assignment marking scheme

What is an assessment rubric?

When you get the instructions for your assignment, you might also get an assessment rubric. A rubric is the marking guideline for the assignment and you can use this to get an understanding of what the marker is looking for. An assessment rubric generally tells you about:

• The criteria – what you need to include in your assignment.
• The descriptors – a description of the criteria that outlines the levels of performance showing a clear progression between each level, e.g., between ‘excellent’ and ‘good’.
• The weightings – the marks allocated to each task tells you how important each task is. Use these to guide the best use of your time, e.g., 10 marks vs 50 marks: which of these are you going to spend the most time on?

Download a PDF version of the assessment rubric example.

How to use the rubric

• Read through the assignment rubric alongside the assignment task instructions.
• Make a note of anything that is not clear and ask your lecturers or tutors for clarification.
• While you are doing your assignment, keep referring to the rubric to make sure you are on track.
• Before you hand in your assignment, have another look at the rubric to make a judgement of your work and make changes if needed.

How to learn from feedback

When you get your assignment back, it is very tempting to just look at the mark or grade and ignore any  written feedback .

Look at the marks on the rubric to understand the feedback given for your assignment. It can sometimes feel challenging to read comments that are critical of your work, especially when you believe that you have put a lot of effort into the assignment. Feedback can be very useful to you as it:

• Enables you to build on what you have done correctly.
• Helps you to identify where you went wrong.
• Identifies where you need to make improvements so that you can do better next time.

If you need to clarify any feedback you have been given, be proactive and contact your lecturer. Most lecturers have office hours where you can see them to discuss any course-related issues. Discuss the feedback with them so that you understand what you might need to improve for your next assignment.

Can I get feedback before I submit my assignment?

Some courses provide an opportunity for peer review or lecturer feedback prior to submission of the assignment. This is a way of getting early feedback so that you can improve the assignment before you hand it in. In most cases you will be guided in this process by your lecturer through your Canvas course page.

Related topics

• Analysing questions
• Key study skills

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Richard James Rogers

Educational articles and advice for teachers. www.amazon.com/author/rogersrichard

5 Efficient Marking and Assessment Strategies

An article by  Richard James Rogers  ( Award-Winning  Author of  The Quick Guide to Classroom Management  and  The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback ) .

Illustrated by Sutthiya Lertyongphati .

Updated: October 2021

Accompanying podcast episode (audio ver sion of this blog post, read by Richard):

Accompanying video:

Being a Newly Qualified Teacher was difficult. Getting to know my new students was a challenge, as was the daily grind of behavior management and classroom management. Building up the skills I needed to be effective in these areas took considerable time, and one of the reasons I wrote my book back in 2015 was so that I could have a record of all of the ‘nuggets’ of experience I had picked up over the years.

I wanted something I could read over on a regular basis to remind myself of the lessons that had been hard-earned. I certainly wasn’t expecting the book to become a bestseller, as it did on three subsequent occasions.

I think my ‘raw’ style really resonated with teachers: teachers who were fed up with the confusing (and often contradictory) ramblings of researchers and consultants in the field. They wanted real advice. They wanted techniques that worked.

One thing I touched upon, but didn’t go into detail about in my book was the plethora of marking and assessment strategies I have learned over the years.

So, strap on your seat-belt because I’m about to go through the highest-impact, most effective strategies for marking and assessing work in ways that will save you time and energy.

Strategy 1: Diffusive Live-Marking

This is really simple:

• Set a task for your students to complete (it could be a Google Slides presentation, a worksheet to complete , some questions from their textbook to do, etc.) .
• When a few minutes have passed, ‘diffuse’ through the classroom by walking around with a marking pen in hand (I use a red pen). 
• Mark student work in real time, as they are doing it. Of course – reinforce your written comments with verbal feedback (and you can even write ‘verbal feedback give’ or ‘VF’ on the work).

Hey presto – you just saved yourself an hour or so of after-school marking time!

Strategy 2: Absorptive Live-Marking

In this scenario, one can imagine the teacher being like a ‘sponge’ that ‘absorbs’ the students: instead of walking around the classroom to mark work in ‘real-time’, you sit at your desk (or at a designated ‘consultation point’ in the room) and call the students to your desk one-at-a-time. 

Same result – you just saved yourself a ton of after-school marking time. 

Which is better – absorptive or diffusive live-marking?

In my personal opinion, both forms of marking have their place. 

