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I work for an exam board, AMA!

Hi TSR,

I'm Sandtrooper, and I graduated from my BA in 2019 and now work for a major exam board across GCSEs and A-Levels. I found exam boards pretty mysterious when I was doing my exams, so I thought I'd start this thread for you to ask me any questions you like.

I will not reveal which exam board I work for due to privacy and security reasons, but you can infer that it's one of the major UK ones.

Spoiler

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

ebyrne2036

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Entertainment Forum Helper

R markers told to b more lenient this year for sure?

Reply 2

Fineappleonpiza

What's the process in creating a question/exam paper.
IE. who decides the questions, who reviews etc

Reply 3

luna676

will you try and make out what someone’s written in an exam if their handwriting is messy or will you just mark it as wrong straight away?

Reply 4

Ahjjjkkk

Exactly what I wanted to ask, I have really messy handwriting I’ve tried to fix it but I just cant. Is it true some markers wouldn’t even attempt to infer what is written if it is messy?

Original post by fifi5768

will you try and make out what someone’s written in an exam if their handwriting is messy or will you just mark it as wrong straight away?

Reply 5

flaurie

Volunteer Team

How many years in advance are exam questions written?

Reply 6

gjd800

Why don't examboard have more specialists write their spec? The AQA Buddhism spec is atrocious.

Reply 7

STPZ

What happens with an exam leak? Just like the recent AQA A-Level chemistry one? I know no one can resit it so how do they make it fair for the people who havent seen the whole paper?

Reply 8

username5875312

is overnight isolation real

Reply 9

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Do you work as an examiner/exam writer or in the management/administration side of things? If the former, are you based in a particular subject(s)? If the latter, what's your typical day like?

I used to work somewhere that worked alongside one of the exam boards, and they had tons of security measures - including audio for their CCTV (very unusual!). Is your workplace like Fort Knox too?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 10

grhas98

What do u do when the exam paper you are marking has unreadable handwriting?

Reply 11

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Sandtrooper

Spoiler

Do you think we should have exam boards?

Im personally of the belief we should do away with the current system and create 1 specification, and everyone in the country sits the same paper, essentially just make Ofqual the sole exam board.

How do exam boards correlate results between themselves so the same proportion of students get the same grade across every exam board each year in a certain subject?

I believe this is a DoE decision not exam board decision but; What would you think about GPA grading as a replacement to the current tiered grading system?

Reply 12

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by ebyrne2036

R markers told to b more lenient this year for sure?

It will vary but for the papers I'm working on, we have been told to create a new benchmark rather than compare them to previous years. I can't say that it will be more lenient because it actually depends on how well candidates perform, but we aren't comparing performances to pre-COVID years.

Reply 13

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by Fineappleonpiza

What's the process in creating a question/exam paper.
IE. who decides the questions, who reviews etc

A team of experts, often former teachers, as well as exam board staff.

Reply 14

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by fifi5768

will you try and make out what someone’s written in an exam if their handwriting is messy or will you just mark it as wrong straight away?

Examiners will always try their best. I don't think this has ever been an issue on the subjects I work on.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 15

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by Ahjjjkkk

Exactly what I wanted to ask, I have really messy handwriting I’ve tried to fix it but I just cant. Is it true some markers wouldn’t even attempt to infer what is written if it is messy?

As above, markers are put through a fairly stringent process and are checked regularly by more senior examiners, so I doubt that they wouldn't even try. I can't say that they'd be able to decipher everything but they will try.

Reply 16

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by flaurie

How many years in advance are exam questions written?

Depends but it's between 1 and 2 years for the qualifications I work on. It varies a lot, though.

Reply 17

ArtHistoryFairy

if you use additional pages in an exam and attach them with a treasury tag, does the script get scanned or is it marked traditionally?

Reply 18

cata03

I started writing out my answer to part b, but then moved onto other questions as I couldn’t get to the answer straight away. Later on I came back and continued with the question BUT i ran out of space and had to continue after my part c and d answers. I wrote the question letter but am worried they’ll only mark one part - am i just overthinking lol? Was edexcel maths. Also I wrote below the lines in my other exam cus I ran out of space - would that be okay?