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removed. The use of the new auto-marking feature now sifts the responses leaving only
“true” responses which can be marked by the relevant markers.

66. FAC heard that a second success was related to the coordination of CXC’s processes

such that within 5 days of an examination being sat, the Examining Committee was provided
with its Mark Scheme and thus was enabled to begin planning the subject’s standardization
process.

Marking Issues

67. FAC was informed of the following issues which occurred during the 2017 January
marking activity:

(i) Two subjects, English A and English B, experienced particular challenges in the
January session;

(ii) From the start, there was a difficulty meeting the recruitment quota for English
B. The current recruitment process sought to place adequate numbers of
persons on all Questions, so as to ensure that marking of all questions could
begin simultaneously. In the past, it was expected that markers would be re-
assigned from questions whose marking was completed early;

(iii) Despite a slow start, marking of English B was completed one day before the
deadline;

(iv) English A, however, suffered badly, with in excess of 200 suspensions over the
marking period;

(v) English A also had the largest number of suspensions per question – as many
as 68 for a question, whereas the number of suspensions did not exceed 12
per question for all other subjects;

(vi) Three main strategies were undertaken to ensure that the marking of English
A was completed. These included re-standardizing suspended markers on
other questions and allowing them to continue marking; encouraging
competent and accurate markers from English B who had completed marking
their subject to assist with the marking of English A; and seeking and assigning
new markers.

(vii) Additionally, the Chief Examiner facilitated a seminar on the marking of the
Summary, a question which proved to be a challenge for even specialist
markers from previous sittings; and

(viii) Discussions with the Chief and Subject Officers led to the following
recommendations for improvement:

a. Technical training for the Assistant Chiefs to ensure a greater level of
competence with the Tool;

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