Diffusive live-marking can actually double-up as an excellent behavior management technique – when you walk around the classroom and check work in real-time, pockets of low-level disruption tend to fade away because of the teacher’s proximity. The disadvantage of diffusive live-marking is that it can be difficult to stand behind, or to the side, of a student and mark work on a crowded desk. 

I tend to use absorptive live-marking more than diffusive as I am lucky enough to work in a school where the overwhelming majority of the students are very well-behaved. This means that I can call them to my desk one-at-a-time and the class will still stay on-task. A big advantage of the absorptive method is that I can give more detailed and personal feedback to each student and I have my whole desk-space to neatly mark the work on. 

Here’s a video I made about live-marking:

Here’s a podcast I made about live-marking:

Strategy 3: Peer-Assessment

I first learnt the power of peer assessment back in 2008, when I had just moved to Thailand. 

As a keen young teacher with two years of UK teaching experience, I found myself teaching students who were ALL very keen to do their best (in stark contrast to what I was used to back home). Homework assignments and classwork seem to come my way on a real-time, live-stream basis, and I soon found myself inundated with work to mark. 

At first, I tried the traditional methods of using a green or red pen to write lengthy comments on each piece of work. I had learned from my training in Assessment for Learning in the UK that written comments that help the student to improve were much better than a letter grade or a score followed by a ‘Well Done’. I’d learnt about the ‘two stars and wish rule’ – where I’d write two positive things about the work and then one item or target for improvement.

These ideas were great in theory, but I found that my weekends became shorter and shorter as I tried to write effective comments on every piece of work that came in. I was spending less and less time doing the hobbies I enjoyed, and I became quite the old grouch.

I finally expressed my concerns in the staff room one day and a colleague of mine said  “You should do more peer assessment”.  

She was right.

I instantly started getting my students to mark their own work, and reflect upon it, and the results were astounding: my weekends became ‘me time’ again, and students seemed to learn better than they would from receiving my comments.

As I continued to develop my skills in assigning proper peer-assessment, I discovered that I was sometimes making some catastrophic errors. I refined my strategy over the years, and came up with this six-step system:

Step 1:   Make sure that the work you set has an official mark scheme or set of model answers associated with it. There’s nothing worse than trying to ‘guess’ the best answers along the way as you’re trying to get the kids to assess the work. Make your own mark scheme if necessary, but make sure the answers are clear.

Step 2:  When it comes time for the kids to assess the work, ask them to swap their work with someone else in the class. Alternatively, if this doesn’t work for your particular class, then collect the work in and redistribute it.

Step 3:  Ask each student to get a colored pen ready to mark with. Red and green are good. You may wish to have a set of special ‘marking pens’ somewhere in class that the kids can use whenever they mark each others’ work.

Step 4:   Have the official mark scheme ready and give a copy to each student. This has the advantage of providing a permanent copy for each student to keep, and allows you time to help students as they mark. Projecting the answers onto a screen can  also work, but you may find that students cannot see the answers clearly and that you may have to scroll through at a pace that’s not suitable for every student. Printing a copy, or sharing it on the schools VLE so that students can access it via a tablet or laptop, is best.

Step 5:  Make it very clear that students should tick the answer if it’s correct, and make full corrections if it is wrong. The mere act of writing out the model answer onto the work being marked will reinforce the concepts into the subconscious minds of the students.

Step 6:   Let the students give the work back. Collect it in at the end of the lesson so that you can glance through and check that everyone has peer-assessed properly. If anyone hasn’t, then make them do it again.

Once work has been peer-assessed, you can sit down with individual students and have ‘progress conversations’ designed to pin point areas of weakness and highlight areas of strength .

You have to be quite organised with this method (e.g. making sure you print or upload the mark schemes on time). However, this will save you loads of time in the long-run and will definitely help the kids to learn properly.

Strategy 4: Self- Assessment

Not surprisingly, self-assessment has similar perks to that of peer-assessment. This great   overview   by the University of Sydney advocates for the wide-use of self-assessment with students for the following key reasons:

• It encourages student involvement and participation, so it’s great for students who normally find group activities or active class tasks a little uncomfortable .
• When used in conjunction with group work it can be a great way to assess one’s personal role and contribution in the group experience and learning process .

Academic appraisals aside, I’ve found from my personal experience that both self and peer-assessment are absolutely invaluable to the modern practitioner. They save you oodles of time as a teacher and students learn so much from each process.

