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Rubric Grids: Essay Marking Made Easy!

• Introduction (3 marks available)
• Conclusion (2 marks available)
• Topic Sentences (4 marks available)
• Breadth (3 marks available)
• Depth (4 marks available)
• Style (4 marks available)

For each of these, I provide different level descriptors for 1 mark up to the maximum available for that particular essay feature. Then, it’s simply a question of shading off the correct cell in the grid and providing an explanation on the right-hand side.

The benefits of this approach are that I mark the essay much more methodically, but also much more quickly. Rather than  make one overall evaluation right at the end of the essay, I instead make separate, shorter but more focused comments about half a dozen features of the piece. This provides the students with feedback which is directly comparable to their previous essay rubric so they can spot exactly where they have improved, and where they need to focus next.

Marking Rubric for History Essays

If you have similar rubrics for other subject areas that you’d like to share on this blog, feel free to contact me!

Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How your writing is marked

How your writing is marked

One of the big mysteries about the FCE exam is how the writing exam is marked. Many of my students ask me about this and, to be honest, it is pretty complex. However, let me break it down for you and let’s go from simple to complex so at the end of the article you will feel more confident and understand what you need to do in order to get great marks in the writing paper.

There are four marking scales in the writing exam. Each of these scales looks at specific aspects of your writing. Generally speaking the four parts are:

• Content – answering the task, supporting your ideas
• Communicative achievement – register, tone, clear ideas, conventions of the specific task type
• Organisation – structure of the text, logical order, connected ideas
• Language – grammar and vocabulary

Each scale is scored out of 5 so you can get a maximum of 20 marks where 3/5 basically means that you have passed this part of your writing.

The four marking scales

Now, of course, it is time to have a look at the four different marking scales in a little bit more detail. I’m going to keep it as simple as possible with examples and explanations so you know what to do.

The very first thing an examiner is going to look at is the Content scale. Here they check if you actually answered the task, if you answered it completely and if the reader of the text is fully informed.

So, what exactly does that mean? To find out let’s have a look at an example task from an FCE practice exam.

Looking at the example above there are four different things that we need to include in our writing if we want to score high marks on the Content marking scale.

First of all, there is a question for you to answer and, secondly, there are three topic points that you have to include in this essay. (Yes, your own idea means that you have to write something. Don’t forget this one.) It is also very important that you support your ideas with reasons and examples, which is one thing that separates the average candidates from the great ones. If you want to score high marks, you have to take your writing to a higher level.

To sum this up, always answer all the things that are asked in the task, but don’t stop there. Use reasons and examples to support your ideas to get higher marks and not ‘just pass’.

2. Communicative Achievement

The next marking scale is an interesting one because, in my opinion, it is easy to get good marks here, but at the same time, make mistakes just as easily.

To get high marks in Communicative Achievement you firstly need to show that you understand who is going to read your text. You might think that, of course, it is the examiner, but I’m talking about more of an imaginary reader. Let’s look at two more examples. Who is going to read your text? You got it, your English teacher is the one.

Now the question is what that means for your writing task? Ask yourself what kind of language and tone you would use if you wrote something for your English college magazine or the manager of a leisure centre. Would it be formal or informal? Would you use a lot of slang words and colloquial expressions?

In our first example, we would try to keep it light and rather informal because students are going to be the ones reading it. In the report, on the other hand, we would choose more formal language and stay a little bit more serious than, let’s say, in a review of your favourite film. Make sure that this becomes clear in your choice of grammar and vocabulary as well as some other stylistic features like contractions (I’m vs I am) etc.

Another important point for you to consider is what a report looks like compared to a review? Do you need a title? Subheadings? An introduction and/or conclusion? A greeting and salutation? Think about the specific features of each type of writing and make sure that the text you write looks that way.

Lastly, the Communicative Achievement scale also assesses your ability to clearly express your ideas and to hold the readers attention. You should ask yourself if you would enjoy reading your text and if your arguments or ideas are clearly communicated.

Let’s put this all together before we move on to the next point. Communicative Achievement looks at your ability to use an appropriate style and tone, the correct features for each specific task like title, subheadings, etc. as well as how well you express your ideas and hold the readers attention. It is a lot of stuff, but if you prepare and study these things a little bit, I see no reason why you wouldn’t rock it.

3. Organisation

Organisation, similar to Communicative Achievement, is an area where you can score marks very easily, but a lot of students don’t reach their full potential. We can look at two major problems that students face to explain where candidates lose (or don’t get more) marks.

To begin with, your writing tasks should always be organised in paragraphs. Making paragraphs is an easy task, but there is a little bit more to it than you might think at the beginning.

Looking back at our example from the beginning, how many paragraphs do you think we should use in the essay?

Tough question, I know. When we think about an essay, there should always be an introduction and a conclusion so two paragraphs are already locked in. The task above requires you to write about three topic points: transport, rivers and seas, and your own idea. That’s an additional three paragraphs and a total of five. Do this for every task before you start slamming words onto paper. It will save you a lot of headaches and self-hate.

