Marking time

I know I said the other day that I don't blog about my students but I've been undergoing a minor version of hell the last couple of day (one of the outer circles, so not toooo bad, I guess).

In the afternoon I teach exam classes, a different class Monday to Thursday but all doing the same exam. This week they took a mock exam. The questions are multiple answer and the answer sheets are columns of circles with A, B, C or D printed in them. The candidate has to fill in the circle they believe is the correct answer.

There are two hundred questions in this exam. I have, on average, 13 students per class. Each answer sheet takes about 15 minutes to mark. You do the maths!

No I don't get paid any extra for doing this as industry policy is that marking homework, preparing lessons and marking exams is allowed for in the hourly rate paid. My eyes are scratchy and my back aches AND I've got another twelve to do tomorrow night.

We repeat it all again in two weeks time but I'm hoping to have a better marking system worked out by then (involving a stencil or mask with the correct answers cut out so I can just count them up).

In the meantime, does anyone know a good masseur?