There are a number of different ways that self and peer-assessment can be used in the classroom. My experience has taught me (the hard way!) that the following tasks work really well:

• Making corrections to tests and assessments:  When any important test or assessment comes up, I don’t think it is appropriate to have students marking these themselves. They’ll get things wrong, even with a mark scheme to use, and will be overly generous on themselves and their peers (unless they’ve been trained for a period of time – more on that next). However, a great activity is to mark the tests yourself, then give the tests back to the students along with a printed or online mark scheme. The students could then use a coloured pen to make full and detailed corrections to their test papers. You could turn this into an AfL exercise, with students writing down the question numbers they got wrong on the whiteboard, or on an anonymous piece of paper. You could then go through these questions afterwards to clear up common misconceptions. If you run a regular Learning Journals system (as I currently do), then students could write down the questions and the model answers in their Learning Journals. This causes very deep-learning to take place and is great for building long-term memory!
• Assessing homework, classwork and regular assignments:  A great time-saver for teachers. Just make sure the kids have access to the model answers. Don’t forget to collect the work in too – you need to know that the kids actually did the work you asked them to do.
• Past-papers:   Exam-level students really need to become familiar with the official mark schemes provided by exam boards. They need to become comfortable with key vocabulary, language and command terms. Provide exam-level students with regular past-papers to do as homework. Provide mark schemes too, so that they can self and peer-assess their work in class later. For older students (e.g. ‘AS’ – Level, SAT and IBDP learners) I’ll sometimes give them past papers and mark schemes to take home. Their task is to complete the past-papers under timed conditions and mark them using the mark schemes. The student then hands me the papers completed and marked (this is essential – I need to know that they have completed the assignment). I then check the papers for common misconceptions and target those in class. 
• Technological means:   There a number of ways in which technology can assist in the peer and self-assessment process.  Google forms   are great; as are online quizzes provided by trusted third parties (e.g.  BBC Bitesize   and   MyiMaths ) and online quizzes that teachers can build by themselves (e.g.   Quizlets ) . Make use of these and others (e.g.   Kahoot   – great for getting kids to use their mobile devices), as they are really interactive and can offer a nice break from traditional methods. 

Strategy 5: Automated Assessment

I wrote a   blog post   about the effective use of ICT in lessons some time ago and in that article I mentioned the first time I came across  MyiMaths. 

That was back in 2013, and it totally transformed my work-life balance. 

Why? – That’s simple: students would go into the ICT lab, or use their laptops or tablets in class, and literally be taught mathematics by the computer! The program would even assess the work immediately, and differentiation wasn’t a problem because students could work through the tasks at their own individual pace. The benefits were enormous:

• All of the students were focused and engaged .
• All of the students were challenged .
• The teacher had more time to spend with individuals working on specific problems .
• The content was relevant and stimulating .
• No behavior management issues as the students were all quietly working .
• No time was needed by the teacher for marking and assessment. The program did all that for you. All you had to do was collate the data.

There are numerous instructional software programs on the market today that save the teacher lots of marking time, and provide the students with engaging material to learn from. Whilst I wouldn’t advocate using instructional software every lesson, it certainly can become a significant and effective part of your teaching arsenal. 

Some good programs to explore are:

• Kahoot! – Did you know that you can set Kahoot! quizzes as homework challenges? The software even generates student performance reports for you.
• Subject-specific software such as MyiMaths (for maths), Educake (for Science) and Lexia (for English). 
• Class Dojo – totally free and a great way to award points to students and set homework tasks (which they can submit online). 

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Author: richardjamesrogers

High School Science and Mathematics Teacher, Author and Blogger. Graduated from Bangor University with a BSc (Hons) degree in Molecular Biology and a PGCE in Secondary Science Education. Richard also holds the coveted Certificate in Mathematics from the Open University (UK). Richard is the award-winning author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management: 45 Secrets That All High School Teachers Need to Know View All Posts

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• Mastering Marking Schemes: A Teacher’s Guide to Effective Assessment »

Mastering Marking Schemes: A Teacher’s Guide to Effective Assessment

Greetings, dedicated teachers! Have you ever felt like you hold the keys to a treasure trove of knowledge, but unlocking your students’ potential sometimes feels like a puzzle? Fear not, for we’re about to unveil the secret behind creating effective marking schemes—a teacher’s compass to fair and insightful assessment. Let us help you navigate the maze of student responses and transform them into meaningful grades. Delve into the art of crafting marking schemes that not only grade assignments but also empower your teaching and boost your students’ learning.

