Students don't lose marks

The student points to their exam paper, their finger sits right on top of their scrawled handwriting. They ask you:

“So, where did I lose marks?”

I find this question so frustrating. It’s like some students think they acquire a bunch of marks (sometimes even full marks) and then teachers pick away marks. Or that they start with full marks and then…I’m not sure. 

I’d like students to see things differently. I’d like them to see it more from my perspective. My perspective being:

As a teacher, I’m always looking to award marks. I’m never looking to remove marks. 

Marking is like building a house

Let’s expand on this idea. I try to communicate to students that, when I’m marking, I’m thinking of a house. The student starts with nothing, zero, a genuine greenfield development. Each element of their response creates the levels of the house — right up to a finished product. 

No-one’s “losing” marks here. To achieve full marks, students need to gain marks by demonstrating a true top-quality response. Every part of the response — each sentence, idea, quote, statistic, example, detail, connection to the stimulus — needs to go toward answering the question.

Each element of the response needs to add to the ‘house’. Any waffle or extraneous information will be ignored and not eligible for marks.

It could be helpful to think about the world of debating. In debates, adjudicators award points for the most relevant and compelling arguments. If an adjudicator hears an argument that just doesn’t land, they don’t remove marks. They don’t award marks. They simply ignore the comment. 

Same same for exam responses. If a student includes irrelevant information, it’s not eligible for marks. It’s insufficient to gain marks.