I often see practice writing tasks that look well organised when I first read them. There are paragraphs clearly separated from each other and I feel a little rush of happiness…until I actually read it and realise that ideas are mixed thoughts are jumping around between different paragraphs and there is no logical order in what my students produce.

However, I don’t blame anyone for doing this because, especially at the beginning of your FCE journey, you simply don’t know what is expected of you.

So, paragraphs are great, but you have to put them in logical order (which depends on the task you’re working on) and have one main idea per paragraph. Don’t try to cram five different things in one. Make a plan before you start writing and avoid these unnecessary mistake.

Secondly, the examiner looks at your ability to connect your ideas using linking words and other methods. Once again, these words and methods can be similar for some task types but different for others.

Organisation checks your ability to bring a logical order to your writing. Use paragraphs for your main ideas and connect everything with linking words and other useful language. Make a plan and get organised before you start writing, save yourself some time and avoid getting stressed out.

4. Language

Language is probably the one marking scale that is quite straight forward. You are assessed on your use of grammar and vocabulary, which includes if you make a lot of errors as well as how wide your range of grammar and vocabulary is.

For example, if you are writing about travelling you should show a wide range of vocabulary specific to this topic. For a task about the environment the vocabulary changes. I guess that makes sense. The more pointed towards the task your words and expressions are, the better it is for your marks.

In the grammar department it is not so much about the task, but rather about you trying to use structures that are outside of your comfort zone or not. You don’t have to be perfect at this level of English so the FCE examiners recognise even attempts at more complex grammar.

So, the next time you practise writing for the exam challenge yourself to use at least three grammatical structures that you find difficult, such as conditionals, the passive voice or reporting verbs. Again, in the exam you won’t get punished for trying so why not try?

Writing is not as bad as it seems

After all this information you might feel a little overwhelmed wondering how you can meet all these requirements and get high marks. The good thing is that you really don’t need to worry too much. I know that you already do a lot of the points discussed in this post well. Your job is now to find the areas in which you can improve and start to work on them. All you need to do is trust yourself (and Teacher Phill).

I hope this article helps you understand better how the writing exam works and, more importantly, what happens after you finish the exam. As always, don’t wait until it’s too late. Tackle your problems now and you will improve. If you start today, I’m sure there won’t be a problem once you are in the examination room and your pen is going to fly over the paper.

Lots of love,

Teacher Phill 🙂

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the explanation regarding how to write and mark an essay has been most helpful. thanks

Thanks a lot for the piece of advice and encouragement in your article above. I’m still not very much confident about the range of linking words to express ideas better. Could you , please, recommend me a list of them or any other source of information about their usage?

I would simply do a Google search on linking expressions and I’m sure you will find tons of useful resources. 🙂

Thanks a lot!!! Very clear and extremely useful!

I’m happy you like the article. Thank you. 🙂

Comments are closed.

• Using Assessment Rubrics

A rubric for assessment, usually in the form of a matrix or grid, is a tool used to interpret and mark students' work against criteria and standards. Rubrics are sometimes called "criteria sheets", "grading schemes", or "scoring guides". Rubrics can be designed for any content domain.

A rubric makes explicit a range of assessment criteria and expected performance standards. Assessors evaluate a student's performance against all of these, rather than assigning a single subjective score. A rubric:

• makes students aware of all expectations related to the assessment task, and helps them evaluate their own work as it progresses
• helps teachers apply consistent standards when assessing qualitative tasks, and promotes consistency in shared marking.

Assessment rubrics can be used for assessing learning at all levels, from discrete assignments within a course through to program-level capstone projects and larger research or design projects and learning portfolios. You can use rubrics to structure discussions with students about different levels of performance on an assessment task. They can employ the rubric during peer-assessment and self-assessment.

Assessment rubrics:

• provide a framework that clarifies assessment requirements and standards of performance for different marks. This supports assessment as learning: students can see what is important and where to focus their learning efforts.
• enable very clear and consistent communication with students about assessment requirements and about how different levels of performance earn different marks. They allow assessors to give very specific feedback to students on their performance.
• when used for self-assessment and peer assessment, make students aware of assessment processes and procedures, enhance their meta-cognitive awareness and improve their capacity to assess their own work.
• can result in richer feedback to students, giving them a clearer idea of where they sit in terms of an ordered progression towards increased expertise in a learning domain.
• help staff teams develop a shared language for talking about learning and assessment by engaging them in rubric-based conversations about quality.
• help assessors efficiently and reliably interpret and grade students' work.
• systematically illuminate gaps and weaknesses in students' understanding against particular criteria, helping teachers target areas to address.

