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The sample is moderated by the examiner and, based on a statistical comparison between the two sets of
marks, an adjustment is made to the teacher’s marks for all candidates at the school for that component. If
the teacher is consistently under- or over-marking, this adjustment will be the same for each of the teacher’s
marks. If the teacher is under- or over-marking either at the top or bottom of the mark range, the adjustment
may vary across the range of the marks.
In some cases it may not be possible to calculate a moderation adjustment using the submitted sample work.
Further work will be requested to ensure that a fair moderation adjustment can be applied. For this reason,
all candidates’ work must be available until the close of session.
How can we be confident that examiners mark
students’ work correctly?
Before any marking takes place, a standardization meeting is held where the principal examiner, with help
from senior examiners, sets the standard of marking for the assessment. All examiners are required to adhere
to this standard in their own marking. The standardization team reviews responses and determines a range
of suitable practice responses, qualification responses and seeds to help ensure marking reliability of
examiners throughout the exam session.
The markscheme is finalized as part of the standardization process in order to make the marking procedure
clearer, help the examiners meet the required standard and aid consistency of marking between examiners.
E-marking and seeding
Once exams are taken by candidates, their responses are either sent to scanning centres or uploaded. They
are then made accessible to examiners through an online marking tool that randomly allocates responses.
The responses are anonymous, which prevents examiner bias.
The process for examiners has three stages: practice, qualification and live marking. Live marking is
monitored using seeds.
The practice stage allows examiners to look at responses that were already marked by the principal examiner
(definitively marked) to learn how to apply the markscheme. They receive automatic feedback to clarify their
understanding of how marking should be carried out.
The qualification process requires examiners to demonstrate they can apply the markscheme appropriately
by testing them with a selection of responses selected by the principal examiner. An examiner who cannot
show that he or she can apply the mark scheme appropriately will not be allowed to start marking candidate
work.
Once an examiner has qualified to start marking, his or her marking is monitored throughout by seeds being
introduced randomly into their allocation. A seed is a response that has already been definitively marked by
the principal examiner. Examiners are unaware that they are marking a seed, which ensures the seeds are
marked in the same manner as the other responses in their allocation.
To help determine that the examiners are marking within the standard set by the principal and the
standardization team, each subject is assigned a tolerance value. An examiner’s marking should be within
this tolerance. A tolerance reflects the legitimate differences in the marks awarded by different examiners to
the same piece of work. Think about two teachers in your school marking a piece of work; both agree it is
good, but one could award 29 and the other 30.
Marking by item
Marking by item is the same marking process as above. However, it makes responses easier to mark by
splitting the responses into sections known as question item groups (QIG). A QIG can be a question, section
or topic. Examiners mark these smaller sections as they do with whole exam responses (that is, completing
practice and qualification before going on to live responses with seeds). Examiners are monitored separately
in each QIG, and every QIG has its own marking tolerance.