Quick Links

The Significance of Clear and Fair Assessments

In the realm of teaching, assessment is our guiding light for understanding how well our students grasp concepts. A finely tuned marking scheme acts as our companion, leading us through the journey of evaluating student work with transparency and equality. It’s like having a roadmap that ensures not just grading, but also cultivating an atmosphere where every student has a fair chance to thrive.

Role of Marking Schemes in Promoting Learning

A marking scheme isn’t just about assigning points; it’s a carefully thought-out blueprint that shapes the learning experience. When our students understand how their efforts will be assessed, they can channel their energy into grasping the subject matter instead of feeling uncertain. This transparency ignites a growth mindset, motivating students to actively shape their own learning journey.

Key Steps in Creating a Marking Scheme

Here are some of the steps required to help you create an adequate marking scheme:

1. Defining Learning Objectives and Outcomes

Begin by clearly outlining the learning objectives and desired outcomes for the assessment. What do you want your students to demonstrate? This step lays the foundation for the entire marking scheme, ensuring that every aspect aligns with the intended learning goals.

2. Allocating Weightage to Different Question Types

Different question types assess distinct skills. Assign the appropriate weightage to each question type based on its complexity and its relevance to your learning objectives. To encourage higher-order thinking, align your marking scheme with Bloom’s Taxonomy. Distribute question types across levels, enabling a comprehensive assessment of your students’ cognitive abilities.

3. Establishing Marking Criteria and Guidelines

Craft specific marking criteria for each question, detailing the essential components that warrant credit. These criteria prevent ambiguity and empower teachers to evaluate consistently. Guidelines could include factors like accurate calculations, well-structured arguments, or incorporation of relevant examples.

Enhancing Assessments Through Thoughtful Interventions

Here are some measures that can be taken to make marking schemes and assessments far more fair and easy to understand: 

1. Consequential Marking for Step-Wise Evaluation

Consequential marking breaks down complex problems into manageable steps, awarding partial marks for each correct step. This approach acknowledges the students’ grasp of fundamental concepts, even if the final answer is incorrect. It motivates students to think critically and methodically, improving their problem-solving skills.

2. Provide Constructive Feedback on Answer Sheets

Marking schemes aren’t just about tallying points; they’re an opportunity to provide insightful feedback. While evaluating, highlight both strengths and areas for improvement on answer sheets. Constructive feedback guides students toward understanding their mistakes and facilitates targeted learning.

3. Communicate the Exam’s Purpose and Scope to Students

The marking scheme serves as a communication bridge between educators and students. Clearly state the purpose and parameters of the exam within the marking scheme document. This fosters transparency and reduces unnecessary anxiety, allowing students to focus their efforts effectively.

Leveraging Technology for Efficient Marking

Ways to conduct examinations have changed enormously in the past few decades. Today, technology can offer several interventions which make modern assessments fairer, easier to conduct, and more effective. 

1. Digital Tools for Automated and Consistent Grading

Modern education leverages technology to streamline assessment processes. Apps like Extramarks Teaching App employ automated grading tools to facilitate quicker evaluation and ensure consistency across a large number of responses. They also help lighten your load by letting you skip paper correction to focus on teaching.

2. Integrating Rubrics for Transparent Evaluation

Rubrics are like detailed guidelines that set the criteria for marking student assessments. Digital platforms like Extramarks allow seamless integration of rubrics into the marking process. Rubrics provide explicit guidelines for assessment, making the evaluation process more transparent and objective. Students can understand precisely how their work will be assessed, promoting a sense of fairness.

3. Holistic Assessments 

Extramarks offers a number of features that come together to offer a more holistic approach to assessments. Explore a multitude of diverse question types tailored to every learning style. With user-friendly templates, crafting assessment papers becomes a breeze, allowing you to focus on what matters most: nurturing growth.

Ensuring Quality and Consistency in Marking Schemes

Here are ways in which you can ensure that your marking schemes are fair and effective and remain that way in the long term. 

1. Involving Experts for Rigorous Scheme Review

A fresh pair of eyes is invaluable in refining a marking scheme. Collaborate with subject matter experts or fellow educators to review and validate the marking criteria. Their insights can help eliminate biases and ensure the scheme aligns with educational standards.