Using assessment rubrics can present a number of challenges:

• When learning outcomes relate to higher levels of cognition (for example, evaluating or creating), assessment designers can find it difficult to specify criteria and standards with exactitude. This can be a particular issue in disciplines or activities requiring creativity or other hard-to-measure capabilities.
• It can be challenging for designers to encompass different dimensions of learning outcomes (cognitive, psychomotor, affective) within specific criteria and standards. Performance in the affective domain in particular can be difficult to distinguish according to strict criteria and standards.
• Assessment rubrics are inherently indeterminate (Sadler, 2009), particularly when it comes to translating judgements on each criterion of an analytic rubric into marks.
• distorted grading decisions (Sadler, 2009) or
• students becoming over-dependent on the rubric and less inclined to develop their own judgement by creating, or contributing to the creation of, assessment rubrics ( Boud, 2010 ).

Design a rubric

An assessment rubric can be analytic or holistic.

• Analytic rubrics have several dimensions, with performance indicators for levels of achievement in each dimension.
• Holistic rubrics assess the task as a whole according to one scale, and are appropriate for less structured tasks, such as open-ended problems and creative products.

Assessment rubrics are composed of three elements:

• a set of criteria that provides an interpretation of the stated objectives (performance, behaviour, quality)
• a range of different levels of performance between highest and lowest
• descriptors that specify the performance corresponding to each level, to allow assessors to interpret which level has been met.

One useful design strategy is to take a generic assessment rubric that matches well with the assessment task objectives, discipline, level and other contextual setting, and adapt it for your own use, rewriting the attribute descriptions to reflect the course context, aims and learning outcomes, and to apply it to the specific assessment task.

Decide how the judgements at each level of attainment will flow through into the overall grading process and how rubric levels correspond to grades. Does the attainment of "advanced" skill or knowledge mean that a distinction or high distinction will be awarded? Does "developing" mean resubmission or fail?

Assess with rubrics

• Ensure that assessment rubrics are prepared and available for students well before they begin work on tasks, so that the rubric contributes to their learning as they complete the work.
• Discuss assessment rubrics with students in class time. Use these discussions to refine and improve rubrics in response to students' common misunderstandings and misconceptions.
• Practise using rubrics in class. Have students assess their own and their peers' work.
• Frame your assessment feedback to students in the terms laid out in the rubric, so that they can clearly see where they have succeeded or performed less well in the task.

Ensure fairness

Provide the assessment rubric for a task to students early, to increase its value as a learning tool. For example, you might distribute it as part of the task briefing and guidelines presentation. This helps students understand the task, and allows them to raise any concerns or questions about the task and how it will be assessed.

Write rubrics in plain English, and phrase them so that they are as unambiguous as possible.

Use technology

• Learning-management systems (e.g. Moodle) often allow the use of rubrics in assessment, including peer and self-assessment. In Moodle, you can create a rubric and use it to grade online activities such as assignments, discussions, blogs and wikis.
• GradeMark (part of the Turnitin suite of tools) provides a rubric function for online marking.
• Dedicated group peer assessment tools such as iPeer and WebPA also have a rubric function.
• A free online tool, iRubric , allows you to create, adapt and share rubrics online.

Case study: Video about iUNSW Rubrik Application

[See Transcript of video]

This video shows how the Mechanical Engineering project (ENGG1000, T1 2011) used the iUNSW Rubrik iPad marking app to mark the final project competition, making the process much quicker and more efficient.

UNSW Rubrics in Action - Chemical Engineering

Assessing a final year thesis.

As part of his final year undergraduate course in Chemical Engineering, Dr Graeme Bushell has designed and tested the rubric described below over several semesters.

Students in Chemical Engineering, Industrial Chemistry and Food Science programs at UNSW are required to deliver a poster at the end of their final year thesis, explaining their research results. The assessment task aligns with:

• the UNSW graduate capability of producing "scholars who are capable of effective communication", and
• the Engineers Australia stage 1 competency "effective oral and written communication in the professional and lay domains".

The posters are presented over one morning in the final week of semester, with school academic staff and postdoctoral fellows browsing the work. The session runs along the lines of a conference poster session, with students explaining their projects to small groups and/or individuals throughout the session and answering questions as appropriate. Academics are each assigned a set of posters to mark according to specified criteria, using marking sheets, with rubrics, which are collected at the end of the poster session. Each student receives at least 4 assessments. The marking sheets are then collated by the course convenor and a final mark allocated.

A change in assessment scheme

The assessment scheme used for the posters was changed from first semester 2012, as the new convenor for the final year thesis courses (Bushell) felt that the old scheme used too many assessment criteria, and that the implementation of a standards-based approach would improve practice—and more closely align with UNSW recommended practice at the time, which is now policy.

The criteria are listed and a range of performance standards between lowest and highest are included. Descriptors describe each level of performance.

The rubric is first presented to students in the Course Outline and they are encouraged to discuss it with their supervisor. The marking scheme for the rubric is also presented in the Course Outline. The poster assessment is worth 15% of the total marks for the course.

The marking sheet/table

Dr Bushell uses a simple layout for this rubric, as this allows more flexibility than a tabular format in terms of distribution of performance bands within a criterion, the number of performance bands used in each criterion and the weighting of different criteria.

