The eyes have it

We're coming to the end of the year here and starting the run up to end of year exams. All those students who've been just a little too laid-back during the year are suddenly starting to look worried and I keep getting comments such as "I owe you three pieces of writing". Now I admit I'm not the best at marking writing, just trying to decipher some of my students' handwriting is bad enough without trying to understand what they are trying to say.

However this is made much worse when I'm suddenly handed a bundle of written work six weeks after the due date. I can't remember what the writing was about at that point let alone how I marked it for the people who handed it in on time. Now, in theory, it shouldn't matter how I marked the others, I should be marking each piece against the criteria set by the original question but, in reality, it isn't that simple. It is pretty commonly admitted in the staffroom that students who do their exams on a different date to the rest of the class usually score lower than their peers. We don't know why but there seems to be some sort of collective consciousness in an exam room that helps participants and the same applies to written work.

Anyway, the upshot of this is that I'm about to be inundated with loads of student writing. My eyes, my eyes.