2. Piloting and Refining Marking Schemes

Before implementing a marking scheme, pilot it with a small group of students. This trial run highlights potential issues and allows for adjustments to be made. Regularly revisit and refine marking schemes based on feedback and evolving educational practices.

3. Addressing Challenges and Adapting to Trends

The educational landscape is dynamic, and so are the challenges it presents. Adapt your marking scheme to accommodate changes in curriculum, teaching methodologies, and student learning patterns. Stay attuned to emerging trends in education to ensure your marking scheme remains relevant and effective.

Benefits of Well-Designed Marking Schemes

Here’s the positive impact of putting effort into designing an effective marking scheme: 

1. Improving Learning Outcomes and Student Performance

A meticulously prepared marking scheme raises the bar for student achievement. When students understand the expectations and criteria, they are more likely to invest effort in learning the subject matter. This clarity results in improved learning outcomes and enhanced academic performance.

2. Equitable and Unbiased Assessment Process

A transparent marking scheme levels the playing field, mitigating the potential for bias in assessment. It ensures that every student is evaluated based on the same criteria, fostering a sense of fairness and trust in the education system.

3. Empowering Teachers and Students Alike

For educators, marking schemes offer guidance in providing comprehensive feedback. It allows teachers to pinpoint areas of improvement and tailor their instruction accordingly. Simultaneously, students gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses, facilitating targeted self-improvement.

Behind every successful assessment lies a well-constructed marking scheme. Its role extends beyond grading; it shapes the educational experience, empowering both educators and students to excel. The art of creating a marking scheme lies in balancing objectivity and subjectivity. While criteria provide structure, human judgment imparts understanding and empathy. As education evolves, so must its assessment practices. Embrace innovation, technology, and collaborative efforts to refine marking schemes and ensure they remain a cornerstone of effective education.

Extramarks Smart Class Plus is a platform that offers you several beneficial features that help make preparing marking schemes and organizing assessments a lot simpler. We offer a number of templates that you can use to create assessments without much difficulty. We also have an extensive question bank that you can choose a variety of different types of questions from. Evaluation is also automated and reports are generated instantly. What’s more, they are based on modern techniques like Bloom’s Taxonomy. Make preparing a marking scheme easier for you and beneficial for your students by using the Extramarks Teaching App , today! 

Last Updated on August 29, 2023

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Steps to prepare a marking scheme for a marking meeting.

Marking scheme template, marking scheme.

Not all the criteria should be included in a marking scheme. In general, more questions will be checked, and more criteria will be included in the first few assignments. Students are not familiar with the style guide at the beginning the term, so it is important to hand-mark their submissions for style more thoroughly and give sufficient feedback on as many criteria as possible in the first few assignments. However, this does not need to be carried forward, you will notice that in later assignments, there is a larger focus on code complexity in place of formatting components of design recipe. Try to assign certain criteria to appropriate questions. For example, a question with a tricky contract (eg. parametric, functions as values) is better to mark for contract correctness than one with a very simple (e.g. Num -> Num) contract.

Sometimes, there is not much to check for some criteria in a specific assignment. Omit those criteria in that case. As the term goes, you might want to omit some criteria where students have barely made mistakes (for example, purpose/contract format!). What is more, criteria that will take too much time to mark could be removed from a marking scheme since the available TA units are usually limited. You can add a new criterion as needed, as well as adjust criteria coverage based on differences between assignments and introduction of new course material. In Fall 2021, we decided what criteria to include during a weekly handmarking meeting with assignment-leading instructors before the assignment’s release – be sure to raise your concerns with grading certain criteria for assignments! – if you do not think it is possible to grade something in the way the instructors would like, make it known.

2. Choose the best fit for each criterion

Not all the questions in an assignment should be checked. You can spot-check questions for selected criteria. After thinking about what criteria will be included, you probably have ideas about which question will be checked for which criterion. You could talk to other ISAs (ideally ones who are experienced with this) before marking the marking scheme. You could also ask for instructors’ opinions at this step.

In Fall 2021, we asked for opinions after we had written a first draft of the marking scheme. There could be several questions in the assignment appropriate for a criterion (e.g.). You might not want to mark all of them. The suggestion here is from the aspect of TA’s marking experience/complexity. Try to match the criterion with some questions in the order that will avoid scrolling up and down from question to question when marking. For example, if Contract Correctness and Contract Formatting are being marked on an assignment, assign the two criteria to the same questions. In Fall 2021, these were also largely decided during the meeting with the assignment leads.