His marking sheet is shown below, followed by an example of how the same criteria might look in a tabular format.

Poster Assessment Marking Sheet

(Original format of rubric, as used by Graeme Bushell, School of Chemical Engineering)

Student name:___________________________

Marker name:____________________________

Date:___________________________________

Put a tick next to the description which best describes how well the student explained why the work was done .

□ The student cannot explain why the research was done.

□ The student attempts to explain why the work was done but you don't think they really understand.

□ The student is able to explain why the work was done in direct terms.

□ The student is able to explain the broader context that the work fits into – why it was done and how important it is.

Put a tick next to the description which best describes the quality of the work that was done .

□ The work appears to be incomplete – it fails to address the stated aims.

□ The work contains serious errors – the conclusions are cast into serious doubt.

□ The work contains some minor errors of design or execution that are unlikely to undermine the main conclusions. □ The work appears to have been completed without errors.  

Communication

Put a tick next to the description which best describes how well the student presented the work .

□ Taken together, graphical and verbal communication are so poor that you are left unsure what the project is about.

□ Multiple deficiencies: more than one of aims, methods, results and conclusions are not clear.

□ One of  the following is not clear: aims, methods, results, conclusions.

□ Aims, methods, results and conclusions are clear but only after probing. Some aspects of the poster or presentation were poorly considered.

□ Aims, methods, results, conclusions are all clear. The poster is adequate.

□ Aims, methods, results, conclusions are all clear. The poster is attractive.

□ Aims, methods, results, conclusions are all clear. The poster is attractive and the presentation engaging.

Put a tick next to the description which best describes how well the student answered questions .

□ The student is effectively unable to answer questions about the project.

□ The student attempts to answer questions about the project but clearly doesn't really understand.

□ The student is able to answer questions about the project – you are fairly sure they understand what they're doing.

□ The student listens carefully and answers questions easily and directly – they are clearly across the project.

Poster Assessment Rubric

(Marking sheet criteria presented in grid format. Each Performance standard cell can be allocated a mark or grade band, as determined in the specific context.)

• iRubric : online tool for creating and sharing rubrics.
• Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

Dawson, P. (2017). Assessment rubrics: towards clearer and more replicable design,research and practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(3), 347–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1111294

Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (2012). Rubrics for assessment. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide

Ragupathi, K., & Lee, A. (2020). Beyond fairness and consistency in grading: The role of rubrics in higher education. In C. S. Sanger & N. W. Gleason (Eds), Diversity and inclusion in global higher education: Lessons from across Asia (pp. 73-95), Palgrave Macmillan.

Sadler, D.R. (2009). Indeterminacy in the use of preset criteria for assessment and grading. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34(2) , 159–179.

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• How to structure an essay: Templates and tips

How to Structure an Essay | Tips & Templates

Published on September 18, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction , a body , and a conclusion . But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body.

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Table of contents

The basics of essay structure, chronological structure, compare-and-contrast structure, problems-methods-solutions structure, signposting to clarify your structure, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay structure.

There are two main things to keep in mind when working on your essay structure: making sure to include the right information in each part, and deciding how you’ll organize the information within the body.

Parts of an essay

The three parts that make up all essays are described in the table below.

Order of information

You’ll also have to consider how to present information within the body. There are a few general principles that can guide you here.

The first is that your argument should move from the simplest claim to the most complex . The body of a good argumentative essay often begins with simple and widely accepted claims, and then moves towards more complex and contentious ones.

For example, you might begin by describing a generally accepted philosophical concept, and then apply it to a new topic. The grounding in the general concept will allow the reader to understand your unique application of it.

The second principle is that background information should appear towards the beginning of your essay . General background is presented in the introduction. If you have additional background to present, this information will usually come at the start of the body.

The third principle is that everything in your essay should be relevant to the thesis . Ask yourself whether each piece of information advances your argument or provides necessary background. And make sure that the text clearly expresses each piece of information’s relevance.

The sections below present several organizational templates for essays: the chronological approach, the compare-and-contrast approach, and the problems-methods-solutions approach.

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The chronological approach (sometimes called the cause-and-effect approach) is probably the simplest way to structure an essay. It just means discussing events in the order in which they occurred, discussing how they are related (i.e. the cause and effect involved) as you go.

A chronological approach can be useful when your essay is about a series of events. Don’t rule out other approaches, though—even when the chronological approach is the obvious one, you might be able to bring out more with a different structure.

Explore the tabs below to see a general template and a specific example outline from an essay on the invention of the printing press.

• Thesis statement
• Discussion of event/period
• Consequences
• Importance of topic
• Strong closing statement
• Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages
• Background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press
• Thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation
• High levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe
• Literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites
• Consequence: this discouraged political and religious change
• Invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg
• Implications of the new technology for book production
• Consequence: Rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible
• Trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention
• Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation
• Consequence: The large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics
• Summarize the history described
• Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period

Essays with two or more main subjects are often structured around comparing and contrasting . For example, a literary analysis essay might compare two different texts, and an argumentative essay might compare the strengths of different arguments.

