Marking Over

Well, that wasn’t too painful. I’ve completed my marking duties. The fact that it has been pouring with rain most of the day made it easy to concentrate on this task. I was going to have a break for lunch, but I decided to keep on going until I was finished, though I did have to take a break for a telecon this afternoon. I also had to dash out to the shops, primarily to replenish my stock of food for the garden birds but also to get some groceries for myself. Having skipped lunch I bought myself something nice for supper.

Looking at the departmental database I see that I appear to be the first member of staff to have finished and uploaded all their Semester 1 examination marking. Normally I’m just happy if I’m not the last!

It feels good to have finished this task. It’s definitely a weight off my mind. I can’t say anything about the results of course but the change I made to continuous assessment, from take-home assignments to class tests, does not seem to have had a negative effect on either group of students I have been teaching. The opposite may indeed have been the case, as the class tests perhaps provide better preparation for the final assessment than the previous method. I think some other lecturers might make a similar switch in future. Anyway, I definitely plan to do something similar for my Semester 2 module on Particle Physics.

Now I have a couple of weeks before teaching resumes so I can get on with other things. For the rest of this week my priority is to finish revising a paper that I hoped to do before Christmas. I’ll see how that goes before deciding what to do next.

I’ll also have to prepare teaching for Semester 2. That shouldn’t be too difficult, as I’ve taught both modules before, but I do have to give some thought as to precisely how I’m going to word the instructions on the use of AI for my Computational Physics module. That can wait a little while, though, as it mainly affects the mini-project to be done towards the end of the Semester. In the meantime I’ll be thinking about other things…

#assessment #Examinations #GenAI #Marking #teaching

Marking Progress

The last day of a week dominated by examination marking found me briefly back on campus to return the batch of scripts I have finished corrrecting and collect the next set (which, happily, is much smaller):

There are 14 scripts in the pile for my second paper, for my 4th year Mathematical Physics module on Differential Equations and Complex Analysis, around one-third of those for my Engineering Mathematics module Differentiaol Equations and Transform Methods. Based on the total number of examinations I have to mark I am therefore now 50% complete, but based on the number of scripts I’m about 75% through. I should be able to finish the latest batch in a day, but there’s no desperate rush so I’ll do them on Monday. I’m not going to start them now as I am off a concert – my first of 2026 – this evening and I prefer not to work at weekends unless I absolutely have to.

I finished the first set of marking yesterday, and spent most of this morning uploading and checking the scores and the conflation of exam marks with coursework scores. Satisfied that all is OK, I returned the scripts to the office for storage until our Examination Board meeting in about 10 days. I wasn’t on campus long, but there was a fire alarm in the Science Building while I was there. As usual, it turned out to be a false alarm.

Anyway, I should be finished with examination matters by Monday evening, which gives me four days next week to get on with other things. I’m looking forward to the change.

#Correcting #DifferentialEquationsAndComplexAnalysis #Examinations #Marking

The Exam Room – Cyril E. Power

The Exam Room by Cyril E. Power (c. 1934, linocut, 26.6 x 38.2 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; not on display)

#Art #CyrilEPower #Examinations #Linocut #TheMet

Marking Time Once More

Lecturers at Maynooth University are supposed to be available on the telephone to deal with queries from students concerning their examinations. And so it came to pass that yesterday I was “on call”. Since I live in Maynooth, I decided to come into campus in case of a query so I could go to the examination venue l to deal with it if required. In the event, however, the examination passed off without incident and nobody called.

I wasn’t twiddling my thumbs all morning though. It seemed a good opportunity to go through the accumulated coursework for this module, applying various exemptions for medical or other reasons, so that when I’ve marked the scripts I can immediately combine the results with the CA component.

The examination venue, incidentally, was not on campus but in the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth. The Sports Hall on campus is usually one of the places for examinations to be sat, but it is not available this year due to refurbishment. The other day I was in one of the shops in the shopping centre next to the hotel and there were some complaints about the lack of available car parking spaces owing to so many students parking there for their exams. Anyway, the exam scripts found their way to my office this morning and here I am again, back home with a stack of an examination scripts to mark. The picture shows about 40 papers from my module on Differential Equations and Transform Methods. I want to get them out of the way as quickly as possible as I have another paper coming up on Thursday and have a lot of other things to do before term starts at the beginning of February. All the usual displacement activities having been exahusted, I’ve already made a start. With a bit of luck I’ll complete this task by Thursday.

I’ve often discussed the process of marking examinations with my colleagues and they all have different techniques. What I do is mark one question at a time rather than one script at a time. What I mean by that is that I go through every script marking all the attempts at Question 1, then I start again and do Question 2, etc. I find that this is much quicker and more efficient than marking all the questions in each script then moving onto the next script. The reason for this is that I can upload into my mind the model answer for Question 1 so that it stays there while I mark dozens of attempts at it so I don’t have to keep referring to the marking scheme. Other advantages are that it’s easier to be consistent in giving partial credit when you’re doing the same question over and over again, and that also you spot what the common mistakes are more easily.

Anyway, I’ve decided to take a break for today. I’ll start again tomorrow.

#Correcting #Examinations #Marking #MaynoothUniversity #Scripts

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
-- Charles Caleb Colton

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #CharlesCalebColton #Examinations

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Flowers #Junkyard #Minnesota

Exam Time Yet Again

The January examination period at Maynooth starts tomorrow (Friday 9th January), so I thought I’d do a quick post on the topic of examinations. First of all let me wish the very best of luck to everyone at Maynooth or elsewhere taking examinations in the next few weeks. I hope at least that the exam halls are nice and warm! Actually, owing to the Sport Hall being unavailable for this examination period owing to building work, some exams will be off campus; my first exam paper is actually being sat in the GlenRoyal hotel.

Here’s a video produced by Maynooth University to remind those taking exams of some general points about preparation and, most importantly, to look after themselves before during the examination period. It’s directed at Maynooth students but students from elsewhere may find useful tips in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c02JFEBrbs

I completed the last of my revision sessions today but, as the first examination for which I have responsibility is not until Monday 12th, I’ll have to wait to find out how any of my own students have done but let me take this opportunity to pass on a few of my own tips more aimed at students in Physics:

Readers of this blog are welcome to add other tips through the comments box below!

#Examinations #HigherEducation #MaynoothUniversity #theoreticalPhysics

The subjects that were dearest to the examiners were almost invariably those I fancied least... I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know. When I would have willingly displayed my knowledge, they sought to expose my ignorance. This sort of treatment had only one result: I did not to well in examinations.
-- Winston Churchill

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #WinstonChurchill #Education #Examinations

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #CoyoteButtesNorth #TheWave #VermilionCliffs #Utah

Section 144 extended in Rawalpindi amid security concerns

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://dailytimes.com.pk/1414369/section-144-extended-in-rawalpindi-amid-security-concerns/

The subjects that were dearest to the examiners were almost invariably those I fancied least... I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know. When I would have willingly displayed my knowledge, they sought to expose my ignorance. This sort of treatment had only one result: I did not to well in examinations.
-- Winston Churchill

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #WinstonChurchill #Education #Examinations

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Hammock #KinderhookCreek #NewYork

Good Luck in Your Repeat Exams!

Since the repeat examination period at Maynooth University starts today, Wednesday 6th August, I thought’d I’d send a quick message for students taking one or more exams…

#Examinations #MaynoothUniversity #RepeatExaminations #ResitExaminations