Marking of matric exams

I was involved with marking the WCED matric exam papers where many of the markers came from places as far away as Knysna, Mossel Bay and Heidelberg. The day following the marking I set off driving to Mossel Bay and as I drove the long road I wondered at people going from so far away all the way to a marking centre to mark. I salute all the markers, those from near and far!
Picture of me walking along the cliffs at Mossel Bay

Multiple choice questions - Solution to marking?

During the course of 2010 I became very tired of marking the never ending amount to work in CAT. During the year I completed the Get Smarter Internet SuperUser course where we had multiple choice questions (MCQ) at the end of many of the modules. I wondered if those MCQ questions were an answer to the pen and paper marking!

At school during the year we did self marking MCQ questions with software from Virtual Assessor (VA) every Monday on the previous week’s work, theory and practical. Have a look at a PPT on VA presented at a conference in September. I think Evalunet and Moodle have similar self marking features to Virtual Assessor.

We learned the theory, mainly in Grades 10 and 11, and the practical in Grade 12 with regular tests.

At the end of the year I thought of using just a big MCQ test for the theory exams, and not doing the normal written paper. At the end we did both papers, a big MCQ exam using VA and the normal written exam. One exam paper marked in 1 second and the other took ages to mark. For both grades 10 and 11 the VA paper had a mark of 65% and the written 35%. I added the two percentages together and used the average for the final written exam mark. Now such a difference shows that there is a huge gap in knowing the work and applying it, and has again made me rethink the role of MCQ. Maybe I also needed to improve my questions. However doing these tests kept me focused on my teaching and the learners on learning. Here are my exams copied from VA, Grade 10 and Grade 11. (Obviously they cannot work as self marking questions as they are not in VA but have a look.) I think they are quite demanding and difficult, but both grades achieved 65%. Why the huge difference? What should be used at schools for revision tests? What should be used for high stakes exams

Gr 12 Exam guidelines

The Department supplied a document on guidelines for examinations which I made into a PPT.  The CPUT ACE students found it useful so here it is for all to see.

Exam considerations

I have been looking at old exam papers. Problems come to mind:

• Our learners do not have bank accounts where they can experience Internet banking. We should teach it using real banking, but keeping our financial details private – tricky!
• Our learners have not experienced dot matrix printers, something all older CAT teachers know – how do we show it to our learners or how do we demonstrate it?
• Our learners have not experienced stiffy disks, something all those from affluent schools and ‘modern’ homes do not know – how do we show it to our learners or how do we demonstrate it?

These are all questions which older CAT teachers know and regularly put in examination papers, but have difficulty teaching to our young people.
And found on a paper – May a school … Learners mix it with Can a school … Learners should know the difference between Can and May!

Examination dates

The Grade 12 dates for the final CAT examinations in 2009 have been announced:
Wednesday 07/10 - Speed Test (Optional) 8h00
Thursday 08/10 - Paper 1 (3hrs), Practical Speed Test (Optional) 8h00
Thursday 05/11 - Paper 2 (3hrs) 14h00
Here is a copy of the full timetable.

Examinations

Marking of the Gr 12 CAT examinations is taking place around the country. I am part of a group marking the Theory paper. What a wonderful experience it has been so far! So much bonding and learning about the subject and answering examination questions. I am sure that everyone is going to go home at the end of the period having benefited from the experience.
Here is a picture of the group of teachers in the Western Cape who marked the Theory Gr 12 paper in 2008.

Examination papers

There have been repeated requests to get the password for the exam papers. There is only one way to get them. You must have completed the document found on the studyopportunities.co.za web site and faxed it back to the correct place. The password would then have been SMSed to you. It is also pointless putting a request in a 'Comment' if you do not add contact details, and the password cannot be put onto the blog as that defeat the point of having a password.

Tests and exam papers

We must be sure to set tests and exam paper in a scenario where the learners apply their knowledge. For many teachers this is quite a jump from their old method but this is what makes CAT so useful – all knowledge must be applied and not just lose facts.

Examinations

Getting the balance in examinations is a bit tricky. Each AS does NOT carry the same weight. Not all ASs are tested in a written or practical examination. CAT actually has 4 papers. The PAT assesses much of LO3 and LO2. The written paper assesses mainly LO1, and a little of the other LOs. The practical paper assesses mainly LO2 but also LO3.
Enjoy setting your papers. Think of a topic of interest to the learners when you set a paper, and base the paper in the scenario. I have managed to create a cool paper for Gr 10 Written and it is all based on a scenario, testing operational knowledge in that scenario with a problem based approach. This weekend I must set the practical paper. I have been mentally creating it for some time - I know it takes ages to create such a paper but when you see learners enjoying a paper, it makes one feel good. I usually base the grade 10 and 11 papers on the same scenario with questions of lesser or greater difficulty.

Setting CAT examination papers

During the holidays I started setting my end of year exam papers. Here is what I will use as my check list for setting papers.
Written paper
Key words - Take key words of the Learning Outcomes into consideration: For the written paper it is mainly LO1 - ‘The learner is able to demonstrate operational knowledge of information and communication technologies and the environments in which they operate.’ The key word is ‘operational’.
Scenario - The paper set in a scenario, which the learners can identify with.
Conceptual level - The paper is set keeping a simplified Bloom’s taxonomy in mind with 3 categories with 30%, 40% and 30%.
What - The list of what should be examined is found on pages 32-35 of the LPG (Jan 2007). I do not know what the balance should be for each of the areas (rows in the table)

I do realise that I am in a transition phase between subjects and much studying of the official documents, i.e. NCS, LPG and SAG, still need to be done. Now that I have these points clear I will move on with greater clarity. I feel quite embarrassed that I had not noticed these important pages in the LPG before - I had mainly looked at the SAG!
I will look at the practical paper later.

How to manage and mark a practical computer examination

This PowerPoint was written as a number of trainee computer teachers asked how to manage and mark a practical computer examination. This is how I do it. Officials may have a slightly different ways but this has worked for me for years. Listen to it. It may take a little while to download.
This PowerPoint should view easily and the audio should be clear. If it does not run check that you have a Sun Microsystems Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Sun JRE version 5 (1.5.0_07) is strongly recommended. If you do not have a JRE environment download it free from the Java web site. It is best viewed at 1024 X 768 settings.
The PowerPoint was made or changed with Impatica from Impatica.com. I have just checked – an educational licence for one copy is USD299. I cannot afford it and am using an evaluation copy. It is great software!!