There are two main ways of structuring a compare-and-contrast essay: the alternating method, and the block method.

Alternating

In the alternating method, each paragraph compares your subjects in terms of a specific point of comparison. These points of comparison are therefore what defines each paragraph.

The tabs below show a general template for this structure, and a specific example for an essay comparing and contrasting distance learning with traditional classroom learning.

• Synthesis of arguments
• Topical relevance of distance learning in lockdown
• Increasing prevalence of distance learning over the last decade
• Thesis statement: While distance learning has certain advantages, it introduces multiple new accessibility issues that must be addressed for it to be as effective as classroom learning
• Classroom learning: Ease of identifying difficulties and privately discussing them
• Distance learning: Difficulty of noticing and unobtrusively helping
• Classroom learning: Difficulties accessing the classroom (disability, distance travelled from home)
• Distance learning: Difficulties with online work (lack of tech literacy, unreliable connection, distractions)
• Classroom learning: Tends to encourage personal engagement among students and with teacher, more relaxed social environment
• Distance learning: Greater ability to reach out to teacher privately
• Sum up, emphasize that distance learning introduces more difficulties than it solves
• Stress the importance of addressing issues with distance learning as it becomes increasingly common
• Distance learning may prove to be the future, but it still has a long way to go

In the block method, each subject is covered all in one go, potentially across multiple paragraphs. For example, you might write two paragraphs about your first subject and then two about your second subject, making comparisons back to the first.

The tabs again show a general template, followed by another essay on distance learning, this time with the body structured in blocks.

• Point 1 (compare)
• Point 2 (compare)
• Point 3 (compare)
• Point 4 (compare)
• Advantages: Flexibility, accessibility
• Disadvantages: Discomfort, challenges for those with poor internet or tech literacy
• Advantages: Potential for teacher to discuss issues with a student in a separate private call
• Disadvantages: Difficulty of identifying struggling students and aiding them unobtrusively, lack of personal interaction among students
• Advantages: More accessible to those with low tech literacy, equality of all sharing one learning environment
• Disadvantages: Students must live close enough to attend, commutes may vary, classrooms not always accessible for disabled students
• Advantages: Ease of picking up on signs a student is struggling, more personal interaction among students
• Disadvantages: May be harder for students to approach teacher privately in person to raise issues

An essay that concerns a specific problem (practical or theoretical) may be structured according to the problems-methods-solutions approach.

This is just what it sounds like: You define the problem, characterize a method or theory that may solve it, and finally analyze the problem, using this method or theory to arrive at a solution. If the problem is theoretical, the solution might be the analysis you present in the essay itself; otherwise, you might just present a proposed solution.

The tabs below show a template for this structure and an example outline for an essay about the problem of fake news.

• Introduce the problem
• Provide background
• Describe your approach to solving it
• Define the problem precisely
• Describe why it’s important
• Indicate previous approaches to the problem
• Present your new approach, and why it’s better
• Apply the new method or theory to the problem
• Indicate the solution you arrive at by doing so
• Assess (potential or actual) effectiveness of solution
• Describe the implications
• Problem: The growth of “fake news” online
• Prevalence of polarized/conspiracy-focused news sources online
• Thesis statement: Rather than attempting to stamp out online fake news through social media moderation, an effective approach to combating it must work with educational institutions to improve media literacy
• Definition: Deliberate disinformation designed to spread virally online
• Popularization of the term, growth of the phenomenon
• Previous approaches: Labeling and moderation on social media platforms
• Critique: This approach feeds conspiracies; the real solution is to improve media literacy so users can better identify fake news
• Greater emphasis should be placed on media literacy education in schools
• This allows people to assess news sources independently, rather than just being told which ones to trust
• This is a long-term solution but could be highly effective
• It would require significant organization and investment, but would equip people to judge news sources more effectively
• Rather than trying to contain the spread of fake news, we must teach the next generation not to fall for it

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Signposting means guiding the reader through your essay with language that describes or hints at the structure of what follows.  It can help you clarify your structure for yourself as well as helping your reader follow your ideas.

The essay overview

In longer essays whose body is split into multiple named sections, the introduction often ends with an overview of the rest of the essay. This gives a brief description of the main idea or argument of each section.

The overview allows the reader to immediately understand what will be covered in the essay and in what order. Though it describes what  comes later in the text, it is generally written in the present tense . The following example is from a literary analysis essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

Transitions

Transition words and phrases are used throughout all good essays to link together different ideas. They help guide the reader through your text, and an essay that uses them effectively will be much easier to follow.

Various different relationships can be expressed by transition words, as shown in this example.

Because Hitler failed to respond to the British ultimatum, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Although it was an outcome the Allies had hoped to avoid, they were prepared to back up their ultimatum in order to combat the existential threat posed by the Third Reich.

