The process of marking GCSEs and A levels affects millions of students and teaching staff every year. Yet the process of how marking happens is unknown to many.
But converting millions of GCSE and A-level entries into marked papers - and then final grades - is a fundamental aspect of education and worth understanding, whatever your role.
How are exams prepared for marking?
The first stage involves exams being distributed to schools to be sat by students. They are then collected and sent to the “exams factory” where they are scanned and digitised. This means they can then be sent to examiners to mark on screen, rather than by hand.
What do examiners do?
Rather than an examiner marking an entire script from start to finish, they are given batches of the same question to mark repeatedly.
For example, in an English language paper made up of five questions, an examiner might have 300 responses to question one to mark, 300 to question two, 300 to question three, and so on.
Each response could, theoretically, be from a different student, meaning the examiner reads the work of hundreds of different young people, without ever seeing a single student’s entire paper.
For a paper where there are more questions - some that may only require a single-word answer - examiners will have larger quotas.
For example, a biology paper with 55 items to be marked will be a lot quicker to answer, so an examiner might have 1,000 different responses per question to mark.
How do examiners know what mark to give?
Consistency is key to ensuring all students are marked fairly against one another.
To do this, a principal examiner and exam team leader will mark hundreds of papers and, between them, go through every question and agree on what the standard is to meet the mark scheme for each question.
This can only be done after the exams have been sat because when an exam is written, it is impossible to predict how students will respond to the questions. But doing it after exams have been sat means the mark scheme can be more detailed and include “expected and unexpected responses”.
The responses from these papers are then used as exemplars in the training materials for the exam markers.
This is important to ensure there is guidance for markers, especially for essay-based subjects where value judgements can be tricky.
For example, where the mark scheme awards seven to nine marks for answers using “relevant” textual detail, but four to six marks for “appropriate” textual detail - markers need to know what the difference is between the two.
To complicate things further, some subjects have questions that use levels of “tolerance” or “adjacent acceptable marks”. This is particularly common in essay-based subjects or questions that require a longer written response.
Tolerance, or adjacent marks, means more than one mark can be correct.
For example, when the marking is checked for a 20-mark question, an examiner may award 13, 14, 15 or 16 marks, and all of these marks would be correct. However, award it 12 and it would be “out of tolerance” and therefore an incorrect mark.
After they’ve read all the training materials, markers are tested using an online practice exam. This is made up of responses from the same papers the principal examiner has already marked.
This also gives the examiners a chance to practice using the marking software and familiarise themselves with the online marking system.
Markers will only pass standardisation and be allowed to mark real live papers once their marking matches the principal examiner.
Marking the markers
Even if an examiner passes standardisation, the oversight of their marking doesn’t stop there.
In order to monitor the markers, the principal examiner puts them into teams and assigns team leaders. These team leaders are more experienced markers and are responsible for assessing other examiners.
To help with this, there are a number of methods to ensure marking remains consistent:
- Starting seeds
Some exam boards require examiners to pass “seeds” before their “live” marking begins.
Seeds are responses from the original batch of standardisation questions and are there to test the accuracy of the examiner.
If a marker fails a seed, they are automatically stopped until the team leader has spoken to them and explained the problem. A marker can fail a starter seed any number of times without causing a problem.
- Random seeds
As well as the starting seeds, examiners will also be tested using random seeds. These seeds can appear at any point when they’re marking.
Examiners won’t know when they’re marking a random seed and if they award an unacceptable mark, they are automatically stopped on that question and spoken to again.
If a marker is stopped too many times on random seeds, they may be stopped from marking that question permanently - and the marking they have done will be remarked.
- Double marking
Some exam boards use randomised double marking to check the accuracy of longer essay-style questions with answers sent to two examiners who both mark the work.
If the two examiners reach a mark within tolerance, then the mark from the first examiner will be used.
However, if the two marks awarded by the examiners are far apart, then the student’s answer is sent to a team leader and they decide which mark is suitable, or award their own mark.
What about practical subjects?
For art, drama, music, PE and other practical subjects, examiners will sometimes need to visit the school to assess the work submitted and this can occur earlier in the exam process.
For other assessments, the examiner may watch video material sent by the school. The marking for this follows the same process as above, with guidance provided by senior examiners on marking levels.
What else do examiners check for?
If a student writes something that an examiner deems to be a safeguarding risk, it must be flagged to the team leader.
Also, it is exam malpractice to try and communicate with the examiner, so any letters or notes in the paper must also be brought to the attention of the team leader. If an examiner suspects malpractice, such as a change of handwriting, this must also be reported.
How much do examiners get paid?
Examiners are paid per item, with the amount increasing depending on the number of marks available for the question. The paper and qualification you mark will attract different pay.
For example, a GCSE English literature examiner may be paid £4.87 per script, whereas a GCSE geography examiner may be paid £5.17, and a GCSE science examiner £2.70.
The above are just rough guides and will vary between exam boards, subjects and papers.
As deadline day approaches, pay can also be increased as an incentive to find more examiners.
The amount paid per script is fixed, so if a student writes two words or two hundred, the pay is the same.
Where do examiners find the time?
Although marking predominately takes place in the summer holidays, there is an overlap with the end of the summer term.
Because having knowledge of the marking process is advantageous for a school, some headteachers will allow staff to mark during their free periods in exchange for staff sharing their marking materials.
This, though, is not guaranteed and is entirely at the head’s discretion.
How do I become an exam marker?
AQA, Eduqas, OCR and Pearson Edexcel all accept online applications and markers are usually recruited in the run-up to the summer exam series, but teachers can usually apply to mark or express an interest in marking at any point.
You usually have to hold qualified teacher status to be able to mark, but requirements can vary depending on the exam board and qualification.
The great exam race
All exams must be marked by results day in order for students to collect their results.
Because of the possible disruption if results are late (for example, a student is unable to proceed to university due to a missing grade), this deadline is of great importance.
Therefore all exam boards track how many items are still left to mark, and there is a significant push for markers to get the marking done in time - sometimes incentivised by paying more as results day comes closer.
The awarding process
Once enough exam papers are marked, the awarding process can begin, which requires all of the exam boards to agree on grade boundaries for that year’s papers.
This process takes place using data from the previous performance of the cohort at either key stage 2 for GCSE students or GCSE for A-level students, plus insights from the current exam series.
Principal examiners then set the grade boundaries; this is overseen by Ofqual to protect against grade inflation and ensure standards remain consistent.
This process typically takes place at the end of the marking period because the majority of exams need to be marked to give principal examiners the information they need to set the boundaries.
Once GCSE and A-level results have been released, students, schools and colleges have the opportunity to appeal grades, too. We explain the appeal process here.
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