For any assignments that will be graded for code complexity it is helpful to take a look at some student submissions in order to see the variety of (both good, bad, and especially, common) examples. Using these, you can come up with specific positives and negatives that TAs should look out of in term of code complexity for the specific assignment. For example, in Fall 2021, A07 was students' introduction to mutual recursion, we created a file containing several alternatives and graded students on whether or not they used mutual recursion correctly to solve the question.

3. Make the marking scheme

In Fall 2021, we wrote both a General and a Specific Marking Scheme for each assignment using Overleaf. The General Marking Scheme provided guidelines for marking each criteria included on the assignment. It included major (deductable) and ungraded errors for each criteria. These did not reference any one assignment in particular, and thus largely remained the same from week to week. The Specific Marking Scheme was where we specified any details that were relevant only to a particular assignment such as, but not limited to, correct purposes, contract, and data definitions, constants that must be defined, specifications for code complexity, etc. We have included examples of both as well as the templates we used in early assignments. Please note that some points under certain criteria may not apply to assignments until relevant concepts are introduced to students (ex. Whitespace specifications of local definitions).

4. Feedback

In Fall 2021, we asked other ISAs and instructors who were the assignment leads to provide feedback on the marking schemes. For the most part, the marking scheme did not change too much at this step. However, there could be some back-and-forth. Sometimes, instructors may want the marking scheme to be more thorough. You need to make some judgement. If it will cost too much to do so, justify yourself! Otherwise, make changes to the marking scheme accordingly. This is also the time to start setting up rubrics and annotations on Markus.

5. Finalize the marking scheme, rubrics, and annotations. Prepare for the marking meeting.

Review the marking schemes, rubrics, and annotations again – note that the private tests and check test cases for the assignment are subject to change throughout the week, make sure that the rubric matches the correct numbers. Sample marking is also highly recommended before the TA marking meeting. Marking 3-5 submissions before could help identify some flaws or mistakes in the marking scheme or annotations so that you can make changes in time. Once everything is done, the marking scheme is ready to go. Upload the pdf version of the marking scheme for graders and set up criteria threads for each criterion on MS Teams. Don’t forget to schedule the meeting! (This is only applicable for online terms.)

6. Hold the marking meeting

The marking scheme for A01 should be carefully explained to markers because marking for CS 135 is completely new to most of them. Go through every criterion in details. It is a good idea to mark a couple submission in the marking meeting when the marking scheme is complicated, especially for A01. As the markers get more familiar with the marking schemes, you can pick out what is new and important in the marking scheme only. Have some time for Q&A before the meeting ends. Ensure that you record the meeting, as well, for graders who miss the meeting. The ISA who set-up the meeting on Teams should click “End Meeting” instead of “Leave” when it is ending. This will ensure that the ISA will receive an Attendance Report for the meeting. In Fall 2021, we had one ISA guide the TAs through the schemes and another mark submissions afterwards. More information about the marking meeting can be found in the marking meeting page .

7. Answer questions regarding marking

• Marking_Scheme_Template.docx : Fall 2020: Marking_Scheme_Template.docx
• Fall2021_General_Marking_Guidelines_Template.pdf : Fall 2021 General Guidelines Template
• Fall2021_Specific_Marking_Scheme_Template.pdf : Fall 2021 Specifc Scheme Template
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• Mark assignments

Mark and return an assignment

This article is for teachers.

In Classroom, you can give a numeric mark, leave comment-only feedback or do both. You can also return assignments without marks.

You can mark and return work from:

• The Student work page.
• The Classroom marking tool.
• The Marks page.

For instructions on the Marks page, go to View or update your student record .

For practice sets, learn how to mark a practice set assignment .

You can download marks for one assignment or for all assignments in a class.

Display assignments and import quiz marks

Before viewing a student's assignment, you can see the status of student work, and the number of students in each category.

Go to classroom.google.com  and click Sign in.

Sign in with your Google Account. For example,  [email protected] or [email protected] .  Learn more .