Transition sentences may be included to transition between different paragraphs or sections of an essay. A good transition sentence moves the reader on to the next topic while indicating how it relates to the previous one.

… Distance learning, then, seems to improve accessibility in some ways while representing a step backwards in others.

However , considering the issue of personal interaction among students presents a different picture.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

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The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.

The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.

Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:

• The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
• The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.

It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

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Understanding the TOK essay rubric

TOK Home > Free TOK notes > TOK essay guidance > Understanding the TOK essay rubric

After understanding the of the basics of the essay, your next step is to grasp how it is evaluated and marked, which is outlined in the ‘assessment instrument’. Your TOK teacher will give you a copy of this, or you can find it online in the 2022 TOK Guide.

The overall assessment objective of the TOK essay is to answer the prescribed essay title in a clear, coherent, and critical way. In order to do this, the assessment ‘instrument’ looks for five different skills.

STEP 1: Understand the TOK essay rubric

1. making links to tok.

The discussion within your TOK essay should be linked very effectively to the  areas of knowledge . Most, TOK essays expect you to discuss two AOKs, which will provide you with the context to explore and answer the prescribed title you’ve chosen.

2. Understanding perspectives

Your TOK essay should show a clear awareness of different points of view, and should offer an evaluation of them. This means considering how different perspective might approach the question in different ways.

3. Offering an effective argument

The arguments within your TOK essay are clear and coherent, and are supported by strong examples.

This means expressing your opinions clearly, and supporting them with original and meaningful real-life situations.

4. Keeping discussions relevant

Your essay’s discussions should offer a ‘sustained focus’ on the title. This means that you should be able to pick out any section of your essay, and be able to identify what question it is answering.

5. Considering implications

Your essay needs to not just present and evaluate arguments, it also needs to say why these arguments are significant, and what their implications are.

After you have grasped the rubric strands, you are ready to move on to choosing your prescribed title from the choice of six that are published in March or November – which we provide guidance on here .

Creating a TOK essay: our four-step guide

Click on the buttons below to take you to the four steps of creating a great TOK essay. Don’t forget that we have plenty of videos on this and other aspects of the course, and members of the site have access to a huge amount of other resources to help you master the course and assessment tasks.

How to write a TOK essay: webinar

This 80-minute webinar video and presentation gives you a clear, engaging, step-by-step guide to the task, helping you to understand the assessment rubric, choose the right PT, and produce an essay that hits all the assessment targets.

The video is supported by a presentation, and a Q&A debrief answering some of the most common questions asked about writing a TOK essay. Purchase your ticket here .

More support for the TOK essay

Make sure that your TOK teacher has given you access to all the documents and online material that support the essay. These include the TOK Subject Guide, the TOK essay rubric, and exemplar TOK essays (found in ‘MyIB’, which is accessible to teachers).   Make sure you go through our other pages on writing the TOK essay. You’ll find help on understanding what the is looking for, that works for you, what each of the should focus on, how to an effective TOK essay, and how to fill in your .   If your school is a  member  of theoryofknowledge.net, we have designed a series of lessons on the essay, with two formative assessment tasks. These will familiarize you with the essay rubric, knowledge questions, real-life situations, how to deal with perspectives and implications, and structuring an essay. If you are signed into the site, you can access these lessons  here .   You can also find out our thoughts on the TOK essay (and the TOK exhibition) in several webinars that we have delivered. The main one is the TOK Assessment 2022 webinar, but we also consider this form of assessment in our free webinars on the 2022 course. You can see these webinars on  this page  of the site.

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How to Create a Rubric in 6 Steps

Watch that fifth step! It's a doozy.

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How to Create a Rubric: Introduction

Perhaps you have never even thought about the care it takes to create a rubric. Perhaps you have never even heard  of a rubric and its usage in education, in which case, you should take a peek at this article: "What is a rubric?" Basically, this tool that teachers and professors use to help them communicate expectations, provide focused feedback, and grade products, can be invaluable when the correct answer is not as cut and dried as Choice A on a multiple choice test. But creating a great rubric is more than just slapping some expectations on a paper, assigning some percentage points, and calling it a day. A good rubric needs to be designed with care and precision in order to truly help teachers distribute and receive the expected work. 

Steps to Create a Rubric

The following six steps will help you when you decide to use a rubric for assessing an essay, a project, group work, or any other task that does not have a clear right or wrong answer. 

Step 1: Define Your Goal

Before you can create a rubric, you need to decide the type of rubric you'd like to use, and that will largely be determined by your goals for the assessment.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How detailed do I want my feedback to be? 
• How will I break down my expectations for this project?
• Are all of the tasks equally important?
• How do I want to assess performance?
• What standards must the students hit in order to achieve acceptable or exceptional performance?
• Do I want to give one final grade on the project or a cluster of smaller grades based on several criteria?
• Am I grading based on the work or on participation? Am I grading on both?

Once you've figured out how detailed you'd like the rubric to be and the goals you are trying to reach, you can choose a type of rubric.

