Are you a hard marker?

At the start of semester I gave my students a mark breakdown. 50% class work, 20% exam, 30% journal. If you miss more than three classes you fail.

Well, I did my marking and most students got 60-75%. Honestly most avoided talking in class and the number of exams I heard about 'my family' or 'my hometown' made me want to scratch my eyes out.

I handed out 8 scores in the 80s and no 90s.

I don't consider myself a tough marker, but being realistic my students deserved their marks (IMHO).

From what I hear the other foreign teachers were much easier markers, and student often scored 96% or so. I had to work my butt off to get a score like that at university, and none of my students even went close to reaching that point (again, IMHO).

So, are you a hard marker? What is the average mark you give?

No, I think it sounds about right, I'm the same. But I tend to mark harder when I've had little sleep- and let my students know that  !

The usual marking system for chinese teachers is something like from 91-100, which to me is meaningless.

It should looks something like a bell curve, with most students passing, some failing, those with one standard deviation from the norm getting 65-75, two 75-85, 3 85-95, etc. Or of that order. NOT 90% get over 90%.

But I have to say that I no longer mark as hard as I used to, because I no longer feel that bad marks are important or have any use, especially if they can't be informed as to WHY the marks are good or bad, as is so often the case.

I coach them instead, including informing them as to their oral marks at the end of their dialogue/speech etc. I find it works better. Most pass fine, but those that don't do the work, funnily enough, fail.

I was prepared to be a hard marker.  I made the standards clear at the beginning of my oral class and told them the weight for each element.  The gifted students all applied themselves and based on the standards that I set, they all scored over 83%, with less than half over 90%. 

The 200 student medical English lecture class was told they'd have 2 written exams.  There would be 30 points for the mid-term and 70 for the final.  Questions were fill in the blank, matching, and multiple choice regarding the terminology.  That class did fall into a perfect bell curve and I was really excited.  Not to anyone's surprise, the faces I recognized from the front rows were the high scorers.  But, only 4 students failed, and 4 got scores in the 90's.

On the other hand, the other FT gave 85's to all of the students who didn't attend class, and 90-99's to the rest of his 200.  He said he didn't feel like being responsible for anyone failing.

I did find that doing short practice versions of the speaking and listening tasks, using the marking criteria and forms that I would use for the final was very inspirational for the students.  A lot of 75's on the rehearsal test became 80's or 90's a week later.  I should have done it sooner, I think.

When I first got to China, I marked like I did back home. Scores between 70 and 98 and clustered around 85. I rarely gave less than 70 either here or back home unless the student was a complete fuck-up or plagiarized. I've been lucky to have very few of the former either here or back home. (At my college back home, a score of less than 70 meant you passed the course, but got no credit for it. Less than 60 was a failure, no credit (of course), and you were required to repeat it.)

I had a great first dean and he explained a few things to me after the first semester about how things work in the Chinese education system. (I wish all deans were like him.) As a result, I changed a few of my previous practices.

First, and on this topic, he told me that FTs were known to be easy graders. That was OK, he said, as long as it was true across the board. My grades had been an outlier, he told me.  Cynics will say, "Well, they'll just change the grades," but that wasn't the case there. Here's what he said, "Chinese students are grouped in classes and they go through all 4 years with the same class. And there are [at that school then] 8 classes of English majors. They all compete for awards within their own class, eg. class monitor, study monitor, etc. So  it doesn't matter WITHIN the class, whether the teacher is an easy or tough grader, as long as it's fair to all. However, BETWEEN the classes, there is a lot of competition not only for awards, e.g. best class, most civilized class, etc., but also, and most importantly for scholarships. The students with the highest averages get scholarships and students from the classes with the tough grader are put at a disadvantage. Also there is the (infamous) Three Goods Award (Good Student, Good Morals, Good Politics) award which goes on their college record and can get them into the Party. Again, students with a teacher who marks tougher than others are at a disadvantage."

I considered all this and made apersonal and professional (such as it is in China) decision to ease up on my marking. These kids get enough competitive pressure from many areas at school, there's no use in one teacher who's a prick adding another brick or two to that load.

While I'm on the subject, another behavior of mine that changed as a result of that conversation was my use of photocopies in the classroom. My college back home had a photocopy center that would fill two classrooms here staffed by 2 old women and about 8 student workers. I could swing by, fill out a request form, drop a pile of 20 pages requesting 20 copies (well there were some limits, basically based on copyright laws-no more than one chapter of a book, etc.) and pick it up a half hour later....while I dropped another load for another class.

