Anyone else frustrated by delays and poor communication with GCSE marking?

[Honeypig]

Probably more of a rant than anything and to see if anyone is gets just as frustrated with their marking?
I mark GCSE online and have done for a few years. I understand all about standardisation , seeds and the extra pressure examiners etc face but this year is ridiculous.
The lack of communication from my team leader is appalling. I finished my standardisation but apparently they are busy with meetings for another paper (with the same exam board) so can’t get back to me for 2 days so i can’t start marking. In the meantime I have had an email from the exam board to see if I am still intending to mark as i haven’t been cleared to mark!
I have flagged this up and guess what? Been told to bring it to the attention of my team leader!
Beginning to understand this year why people are giving up marking!

You might need to get this taken down - there's a clause in your contract which states that you can't criticise the awarding bodies online when you mark. I know you haven't named the subject or exam board but I reckon I could guess!

But you have my sympathies. I had a horrendous experience a few years ago. I had to get up at 5am to mark because the marking software was so unreliable later in the day, and I could only mark in very specific blocks around my caring commitments. I haven't marked since. It's financially not worth it as a higher-rate tax payer and it's no longer valuable as CPD.

I gave up being an examiner due to poor organisation from the exam board. A new IT system was useless.
Not being paid for seeds was simply a waste of my time. The pay was very poor and then it was taxed.
Then we were harassed because examiners were dropping out and we were not on target to complete all the marking. This wasn't our fault. It was the exam boards fault. It was totally unfair. It simply wasn't worth the hassle.
Shame, because I quite enjoyed it.

First time marking, and I’m hitting the deadlines, but I’ve found that the training hasn’t been that good. I’ve had to learn on the job, and my initial team leader dropped out. I was given a TL last minute and she’s assumed that I’m trained up. I won’t go into details, but I’ve hit a lot of seeds and have been stopped a few times from marking questions. Every time I have to call her, it fills me with anxiety and I feel that she is getting a bit frustrated with me. Not asking for sympathy, but don’t know where else to vent. Marking has now become anxiety inducing. Last time I spoke to her, she said that I was over above average in my seed marks, meaning that I may not be asked next year to be an examiner again. I felt a bit deflated and disappointed with the conversation. Is this quite typical. I totally get that we are doing a very important job and kids grades depend on us passing the QCs, but I am really enjoying the CPD side of it and have learnt so much already. I know I’ll be better next year just with this year’s experience. How likely is it that I won’t be asked again? And if I don’t, can I apply again?

Different exam boards will have different processes - but seeding is a really important part of it, and nothing to worry about.

Don't worry. You will be invited back next year.
Everyone gets stopped at some stage. I was once completely stopped from marking one particular question. It was ok. I marked other questions. I did ok on the stopped question the following year.

Are you being too generous with your marks? I am assuming ypu have exemplars. I constantly checked standards against the exemplars.
My team leader also told me something about a 3 mark leeway. Check if the work meets the criteria for 3 marks higher. Check if it meets the criteria for 3 marks lower. This should help you decide whether your marking is too generous or too tight. Sorry if that sounds vague and confusing.

I half miss examining but I am doing something else this summer. Although I keep getting emails inviting me to mark, I doubt I will ever do it again. The exam boards could try being a bit more kinder. Though I must say all of my team leaders were nice.

Update- apparently I was stopped from marking as I made too many mistakes (I get it), but I wasn’t told that I had been stopped, so continued marking, until my team leader just called me and told me that I have been taken off now.

That sounds a bit unfair. I was only completely stopped for one question, on only one year.

Hey ho. Onwards and upwards. Did you feel that you actually learned anything? I found it a bit monotonous after a while. Did your team leader actually talk through where you'd gone wrong?

Exam marking can be soul destroying. Don't let it make you doubt your ability. Just chalk it up to experience

That doesn't make sense. If you're stopped, you're stopped and you can't carry on

I was stopped one one question, so I started to mark another one whilst I was waiting for the TL to be available (she said that it was ok to continue marking scripts if I have been stopped). I marked for hours waiting, and was almost 80% through this new question. Before she called me, she spoke to her superior who told her that I have effectively been uninvited to mark, and that was it! I found it good cpd, but I didn’t enjoy the experience. Training was bare minimum, and as a newbie, I didn’t feel very supported. Anyway, I’m not expecting an invite back next year 😂

I found the it was good cpd, but the training was crap.

Very odd. Wouldn't happen like that on my papers.