Marking exams: tips on how to mark exam papers for lecturers
Marking exams: tips on how to mark exam papers for lecturers
Marking exams is one of the most boring activities carried out by lecturers. While standing before a large class may be intimidating especially to new lecturers; sitting before a huge pile of papers requiring marking within a deadline of a week or two, is a nightmare. Below are some tips on how to mark papers fast and less tediously. I have been able to gather these tips from my short time of lecturing; I hope they will assist you.
· Start early: start marking immediately the exam is finished. Do not wait for a ‘good’ time to mark, as there isn’t one. By starting immediately, one is able to complete marking in a very fast time.
· Ask for help: especially on questions that do not need any specialised knowledge, such as on the multiple-choice questions. Ask your husband/wife/partner/friend to assist in marking these questions, while you are left with the more difficult ones.
· Schedule the marking so that you can mark when you are very alert, so as to be able to avoid making mistakes. Also start with the most difficult papers and then move on to the more easy ones.
· Mark similar fields together: if you a lecturer in two distinct disciplines, for example philosophy and religion, then mark all the exams under the discipline of religion first, then move on to those for philosophy. This will assist you in your cognitive processing and not make you feel exhausted, as you switch between subjects.
· Mark one question at a time for all the papers: this helps as you can memorise the answers and be able to mark without referring to the marking paper.
· After marking a question at a time, review the papers one by one, to be able to gauge the performance of every student.
· Avoid giving marks that end in 9 as much as possible. This is because it is usually disturbing to students to see that they have a score of 79, which may be graded a B+, while a 80 would have been graded an A. Try as much as possible to increase the marks to 80 or reduce the marks to 78, if possible.
Feel free to leave some comments about any of them as well as add some more tips and experiences of your own. Happy marking!