Why do some teachers mark hard?

[CampsiteQueen]

The title says it all really. Why do some teachers mark consistently over the years and then just before mock exams mark "hard" (as in essentially mark everyone down 25%)?

Is the logic here to encourage the students to work harder in their prep for the main event? Does it not backfire somewhat as a strategy when students who have been scoring 95%+ do their usual work and end up with 75% out of the blue and consequently have a good old confidence wobble?

I've never heard of a teacher deliberately marking a student down 25% in their mocks.

Me neither and I used to teach secondary.

They don’t. They might get much stricter at marking to the formal schemes which is good prep for the students.

I think in the earlier days of A levels they are perhaps a bit more flexible as the students are still learning essay structure or concepts but as they get near the exams the teachers are rigorous in using the provided mark schemes so the students know exactly what is expected of them.

I’ve had three go through A levels in different subjects at different schools and colleges and this always seemed to be the case to me

My school marked a little harder on mocks to make students study more for the real exams later. It wouldn't normally go down that much: more like 5%.

Teacher for 15 years and never come across this.

I mark strictly according to mark schemes and the grade boundaries for that paper and AFAIK all my colleagues do too.

I'm a teacher and haven't come across this either. Plus most things like this are cross marked or moderated across the department to ensure marking is accurate. Pressure is also on to be accurate with predicted grades etc so if you were well out it wouldn't look good.

25% stricter?

Never heard of or seen this.

Being very strict to the mark scheme means you don't inflate students grades.

I've been a teacher for 30 years and I've never done or heard of this.

I think your dc is telling you porkies!

They will be almost 6 months older when they take the actual exams. That’s the discrepancy. If anything I’m a little generous. Of course many learn from the mistakes they made on the mocks. Others just moan about mean teachers…

Why do you think teachers mark 25% down? Have teachers told you this? I'm a dwco.dary teacher (20 years experience) and have never seen this. Teachers simply mark using the mark scheme and moderate with other teachers.

Yeah I never did this when I taught secondary – I always marked to the mark scheme. I never heard of anyone doing this either, Not sure what the point would be.

Pupils and parents only think they're marking harder. In fact they're just marking more closely in alignment with the mark scheme, and of course the pupils themselves are working under exam conditions/stress.

They mark mock papers to the exam mark scheme. You don't get marks for "knowing what they mean" but phrasing incorrectly.

I know a lot of teachers and we don't do this.

The one concession I will make is that when I mark for the exam boards I am happy to award full marks to a response which I think deserves it. I have never done this for one of my own students in a mock, even for a fantastic performance, because I won't encourage complacency. I teach English and our marking is notoriously subjective.

25% is a lot. When working in secondary, I always adhered to the mark schemes and guidance very strictly to ensure that pupils were well prepared for the real deal, and sometimes this meant that students who were on the borderline of two grade boundaries would end up in the lower one for mocks. This was as children will often hear that they got a particular grade in a mock and think they don’t need to do much more now, even if they’ve only just scraped it. They need to ensure they’re consistently putting the work in so they don’t slip on the day.

Completely agree! (I’m also an English teacher.)

I teach A level - it’s fair to say that in the first few weeks of the course I might stick an A on a piece of writing that certainly wouldn’t get an A in an exam as it is but does in my opinion show the student has A grade potential. By the second year I will mark according to the mark scheme so am marking harder in a sense but the grades will usually roughly track from the beginning. I never mark down but am quite ruthless about applying grade boundaries as I’ve learned from experience that’s by far the better way of doing it.

I had a university professor be really positive about my work, so was shocked when my first essay came back as a C. Other students too. She said that she thought we could all do better and it was to motivate us. Except it could backfire with some thinking 'I tried really hard and all I got was a C so guess I'm not good enough' and stop trying. Stick vs carrot.
Have to say I didn't quite trust what she said after that and lost a bit of interest in it. Can't recall what I got for the class in the end (this was in the US where we get grades).

It is also worth adding that the grade boundaries are adjusted every year, so the ones we apply can only ever be estimates based on previous years. The exam boards would very much prefer that we didn't attempt to apply grade boundaries to internal assessment at all, and instead only referred to raw marks, but in the real world students need projected grades for college and university applications and so we have to apply our best judgement.

Do you have any evidence of this other than your child telling you this is what happens?

Yes they advised they had deliberately marked "hard" (by this I presume they mean more strictly than previously) but they did not explain the rationale behind this. They advised not to worry as students were generally doing well, but students are now confused as to whether they are capable of achieving in the 70-80s range or 90+ range.