Step 2: Choose a Rubric Type

Although there are many variations of rubrics, it can be helpful to at least have a standard set to help you decide where to start. Here are two that are widely used in teaching as defined by DePaul University's Graduate Educational department:

• Analytic Rubric : This is the standard grid rubric that many teachers routinely use to assess students' work. This is the optimal rubric for providing clear, detailed feedback. With an analytic rubric, criteria for the students' work is listed in the left column and performance levels are listed across the top. The squares inside the grid will typically contain the specs for each level. A rubric for an essay, for example, might contain criteria like "Organization, Support, and Focus," and may contain performance levels like "(4) Exceptional, (3) Satisfactory, (2) Developing, and (1) Unsatisfactory."​ The performance levels are typically given percentage points or letter grades and a final grade is typically calculated at the end. The scoring rubrics for the ACT and SAT are designed this way, although when students take them, they will receive a holistic score. 
• Holistic Rubric:  This is the type of rubric that is much easier to create, but much more difficult to use accurately. Typically, a teacher provides a series of letter grades or a range of numbers (1-4 or 1-6, for example) and then assigns expectations for each of those scores. When grading, the teacher matches the student work in its entirety to a single description on the scale. This is useful for grading multiple essays, but it does not leave room for detailed feedback on student work. 

Step 3: Determine Your Criteria

This is where the learning objectives for your unit or course come into play. Here, you'll need to brainstorm a list of knowledge and skills you would like to assess for the project. Group them according to similarities and get rid of anything that is not absolutely critical. A rubric with too much criteria is difficult to use! Try to stick with 4-7 specific subjects for which you'll be able to create unambiguous, measurable expectations in the performance levels. You'll want to be able to spot the criteria quickly while grading and be able to explain them quickly when instructing your students. In an analytic rubric, the criteria are typically listed along the left column. 

Step 4: Create Your Performance Levels

Once you have determined the broad levels you would like students to demonstrate mastery of, you will need to figure out what type of scores you will assign based on each level of mastery. Most ratings scales include between three and five levels. Some teachers use a combination of numbers and descriptive labels like "(4) Exceptional, (3) Satisfactory, etc." while other teachers simply assign numbers, percentages, letter grades or any combination of the three for each level. You can arrange them from highest to lowest or lowest to highest as long as your levels are organized and easy to understand. 

Step 5: Write Descriptors for Each Level of Your Rubric

This is probably your most difficult step in creating a rubric.Here, you will need to write short statements of your expectations underneath each performance level for every single criteria. The descriptions should be specific and measurable. The language should be parallel to help with student comprehension and the degree to which the standards are met should be explained.

Again, to use an analytic essay rubric as an example, if your criteria was "Organization" and you used the (4) Exceptional, (3) Satisfactory, (2) Developing, and (1) Unsatisfactory scale, you would need to write the specific content a student would need to produce to meet each level. It could look something like this:

A holistic rubric would not break down the essay's grading criteria with such precision. The top two tiers of a holistic essay rubric would look more like this:

• 6 = Essay demonstrates excellent composition skills including a clear and thought-provoking thesis, appropriate and effective organization, lively and convincing supporting materials, effective diction and sentence skills, and perfect or near perfect mechanics including spelling and punctuation. The writing perfectly accomplishes the objectives of the assignment.
• 5 = Essay contains strong composition skills including a clear and thought-provoking thesis, but development, diction, and sentence style may suffer minor flaws. The essay shows careful and acceptable use of mechanics. The writing effectively accomplishes the goals of the assignment.

Step 6: Revise Your Rubric

After creating the descriptive language for all of the levels (making sure it is parallel, specific and measurable), you need to go back through and limit your rubric to a single page. Too many parameters will be difficult to assess at once, and may be an ineffective way to assess students' mastery of a specific standard. Consider the effectiveness of the rubric, asking for student understanding and co-teacher feedback before moving forward. Do not be afraid to revise as necessary. It may even be helpful to grade a sample project in order to gauge the effectiveness of your rubric. You can always adjust the rubric if need be before handing it out, but once it's distributed, it will be difficult to retract. 

Teacher Resources:

• Creative Writing Prompts for High School Students
• 14 Ways to Write Better in High School
• The Top Reading Skills to Teach Your Students
• Great Books to Recommend To Teens
• Writing Rubrics
• What Is a Rubric?
• How to Make a Rubric for Differentiation
• Holistic Grading (Composition)
• Sample Essay Rubric for Elementary Teachers
• A Simple Guide to Grading Elementary Students
• How to Calculate a Percentage and Letter Grade
• Create Rubrics for Student Assessment - Step by Step
• Assignment Biography: Student Criteria and Rubric for Writing
• Grading for Proficiency in the World of 4.0 GPAs
• How to Construct a Bloom's Taxonomy Assessment
• Tips to Cut Writing Assignment Grading Time
• 5 Free Assessment Apps for Teachers
• Fantasy Christmas Shopping Lesson Plan
• Rubrics - Quick Guide for all Content Areas
• The 12 Best Apps for Students and Teachers

• Schools & departments

Assessment rubrics

Rubrics allow for quicker and more consistent marking. This can be extremely helpful in reflection, which can feel as if it needs to be assessed by instinct alone. A well-defined rubric will make marking of reflection systematic and support both you and the reflectors.

