Mark test-taker responses

When the marker logs in they’ll land on the Marking Projects screen. The marking projects they are assigned to display. In this example, the marker is only a member of one marking project.

Markers can view a summary of their marking role and access their dashboard by selecting Marking Dashboard for the relevant marking project.

Marking dashboard

The tiles on the dashboard provide details about the current day:

• Test-takers to mark
• Test-takers overdue
• Test-takers due today and tomorrow
• Progress for the day.

The tiles update as the marker progresses through their marking tasks. In the example below, the marker has 3 test-takers to mark, 2 test-takers due tomorrow and they have marked one attempt today.

We’ve covered My Scores below in detail.

Select Start Marking Now.

Marking screen

The marking screen displays. Let’s take a look at the components of the screen.

1. This link takes you back to your dashboard.
2. As you progress, the count on this tile updates.
3. In this example there are two items to mark. Switch between the two by selecting the buttons.
4. This is the item stem.
5. The Marking Rubric provides markers with marking instructions.
6. This is the test-taker’s response.
7. If the chief marker has set markup tools to active, markers have markup tools.
8. These are the marking scheme components. Markers can enter numbers or use the up/down arrows to enter their scores.
9. Markers can optionally enter a comment, for example they would use this field if they escalated the response.
10. Markers have three options here:
    Escalate – Escalate to the Chief marker, we’ve covered this in detail below.
    Finish – Finish marking, return to the dashboard
    Next Test – Mark the next item.

Once an item is scored, a green tick displays on the button.

Seed scripts

Test-takers’ responses may be pre-marked by chief markers before live marking commences. These marked responses become seed scripts. The system may drop these seed scripts into markers’ queues as a check to see if they are applying the marking standard correctly. If the mark you assign to a seed script falls out of tolerance, you will be suspended from marking.

You can read more about seed scripts in our document on quality controls.

Escalate to a chief marker

You can escalate a script to a chief marker if required, for example, if you need advice.

1. Select Escalate.
2. Enter a Comment. A comment is mandatory.
3. Select Save and escalate.

The chief marker may return the response to you to complete the marking, or they may complete the marking themselves.

Once an item is escalated, a blue arrow displays on the item button.