Form 3 - DONE! Phew!

Alhamdulillah, I suppose this is truly the gift of Ramadhan. I managed to finish marking PMR trial English Paper 2. The best part was, I didn't sit out on Tarawih prayers and did all 23 rakaat and after a bit of snacking I continued with Section B and finished Section C right after. For those of you who have never done this job, you're in for quite a surprise if you try your hands on using the powerful red pen to mark an abundant of scripts produced by kids. Let me just explain to you the intricacies of marking paper. Once you get the papers you usually wait for the marking scheme to arrive first before opening the bundle. Once received, you'd start by reading through the answer scheme and understanding it first before you start to mark. It's very important to roughly know what is deemed as a good piece of writing which usually merits good grades like A or B, the average lot (usually ranging from C to D) and also equally important what is considered atrocious piece of writing as well. Please bear in mind, setting a clear standard for the grades is a highly difficult task because you seriously do not want to be unfair to any candidate, then again, this is highly debatable as well - especially when it comes to subjective papers which is based on impressionistic marking. Moving along, once that's sorted out you'll start your torturous journey to marking papers. According to what I have leart, markers are not supposed to dirty the candidates' papers, but since this is just a trial exam, as in not the real deal, I did make some correction to their spelling just so they'd learn the correct ones when they review their papers later (if they do). Anyhow, what markers usually do is make some markings; i.e. underline for gross error, squiggly line for inappropriate words and another sign is called the omission sign. We also use // to indicate multiple word error which means to say the sentence needs reworking because there are just too many errors. This is definitely the most painful part of marking because it not only tests your grammar knowledge, it also makes you confused whether or not the sentence is completely wrong or still can be salvaged with only a few words changed or added. Often times, the way you understand what they say is probably different from what they are really trying to say. Once that's over comes another difficult part, which is grading the piece of writing. Grading comes in 2 levels; content and language. You also consider how well the candidate managed to fulfill the task given. Have they done what they're supposed to do? I.e. write a letter, report or just write a story? When it comes to grading, grades will be distributed according to bands and each band has its descriptors or criteria but please bear in mind that no writing will perfectly fit every criterion or descriptor in the particular band, sometimes you do just follow your gut. As for me, I usually look through the piece I've marked and see how many red underlines I've made. I also consider those parallel lines on the right hand side and see if the candidate have completed the task. Then, I put a grade I deem suitable for it with a justification of why I place that piece of writing in that particular band. After that, I move on to the next candidate. That's one part of marking for one piece of answer script. That multiplied by 3 sections and multiplied by the number of scripts you have...you just created a maze in your own brain. Having marked last year's SPM paper, I remember sleeping almost the whole day upon completion of the first set of papers. It's extremely tiring. Maybe this isn't as tiring as working in the ER or on an oil rig but the amount of stress is more or less the same. The only advantage is I get to snack in between, play with my niece and rest for a bit while I do all this. No wonder they say this is the ideal job for wives and moms. Now I'm left with a bundle of Form 1 UKS and Form 4 Paper 1 Section B. Hopefully Form 1 will be a quickie, it is 1 Harmoni after all...now I need to sleep. Toodles!