Exams V: Grading Sessions

TTY: About 20 TAs a year for almost 20 years.... approximate 400!! THANKS, we couldn't do it without you!

Grading exams is difficult, no matter how you look at it. Many schools use machine-graded assessments for this very reason. We have resisted because we want to give a variety of question types and offer partial credit for calculations and discussion questions. We do try to design exams with the grading in mind.

I am eager to hear how others handle grading of 100-500 papers within a 3 hour session. I’ll describe the system we have devised over the past 15 years.

Our exams are administered from 5-6 PM and grading begins immediately after the exam is finished. We have a room with tables and we order pizza for delivery about 15 minutes after the session begins. Food does help the process!

The professors have written the key in advance and agreed on partial credit. Each professor is in charge of one page and works alongside the TAs to grade just that page. Each TA grades one question consistently. The first 30 minutes of the session is critical as the TAs need to make sure they understand the problem and various acceptable responses. Once we get rolling, the TA consults with the professor in charge of the page as needed.

When possible, we try to grade some exams prior to the large grading sessions. These are from students who had a conflict and took the exam at an alternate time. We can then see the common errors and address the grading protocol based on real answers.

We total each page and then the exam, writing the score on Page 2 as described in a previous post. Then we sort and alphabetize the papers for each professor to record.

In general the process works but there are some issues. Some graders lose focus and do not show the consistency we want. In the Fall, when many of the TAs are new graduate students, we are not aware of their strengths and weaknesses. As time goes on, we learn how to assign tasks for efficient and effective evaluation.

Normally we can finish a session in three hours, but there have been times it lasts much longer than that. What can I say? The task isn’t finished until all papers are graded, sorted, and ready to record.