I have experience in grading math Olympiad papers; one principle we adopted there is to always grade in pairs, with one pair grading a single problem, or more pairs sharing a long or tricky exercise. I recommend this strategy especially for grading more important papers such as final exams, where good accuracy is important.
It may seem that this is a waste of resources; however there are several benefits:
- Accuracy increases much. A subtle error has to slip through two people instead of one.
- You do not waste so much time as it seems at first sight. Grading often follows an 80-20 law: 80% of the papers takes you 20% of the time, while grading the remaining 20% consumes the remaining 80% of it. This may be due to particularly non-standard solutions, bad handwriting, or edge cases that evade your marking scheme (as suggested by Dan C, always have a marking scheme, especially if there are multiple pairs on the same problem, and discuss together the more complicated cases). So, while you waste some time by having two sets of eyeballs looking at the easier papers, it is often invaluable to have a ready help in the more complicated cases. Your colleague may be faster than you in spotting a definition that you missed, a hidden line of reasoning, or deciphering a strangely-looking hieroglyph. This saves a lot of time on the more complicated cases.
- You will feel a lot less tired and find that you can go on with a steady rhythm for hours. You can chat together every now and then, share comments on good solutions, or make fun of particularly bad ones; this helps relieving tiredness.
Often we see one person trying to explain the solution to the other, or the pair spontaneously evolving a good cop-bad cop behaviour (one looks for weak points in the solution, the other defends the student). This method also doubles as training for beginner graders, that can learn from working with a more experienced partner.
"Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Kila mara, tunapofanya mazoezi ya hesabu, tunapima kwa jozi, na jozi moja hupima tatizo moja, au jozi kadhaa zinashiriki mazoezi marefu au magumu.""" Mimi kupendekeza mkakati huu hasa kwa ajili ya grading karatasi muhimu zaidi kama vile mitihani ya mwisho, ambapo usahihi mzuri ni muhimu. Inaweza kuonekana kwamba hii ni kupoteza rasilimali; hata hivyo kuna faida kadhaa: - Usahihi huongezeka sana. Kosa dogo linapaswa kupita kwa watu wawili badala ya mmoja. - Wewe si kupoteza muda mwingi kama inaonekana kwa mtazamo wa kwanza. Kwa mfano, kwa mujibu wa sheria ya 80:20, 80% ya kazi huchukua 20% ya muda, wakati 20% ya kazi inachukua 80% ya muda. Hii inaweza kuwa kutokana na hasa suluhisho zisizo za kawaida, maandishi mabaya, au kesi za makali ambazo huepuka mpango wako wa alama (kama inavyopendekezwa na Dan C, daima kuwa na mpango wa alama, haswa ikiwa kuna jozi nyingi kwenye tatizo moja, na kujadili pamoja kesi ngumu zaidi). Kwa hiyo, wakati wewe kupoteza muda kwa kuwa na seti mbili za jicho kuangalia karatasi rahisi, ni mara nyingi thamani ya kuwa na msaada tayari katika kesi ngumu zaidi. Huenda mwenzako akawa mwepesi kuliko wewe katika kutambua ufafanuzi ambao umekosa, mstari wa kufikiri uliofichwa, au kufunua heroglif ya ajabu. Hii huokoa muda mwingi katika kesi ngumu zaidi. - Utahisi uchovu mdogo na utapata kwamba unaweza kuendelea kwa muda wa saa nyingi. Unaweza kuzungumza pamoja mara kwa mara, kushiriki maoni juu ya suluhisho nzuri, au kucheka hasa zile mbaya; hii husaidia kupunguza uchovu. Mara nyingi tunaona mtu mmoja akijaribu kuelezea suluhisho kwa mwingine, au jozi hiyo kwa ghafla inabadilisha tabia ya polisi mzuri-mpolisi mbaya (mmoja hutafuta pointi dhaifu katika suluhisho, mwingine anamlinda mwanafunzi). Njia hii pia huongeza mafunzo kwa wanafunzi wa darasa la mwanzoni, ambao wanaweza kujifunza kutoka kwa kufanya kazi na mpenzi mwenye uzoefu zaidi.