• Click the class.
• At the top, click Classwork .
• Select the assignment to display.
• Tip: You can only get to the Student work page when the number isn't '0' for both 'Turned in' and 'Assigned'.
• Assigned – Work that students have to hand in, including missing or unsubmitted work
• Handed in – Work that students have handed in
• Marked – Marked work that you've returned
• Returned – Unmarked (non-marked) work that you've returned
• (Optional) To see the students in a category, click Turned in , Assigned , Marked or Returned .
• To check a student's submission, click on the assignment thumbnail.
• At the top right, click Import marks .
• Click Import to confirm. The marks autofill next to the students' names. Note: Importing marks overwrites any marks already entered.
• (Optional) To return marks, next to each student whose mark you want to return, tick the box and click Return . Students can see their mark in Classroom and Forms.

Enter, review or change marks

• Red – Missing work.
• Green – Handed in work or draft mark.
• Black – Returned work.
• Click the Student work tab.

The default marking scale is numerical based on the total points of the assignment. The expanded marking scales option is available for the Education Plus and Teaching and Learning Upgrade editions. You can align Classroom marking to your school's system whether:

• Alphabetical, for example letter marks (A to F) or proficiency (unsatisfactory to excellent)
• For example, four-point scales.
• For example, emojis.

Marking scales features work with:

• Average mark calculation
• SIS integration
• Practice sets and forms auto-marking

You can enter a mark either for the number of points or, if you have marking scales set up, based on the levels on the marking scale. For example, if you have letter marks set up in your class and you assign a 10-point assignment, under 'Mark', you can:

• Select Good 8/10 from the drop-down menu
• You and your co-teachers can find all marks in both points value and the level that it corresponds to.

A student can find both the points value and the level it corresponds to if a mark is returned.

• Next to the student's name, enter the mark. The mark saves automatically.
• Enter marks for any other students.

You can enter marks and personalise your students' feedback with the Classroom marking tool.

• Go to classroom.google.com .
• Optional: Under the classwork filter, select a marking period. Learn how to create or edit marking periods .
• Next to the student's name, and under the relevant assignment, enter the mark.
• The mark saves as a draft.
• Select Good 8/10 from the drop-down menu.

• If a mark is returned, a student can find both the points value and the level that it corresponds to.
• Optional: Enter marks for any other students and assignments.

Tip: You can return assignments without a mark.

• On the left, click a student's name.
• Click See history .
• Next to a student's name, click the mark that you want to change.
• Enter a new number. The new mark saves automatically.

Return work or download marks

Students can't edit any files attached to an assignment until you return it. When you return work, students get notifications if they're turned on. You can return work, with or without a mark, to one or more students at a time.

You can start with the default marking scale options, or create your own marking scale.

• In 'Marking', under 'Marking scale', click Add .
• Proficiency
• Letter marks
• 4-point scale
• Create your own: Creates a custom marking scale.
• Edit the level and values of your marking scale.

• On the right, tick the box next to the class that you want to copy your marking scale to.
• Click Select .
• At the top right, click Save .
• When you edit a default marking scale, it becomes a custom marking scale.
• When you remove a custom marking scale that was previously used in a class, a confirmation dialogue displays, and you won't be able to access it again.

• The student's assignment is marked Returned.
• On the left, tick the box next to each student whose assignment you want to return.
• Click Return and confirm.

Download marks to Sheets

Download marks to a CSV file

• To download marks for one assignment, select Download these marks as CSV .
• To download all marks for the class, select Download all marks as CSV . The file is saved to your computer.

Related topics

• Set up marking
• Give feedback on assignments
• Mark and return question answers
• Create and mark quizzes
• Mark and track practice set assignments
• Use a screen reader with Classroom on your computer
• Export marks to your SIS

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Marking and grading: a simple guide

Assigning grades to students’ work in the UK is a complicated and large scale process. Our UK exam board, OCR, has put together a simple guide to the marking process: 

On the first page the diagram shows the processes that must be followed to ensure accuracy of marking. Marking accuracy is founded on four elements: 1) mark schemes, 2) markers, 3) our standardisation and 4) our marking quality assurance procedures. 

On pages 2-4 the article 'How do candidates get their grades' by Beth Black from the OCR Research and Technical Standards team sets out to illustrate how candidates get their grades.

Tell us what you think:

Does this guide contain enough detail? Too much information? We welcome feedback from teachers, students and parents.  

Please email our Group Public Affairs unit at [email protected] to share your views. 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Related materials

• -->A simple guide to marking and grading (PDF, 222KB)

Related links

• OCR qualifications info and support

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Marking Scheme for Essay

Marking scheme for essay: understanding grading criteria.

Marking scheme for an essay is criteria that describe how marks are provided to an essay. An essay has a various aspect, and each aspect is kept under consideration while marking it.

