Exam marking fair pay?

[Dinopoppypoops]

I've been marking for an exam board that might have a name similar to a spreadsheet.

I got a payment for standardisation today (the process you go through to check the quality of your marking before you start). It was an A level paper and I earned approx £150 gross. It took me over 10 hours to pass standardisation so I earned less than £15 an hour. I have marked for over 10 years. I'm experienced and it always takes this long to learn the paper and mark scheme. After tax it was less than £10 an hour.
I then calculated that I was paid approx £18 an hour gross for marking.
I have all the relevant qualifications and 20+ years experience and the marking takes huge amounts of concentration and expertise.

A couple of times, I found myself rushing to try to get the work done and earn a bit more per hour but these papers decide the future of kids wanting to go off to university and it's not fair to rush them.

Whether you're a marker, a teacher or a parent, do you think paying markers this much is fair?

I'd love to hear from other markers to find out whether my experience is typical.

Voting:
Yes, it's above minimum wage, you signed the contract, get on with it!

No, the pay doesn't reflect the expertise and effort required.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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 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 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.

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.

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.

Surely AI marking is coming.

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

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

AI marking exams? I mean that's a stretch and does AI pay taxes?

Not anytime soon. It's not yet "clever" enough.

I no longer teach but still do marking to earn some extra money. I am pretty sure when I first started doing it for the board you refer to the pay used to be better and you were valued. You got to go for a days training (usually London) where you could properly chat about the questions and ask if unsure. Travel, hotel if required and food were all covered. I even got a certificate to show I had marked for X amount of years (which was some kind of acknowledgment).
I have commented on their forms several times the wage is not enough for the role but seems to be ignored each time (as they know they can still suck people into doing it).

YANBU - they should pay more and have higher standards for recruitment. Some of them employ people that haven’t taught for years.

I've done IA's, Paper 1 & Paper 2 in my subject. I also work for another exam board. The other board, there is (online, but still...) paid training, paid practise papers & paid standardisation papers. For the IB? No training. Unpaid standardisation papers. This year my TL didn't even send the changed mark scheme out, despite my emailing them several times until I'd failed standardisation (because I was working from an outdated mark scheme). Not going to bother with them again despite having done it for over 10 years. I'll stick with the other exam board in future.

It's not a stretch and it will be here, for some subjects at least, within 3 years I would think.

I mark for IB and my mark scheme was on IBIS not sent out.

I mark for IB. I get paid $12.40 a paper. It took me about 15 minutes a paper, a couple took me 5 minutes because they were blank.

We get seeds, so papers marked by a chief examiner and you have to get within a few marks of that mark.

I did check there. But either I'm thick (quite possible) or it just wasn't there. I did email my team leader with my concerns, but didn't get a response.