When I got to China, I started the same way, although it was more difficult. I had to go to a copy shop, get them done myself, get a receipt, turn it in and be reimbursed at payday. But I papered my Lit students that first semester with 10 page copies of various short stories. In my Survey class, the final exam ran to 8 pages long. I never had a problem getting reimbursed. But what I didn't know is what the Dean told me next. The school charges those copies back to the students. Each student has an account and every time a teacher makes receipted copies, it's charged against the class account and then divided among the students. I stopped being a copy freak. I took that final exam, reduced the font size from 14 to 9, widened the margins, eliminated the headers and footers, spread the multiple choice answers horizontally across one row rather then vertically taking up 4 rows, and got that 8 page sucker down to two pages which could be copied front and back, i.e. one piece of paper, and as a result saved a few trees and the students quite a bit of kuai.

I won't even mention the fact that students have to pay 100-200 RMB if you fail them.

Anyway, my overall point is that I'm no longer a hard marker (to answer the original question) because the realities facing Chinese students forced me to re-think some of my practices.

Great post Old34

I consider myself a very clinical marker. My "whatever" (she's not really my boss, she is just the person who makes my schedule and the one I have to submit my grades to) told me last year that I gave the lowest grades of all the foreign teachers last year. Indeed, I failed 15 per cent of my students, mostly due to plagiarism and attendance. But I don't think that's being a "hard marker".

 Actually, when I say "fail" I just mean I gave them less than 60 per cent. The way it works is their total English grade is based 50 per cent on the final exam, 30 per cent on their reading course and 20 per cent on my oral course. So it is quite possible for someone to "fail" my course and still get a passing grade overall.

 I try not to think about stuff like this too much.

I consider myself to be a strict teacher but not a hard marker. Old34's post pretty much summed up my reasons for this choice. Especially since I teach IELTS. IELTS students only take the class so they can pass the official IELTS test. Last year I gave what I considered good grades, all of them in the higher 80's, which resulted in students calling me up crying, explaining that they could lose their scholarship. Turns out Western grades and Chinese grades differ a little.

As long as the students show an interest, read what I want them to read and try to learn, their marks will be high.

I agree that uni marks back home don't work here - when I was in uni anything over 60 was great and over 70 meant a first - I got two firsts in the whole 4 years for what was unquestionably my best work. On my course of 15 people, only 2 got firsts ie averaged 70+.

Here in China teaching oral or written English classes in a university I marked as follows:
under 60% fail
60-70 C
70-85 B (B- 70, B 75, B+ 80)
85-100 A (A- 85, A 90, A+ 95)

On the whole I used to think of my students in bands ie A,B,C, especially for oral English, and then apply the appropriate mark as I found it very hard to think "that ss deserves 82%, whereas he should get 91%. Average students who came to class, did the work and did the exam would get between 75-85 with only very good students getting anything over 90. And like others I split my class marks into 10% attendance, 20% class work, 30% mid-term and 40% final so they couldn't fail on any one thing.

This last year I have been teaching an HND feeder programme linked to the British university system so I have had to mark much more harshly as everything is externally verified - even if I was nice they would fail later down the line. So they get pass, merit, distinction or Redo - but they can redo as many times as necessary and I do my best to work with those who want to pass to help them pass.

I find it very hard to mark with real confidence that I'm getting it right - there's always an element of subjectivity, right? I probably tend toward being a little severe, as it seems better than lulling students into a false sense of security.

It's hard for me to answer this with a simple yes-or-no.

I do, at least, try to be fair. If a student shows me something, somewhere, that attempts to answer the question and demonstrates at least some dim glimmer of comprehension of or ability in the topic, I give them as much credit for it as I possibly can. I don't try  to fail anyone...I give them as much chance to succeed as I can.

However, wrong is wrong. I don't do any "gimmes" when the answers are completely...wrong.

I also don't "curve" my class grades.

And I have ZERO tolerance for plagiarism, meaningless circumlocution in lieu of an actual answer, and other such dodges. When I see these, to quote the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds".

So, I dunno...am I a "hard marker"?

This topic really opened my eyes for me, I had thought that it was a yes or no kinda question, but everyone who has contributed has a fair point in what they say..... thanks guys. Maybe when I start marking I will be a little less 'rigid' in my yes's and no's ...but I'm with the boss on this one when wrong is wrong, I can't see myself being convinced to mark wrong as right.

I've never done any marking, other than "oral" tests. "Good morning. What is your name?" "Fine, thank you"........OK zero! Unless of course, it is one of my normally good students with stage fright.

When I see these, to quote the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds".

Why doesn't this man have his own TV show?

Why doesn't this man have his own TV show?

Because it's only us that understand him!!