JDMcDsblog

exam time

Originally uploaded by jenjemeer

This is the time of year when many teachers go into Purdah. Sacks of scripts, securely fastened by plastic handcuffs are delivered, accompanied by fastidious instructions for the marking, filling in Ex forms and returning of papers -by the next day, if possible. At this time of year, juts before exam leave, senior pupils are generally bipolar-manically optimistic aboutr exam succuess for no good reason or inconsolable that they have forgotten everything they ever learned. The Sixth Year revert to Primary 1 levels of maturity and regress or simply dissolve, a school career that started with cheery shots of first day at school ending in a wimper.
Markers meet in cavernous stadia to dissect scripts and agree a marking scheme-the lucky ones get to mark at home, at a time and place of their choosing; the less fortunate are coralled into barns and sheds to mark centrally in a given time frame.

This is my 18th year of marking Standard Grade Geography-I came in near the beginning when there were quite small teams for each level, and now there are over 100 Credit markers. For a while I used to be an examiner and setter, too, which meant standing in front of your peers and defending decisions on where to award marks for contentious evaluation questions. I loved the cameraderie of working in the exam team, meeting colleagues from across Scotland. So, despite my annual vow not to mark again, I’ll be joining the throng at Hamden to go through the 2008 Geography paper, and no doubt enjoying some good banter along the way.