The B!G Marking Experiment

Exam season is upon us once again, and whilst some of us (myself included) have now finished our exams and are anxiously awaiting the release of our grades (or degrees of failure – as some may prefer), others are still going and will have a good week or two before the relative freedom of results purgatory. 

I was walking around at the NOCS the other day and  noticed an old issue (18-24 Sept. ’08) of the Times Higher Education Magazine lying in the careers area of the student centre… whose headline was “The B!G Marking Experiment” and naturally I was intrigued and ended up reading the whole headline feature.

I came away very worried and concerned, and feeling somewhat as if I could have predicted the outcomes of their experiment for them. Basically the range of marks were uniform if you removed the highest and lowest marks (a 66% and a 0% in turn) but that the criteria used by each of their 10 markers was widely disparate.

Anywho, I just thought I would draw your attention to this interesting (if slightly disconcerting) article, and ask you your views if you read it, please leave comments below and we’ll get a discussion going!

Ben Brooks

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