Exam Marking

[lineandsinker]

I started exam marking for the first time this week but am really struggling with the time it is taking.

I'm a full-time teacher and on top of that, i'm 31 weeks pregnant (I applied for the examiner role and was contracted before falling pregnant). I thought I could manage but this is my first pregnancy so didn't really anticipate how i'd feel at this point!

Coming home every night to do 4 hours of marking on top of my day at work is exhausting me - I don't even want to think about the hours i'll need to put in at the weekend. My final deadline is the middle of July so I've got another 3 weeks to get through yet.

I don't think i'm being fair to myself, my baby or the students' whose exams I am marking. I'm doing the exam marking for the CPD rather than the money so am thinking of withdrawing from marking.

Am I leaving the exam board up the creek and what would be the implications for me? I'm assuming i'll be blacklisted by them from marking in the future.

[forkfun]

I used to work for an exam board. If you are pulling out, do it as early as possibly, as politely as possibly and be honest. Some managers will hold it against you, but most won't. Worst thing is someone telling your day before the deadline that they can't finish. At this stage, there'll be other examiners who will want the scripts. Also, if you can/want to, offer to do some of the scripts. But only what you can realistically manage.

[WhenZogateSuperworm]

@TeenTimesTwo I believe you have to be a teacher to get in to it but I know 2 people who are no longer teaching (and haven’t taught for over 5 years) who are exam marking.

[BelulahBlanca]

A few years ago I was living in one county but had papers from my home county. Luckily I didn’t know anyone taking the paper. The last two nights I have marked 82 responses (my allocation is 300 papers so 1500 individual responses if you count the last question twice as it is marked on two AOs) I am finding myself a lot more disciplined as I know I only have when DD is asleep while in previous years I would do 3 or 4 then flop on the sofa for a bit planning to catch up the next day. Which was silly as it meant I was answering so many seeds!

[JustTheCrowsAndTheBeef]

I know 2 people who are no longer teaching (and haven’t taught for over 5 years) who are exam marking.

I don’t know if this applies to other boards but I know that AQA will waive the recent teaching requirement as long as you have examined the subject within the last three years. They rely heavily on retired teachers who would otherwise very quickly become ineligible.

[Phineyj]

You can drop out. I had to once when I had an eye injury. They were fine about it and I marked for them the next year. Tbh it's such hard work and so poorly paid, they can't go round blacklisting people competent to do it!

[WhenZogateSuperworm]

I disagree it’s poorly paid- I earned an average of £40 an hour whilst sat on my sofa in my pj’s on the paper I’ve just finished. It is hard work and can be mentally taxing sometimes but I think the pay fairly reflects the work, for my subject anyway.

[noblegiraffe]

Can non teachers mark? (maths)

Possibly? I went to a talk by a maths marker and they said there were different grades of question, easy one markers (like what is the name of this shape), intermediate and expert. I have a vague memory of them saying the easy ones could be marked by graduates.

[WhenZogateSuperworm]

@noblegiraffe that sounds like Edexcel. Each exam board works differently.

For AQA you mark everything (apart from multiply choice which are computer marked) but for Edexcel they have different levels of examiners for the different difficulty of questions. AQA is much easier to work with that edexcel in my experience.

[monkeysox]

Some boards employ graduate markers for smaller mark questions

[Phineyj]

I think you need to factor in the time they make you spend before the paid bit plus the tax if you want a true picture. It took me about 12 hours this year to get through the paperwork, mandatory child protection, esafety, qualification scripts, trying to divine all the baffling instructions, how to work two different software packages... I only do it for CPD so I never do the same paper twice. You should factor in the possible RSI and eye strain too! Anyway, OP, I was thinking about it and 4 hours in a go is far too much so you need to get them to cut your quota, stop early and/or work out some shortcuts. I do the same question for at least 90 mins and benchmark against the marked scripts which I've got in mark order.

[Phineyj]

The answer was 50p an essay by the way. I suspect my current board it's less!