I can control the zoom but overall it has slowed me down, I find writing much quicker than using a mouse

I agree with the comments about online standardisation, it's noticeably reduced the quality of marking in my subject. I've been a team leader on one paper this year and the application of the mark scheme is much worse than a couple of years ago when meetings were held.

Exam boards are failing students in my subjects now, I don't know why this isnt obvious to the subject leads and chief examiners. Perhaps the schools/colleges will start to complain

I mark Extended Essays for International Baccalaureate. It's a 4000 word research paper, & if you fail it, you fail your Diploma completely.

I get $34 per essay, & they take me about 30 minutes each to do conscientiously. So better than NMW, but still not loads.

Currently, I'm re-marking essays that have been appealed. Many of them just have a 'SEEN' stamped on each page & a desultory comment at the bottom. The marks are frequently way, way off.

So, y'know, it's not like some examiners are even marking the bloody things properly! I've just saved two kids this afternoon from failing their entire diploma because someone being paid peanuts CBA to do their job...

What's more is these days they scan the papers in (to save postage, I presume), so we have to mark on a screen. It is really very difficult to mark when the students have "difficult" handwriting, and it takes longer.

It's always been dire. It's why I don't do it. I've taught for 30 years and the pay per hour is so low for exam marking (I teach History A level and GCSE, which takes a lot of marking) that I have no wish - particularly at a time of year when I am knackered - to squeeze extra stressful hours in.

They would need to roughly double the pay for me to feel like exam board marking. Traditionally NQTs have been told 'it's good professional development'. I have little faith in the quality of the marking standard, which is too often done by people who have little or no experience of actually teaching the unit they are marking, which is shit at A level.

You used to have to have taught that spec for at least 3 years to mark it - now if you are a warm body with a degree in the subject they will have you. I don't think you even have to be a teacher. AQA are currently asking for 3 full terms teaching experience in the subject and 'preferably a degree and teaching qualification'. Not essential to have a degree and teaching qualification I see.

It depends on the board and the paper. I mark for two boards - one of them as you say put the meeting online. The paper is extraordinarily difficult to mark, it was taking me an hour to do a paper (at about £5) and then I was being asked to go back over marked papers with a fine-tooth comb. It's a pittance and I won't be doing it again.

The other exam board, I mark two papers. The one, there is no meeting at all. The other, there is a meeting, but no training.

Again, the fact that we had a 2% raise whilst the exams themselves have gone up by 14% on average is a joke.

I mark a foreign european language. Good luck getting china to mark that.

I was expected to do it- but no way. Endless marking at the busiest time of year for pennies.

The pay is NOT clearly set out at the outset. They don't make it clear that you are not paid for training, qualication and standardisation - actually they can't as it would take the hourly pay below minimum wage.

You (should) pay tax on it too of course.

It's a classic example of a monopsony using their market power to force down pay to maintain profitability.

As an Economics teacher I can no longer engage in an activity that is an example of market failure!

They also make markers sign what is essentially a non disclosure agreement which is why the OP couldn't name the board.

It's a racket.

Given how much the exam board charges for exam entry then £5.50 per script is shocking!

I agree with comments made re the standardisation - used to get paid a decent daily rate for the moderation meeting with travel and hotel paid.

Also that the pay has got much less for doing a lot more with sections of each paper in the 100s. Not worth it after tax. They will probably switch to AI in the near future. It will help with marking to standard.

I’ve also been an exam marker for many years. It was useful extra money at the start of my teaching career.

I turned it down this year because the last time I was an examiner I did the same as you and worked out the time I put in and the hourly rate. It’s just not worth it. Particularly if you are doing other teaching work.

It’s essentially ‘piece work’ and as such very poorly rewarded for the amount of time required to do the job well - but that’s the way with teaching! I’m no longer teaching either… supply is just danger money these days.

The pay details are in the contracts that are sent out well in advance so the pay shouldn't have been a surprise to you OP.

But yes, pay should be higher although they'll probably end up farming it out to China or even get AI to mark it if teachers refuse en masse as it's all/mostly online now.

It is also worth pointing out that pre Covid, the exam board paid for travel and hotel to attend in person standardisation meetings. Post-covid, the meetings went online. This year, in my subject, the meeting was done away with and we now have online standardisation - they send the mark scheme, you do a practise set of questions which have comments and then you do a few more to check you’re in line a off you go. No opportunity to discuss anything, no mark scheme tweaking as a team when working through practise questions, just get on with it.

That's really poor. No wonder so many decide to get their kids' papers remarked and checked.

I think a lot of us see it as something we're usually not getting paid to do at all (as part of being a teacher; you're just supposed to mark practice papers, homework etc in your own time as part of what you're being paid IYSWIM) so any pay is better than nothing, which isn't necessarily the best mindset. They take advantage of that. I don't think the pay is as good as it used to be but I'd have to hunt for details to check if it hasn't gone up over the years or if it has but not by enough.

The pay is low and you're not unreasonable to bring this up. My brother used to do it before Covid and the pay was good, though he did find it stressful.

I invigilate exams and we get minimum wage, so it actually works out more. Quite shocked that you don't get paid more.

I examined for the same exam board and the pay dropped remarkably over ten years. I remember doing it in 2014 and earning nearly £1000 after tax. By 2020 when I did it for the last time it was barely £700. When you consider inflation over this period, it’s a very significant cut in pay. To get the £700 my allocation was also nearly doubled from 2014. The sad truth is though that the cost of living is now so high that they can still get people. In 2014 I did the marking for holiday and fun money. Now I do twice the amount for just over half the money (now a diff exam board) and I do it to pay for food.

If the pay is clearly set out upfront. If you rather make more money doing something else then do that. I never understand people who choose to take on work then complain it isn't paid enough.

Just thinking of the consequences here if you had double/triple pay etc. can your schools afford to pay an extra £5.50 or whatever it might be per exam entry? How would that impact your base salary at your school if the government don't pick up the tab? Will schools start shutting subjects down to save money by entering pupils into fewer exams?

I stopped marking GCSE papers as the pay was dire. Every few questions you get a 'seed' - a pretend answer that you don't get paid for. I spent too much time marking seeds, so free work. I'm not doing it again, ever!

I mark for the SQA and completely agree with you. There is a huge amount of pressure to complete within a tight time frame so all family activities are cancelled for the marking period.
The markers’ meeting is now online so the networking and discussion of the paper/marking instructions is very limited. When I was new to marking (a very long time ago) this was a great opportunity to further my understanding of the course. I’d hate to be a new marker now.
We were paid £5 something per paper. Each paper took between 5 minutes and 20 minutes to mark. Most were nearer 20 minutes. You’ve then got the time taken to email Team Leader and reply as to why you’ve marked in a certain way etc.
As a teacher I do believe it is a really important thing to do in order to fully understand the courses,however it is incredibly stressful and provides very little pay for the time and stress involved.
Why do I keep doing it? Partly due to rose tinted glasses-oh it won’t be so bad this year… Partly because I love the subject and enjoy seeing how different schools are teaching certain topics (this helps me with my tutoring too). Also because I know I know the course and understand it so I mark thoroughly-these exams determine students’ futures and I want to help make sure that they have every opportunity available to them!