Here is a small distribution of marks in an essay:-

•    Clarity of your thoughts- 30%
•    Delivery of the content- 30%
•    Language- 30%
•    Accuracy of grammar- 10%

This is the standard way of the distribution of marks for your essay. That means for scoring good marks your essay should be clear, it should be delivered correctly, language should be formal, and grammar should be up to the mark.

What is the marking scheme?

Marking scheme is a criterion that instructs you to plan to mark accordingly. Various subjects have a different marking scheme. A subject like mathematics has to mark scheme in such a way that it provides marks for steps also. Whereas in subjects like science have targets for the diagram and their labelling. While in social science depends on the answer and its presentations.

Need for understanding marking scheme:-

• By understanding the marking scheme, you can save your time by not wasting time on writing unnecessary material to fulfill the marking criterion.
• You will get an idea of how to structure your answers according to it.
• You will be able to score higher grades.

These are the benefits that you can enjoy if you are aware of what is marking scheme for your subject.

What are the types of marking scheme for Essay?

There in terms of marking scheme, every essay has a set pattern of marking scheme. Mainly there are two types of marking scheme for your essay.

Here are two types of marking scheme:-

   Structured Marking Scheme-

In this form of marking, one needs to follow a particular structure of marking. Examiners have to follow a set of rule that is motioned in the scheme itself.

Unstructured Marking scheme-

In such a marking scheme, there is no such rule set to be followed. One can comment according to the performance of the students. But then the responsibility in this section raises a lot. You should have an explanation for your marking.

These are the two marking style as well as their example. Hopefully, you would have an idea about how to plan your essay according to both the style.

Marking Scheme For An Essay By Country

Every country has a different marking scheme according to its education system. Here are some countries and their grading systems:

The universities in India come under a commission known as UGC or University Grand Commission. Each private university should be affiliated from UGC else the degree has no validation.

Here is the marking scheme of Indian Universities:-

Maximum Marks: 100

Minimum Marks: 00

Minimum Marks Required to Pass: 40 or 30 (according to the various universities)

Hence, you need to score accordingly for respective division and result.

England and Wales-

As India, England too has a set of marking scheme for essay writing. They follow ‘honors’ patterns.

Have a look on the marking pattern of England and Wales Universities:-

Therefore, if you want to study in the university of England and Wales, then you have to prepare yourself according to the above mention marking scheme. 

The United States-

At the United States, universities follow GPA (Grade Point Average) system as a marking scheme for essay. They evaluate the marks and then convert them into GPA and then decide the division that students have scored.

Here is the marking scheme of universities of the United States:-

How to covert marks into GPA:-

With the help of above method, you can calculate your GPA and have an idea what and how did you score.

What are the characteristics of a good marking scheme for the essay?

As you have read above, the marking scheme for essay writing various from country to country. But the constant thing is the parameter to analyze the quality of a good marking scheme. 

Here are the characteristics of a good marking scheme for essay:-

Even distribution of Marks:-

Even   distribution of marks is very important for a good marking scheme. Scores should be divided according to the question’s nature. If the question is objective type, you can award one marks each to the questions, and id it is comprehensive then you might award three marks each. If it is an essay, you can grant five to ten targets.

Unbiased- 

While planning a marking scheme one should keep all types of student in mind. An average student, as well as a below-average student with the topper ones, should be able to score at least passing marks. Marking scheme should not be deliberately designed in such a way that it should promote the skills of a good student.

Transparency-

Students should be made aware of the facts that which objective will contain what marks. This draws transparency in the marking scheme. They can analyze their mistake and will try and improve it.

Marking scheme for essay writing should be practical enough to be relatable in the present time. It should improvise and motivate the student to improve and strive back hard.

These are some characteristics of a good marking scheme. Though various other universities may have a slight difference from the above aspect, most of them do agree on the same ground. 

Marking Scheme for essay

When in terms of marking scheme for essay writing, there is a section which the marks are distributed.

Here are the points in which the marks are allotted:-

This was the marking style for an essay. With the help of above mention description, you will be able to write an essay that will be efficient enough to score a good grade. 

Wrapping up! An essay is an essential part of a curriculum. Essays are very scoring, all you need to know is the right pattern and the marking scheme of the essay. There are several samples of marking scheme for essay, from which you can have an idea about it. 

Hopefully, this would have helped you with your essay writing. All the best!

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