The HKEAA has a set of comprehensive procedures for the marking of examination papers to ensure fairness and consistency in the marking process.
Marking procedures for written papers
| Appointment of markers: Applicants' academic qualifications, teaching and marking experience are the key elements for consideration in the selection process. Each year, over 4,000 markers are recruited for script-marking, most of whom are teachers. |
| Marking scheme: Prepared by the moderation committee, the marking scheme serves as a guide to markers on how marks should be awarded, taking into consideration the question requirements and the range of acceptable responses. Marking schemes are not model answers. Answers not covered by the marking scheme could also score marks if they are relevant to the question and logically presented. |
| Sample scripts: After the examination has taken place, sample scripts covering different approaches of candidates’ responses are selected. These samples provide useful material for standardising marking. |
| Standardisation meeting: The examiners compare marks awarded to the sample scripts, agree on marking principles and standards, and revise the marking scheme, where necessary, before the markers’ meeting. |
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Markers' meeting：The examiners brief markers on the assessment objectives and demands of individual questions. Some sample scripts are trial marked by markers to identify and rectify discrepancies in interpreting the marking scheme. |
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Allocation of scripts to markers：Candidates are assigned random candidate numbers by computer. Each marker's batch of scripts consist of candidates from different districts / centres. Markers do not know the identity of the candidates. Also, markers do not mark the scripts of their students or close family members. These scripts are taken out of a marker's batch before script distribution. |
| Marking: Markers must demonstrate that they have mastered the marking standards before they can proceed to award marks to the scripts. For scripts that are double-marked, there will be two raw marks awarded independently by two different markers. If there is a big difference between these two marks, a third marker will mark the script. A second discrepancy marking will also be conducted if necessary to ensure a fair assessment of the script. The closest pair of marks is added up to form the raw mark for the script. |
| Checkmarking: The marked scripts of each marker undergo at least two stages of checkmarking by the examiners to ensure consistency and to spot problems of marking. If a script has been selected for checkmarking, the mark awarded by the checkmarker is also recorded and may override the raw mark if deemed more reliable. |
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Checking of addition of marks: For manually marked scripts, a team of checkers check the addition of marks on all the scripts and their correct input to computer. They also check that all pages in each script have been marked. |
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Statistical analysis of markers' marks: The mark statistics of each marker’s batch of scripts are checked. Coupled with evidence gathered from checkmarking, appropriate actions such as mark adjustment or remarking are taken to rectify marking that is too lenient, strict or erratic. Marks may also be adjusted to ensure comparability between optional questions or sections and in the case of SBA marks submitted by schools, to iron out possible differences among teachers in marking standards. These processes give rise to the adjusted mark. |
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Onscreen marking (OSM) was introduced in 2007 and will also be implemented in 9 HKALE subjects in 2012. OSM enhances marking quality, accuracy and efficiency. There are no addition errors because the marks are automatically added up by the computer system. Markers' performance can also be monitored more closely to ensure reliability. Statistical analyses are generated instantly so that any necessary remedial action can be taken as soon as possible. For more details on OSM, please click here. |
Combining paper marks to form subject mark
Before grading, the adjusted marks of each question / section are added up according to their relative weightings to form the paper mark. If a subject consists of two or more papers, the adjusted marks of individual papers need to be standardised (i.e. converted to the same scale) before the published paper weightings are applied to combine them to form the subject mark. This is necessary because individual papers of a subject have different means and spreads, the adjusted marks are not comparable with each other and hence cannot be directly added to form the subject mark using the weightings stated in the syllabus.
Please click here for details of the relevant example.
After standardising the paper marks and taking into consideration the weightings of the papers (as published in the syllabus, the weighted paper marks are calculated. The subject mark is the sum of the weighted paper marks. For subjects with profile reporting such as Chinese and English, the component mark is the same as the weighted paper mark if the component consists of only one paper. For components comprising two papers, the weighted paper marks of the constituent papers are added up to form the component mark. The subject mark is the sum of all the component marks.
Points to Note
It should be noted that marking involves professional judgements and is not an exact science. Different markers may not award identical marks to the same answer, particularly for questions of an open-ended nature. Marks awarded by persons who have not been trained or standardised cannot be regarded as valid assessments of candidates’ performance.
For subjects adopting onscreen marking, markers mark scripts at Assessment Centres via a secure intranet. Marks are input in score boxes and depending on the marking requirements, markers may or may not put any ticks, crosses or comments on the script. Even for manually marked scripts, markers do not necessarily write comments on the scripts and may only put ticks, crosses or marks.