Research and analysis

Alternative marking review processes for exams

Research by Ofqual on alternative review processes for GCSE, AS and A level exam results.

• From: Ofqual
• Published: 10 December 2015

Applies to England

Documents

Research into alternative marking review processes for exams

Ref: Ofqual/15/5804

PDF, 1.2 MB, 58 pages

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Details

This research looked at four different potential processes for enquiries about results (EAR) for examined work:

1. The current review process – in which examiners review the original marking of the script and should change the mark only where the original mark cannot be justified. (condition 1)
2. A review plus tolerance process – in which examiners review the original marking as above. A ‘tolerance’ is applied such that any second mark within tolerance (say, plus or minus 3 marks) of the original mark is discarded and the original mark retained. This would be to prevent one legitimate mark being replaced by another legitimate mark. (condition 2)
3. A single clean re-mark – where examiners mark the script with no sight of the original marking or annotations. This is sometimes called a blind re-mark. (condition 3)
4. A double clean re-mark with resolution – where two examiners independently mark a script. Where their marks differ, they come to a joint decision on the most appropriate mark. (condition 4)

Published 10 December 2015