Rubrics make life easier for the reflectors and for you as a marker

There are many general benefits from using a rubric, which extend beyond reflection. For facilitators a rubric can:

• help ensure consistency in the grades given
• reduce uncertainty which may come with grading
• reduce time spent grading
• identify clear strengths and weaknesses in work and therefore make feedback easier

Moreover, students report that having a well-defined rubric available before they engage with an assessment makes it clearer what is expected of them. Other benefits can be:

• More measurable feedback
• Students can more easily identify specific areas which they need to work on

Sometimes student work can fall outside the scope of a rubric – however a rubric will give you a place to start

While the usefulness of rubrics are widely accepted, there are some criticisms arguing that rubrics can fail to make the marking easier as students’ work does not fit onto the predefined categories and will have to be assessed holistically, rather than by a set of components. Moreover, it is argued that a piece of work is often more than the sum of its parts.

These are both fair criticisms. Sometimes you will receive reflections that are hard to mark against your criteria or are indeed better than your rubric would suggest. However, having a rubric will give you a place to start for these reflections.

If you find that your rubric consistently misses aspects this would suggest the criteria need updated.

Choose a holistic or analytic rubric – the analytic will make the benefits more pronounced

When choosing your rubric, there are two general approaches: holistic and analytical.

For each level of performance highlighted in the rubrics, it can be helpful to provide an example of that level (for example a series of reflective sentences or an extract).

Holistic rubrics are general levels of performance

The holistic rubric gives a general description of the different performance levels, for example novice, apprentice, proficient, or distinguished.

The levels can take many different names, and you can choose as many levels as you find appropriate. It can be recommended to include the same number of levels as the number of grades available for students, for example a level for failing and a level for each passing grade.

Analytic rubrics take into account performance on each assessment criterion

The analytic rubric allows you to identify a reflector’s performance against each of your chosen and well-defined assessment criteria.

This can be helpful for you in the marking process and when giving feedback to the reflector as you can tell them exactly what areas they are performing well in and need to improve on.

You may consider giving a student a mark for each criterion and take an average of that for the overall mark. Alternatively, predefine a weight or a set of points available for each criterion and calculate the overall mark according to this. If the latter method is used, you should also make the weightings available to students at the same time as the rubric.

Test your reflective rubric and improve it

It is unlikely that the first rubric you make is going to capture everything you need, and you may find you need to update it. This is natural for rubrics in all areas, and especially around the area of reflection, which for many is new.  Revisiting your rubric is particularly worth doing after the first time it is used.

When using your rubric you can ask yourself:

• What does this rubric make easier about marking and/or feedback (if anything)?
• What is still challenging when I am using this rubric?
• Are there clear gaps in my identified criteria or rubric which I now see are needed for what I consider essential in the assignment?
• What do I need to change (if anything)?
• How do students seem to react to my rubric?

Test if others would give students the same marks with your rubric

Rubrics that work well for you have a lot of value, but to ensure that you get an optimal rubric it is important that others using your rubric would give the same grade to the same reflection as you do – ensuring that your rubric has inter-rater reliability.

This is important for two reasons:

• It reinforces the validity of your rubric and ensures that, if there are multiple markers for your reflective assessments, the grade does not vary by which person is marking
• It ensures that students who see the rubric will be able to accurately produce work according to the level they are striving towards.

Holistic rubrics

Moon’s (2004) four levels of reflective writing.

These four levels distinguish between four types of written accounts you might see a reflector produce.

In this case the three top levels might pass a reflective assignment, where descriptive writing would not.

Taken from Jennifer Moon’s book: A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning (2004)

Reflective writing rubric

These four levels are different and highlight four alternative approaches to reflective journaling. While they are specifically developed for journal use, the levels will generalise to other types of written reflection.

The rubric is develop by Chabon and Lee-Wilkerson (2006) when evaluating reflective journals of students undertaking a graduate degree in communication sciences and disorders.

Analytical rubric

Reflection evaluation for learners’ enhanced competencies tool (reflect) rubric.

This analytic rubric has been developed and empirically tested and improved by Wald et al. (2012). It was developed specifically for medical education, but can easily be used elsewhere. The rubric is designed using theoretical considerations from a range of thinkers around reflection as Moon, Schön, Boud and Mezirow.

This rubric has been used in empirical studies and a high inter-rater reliability has been established.

There are two components to the rubric. The standard rubric and an additional axis. The second axis should be used when a reflector reaches ‘Critical reflection’ and then distinguishes between two types of learning, which reflection can help surface.

Adding the additional axis can help you to differentiate between what kind of learning the student has obtained as well as reminding us that reflection does not need to always create new practice – becoming aware of why one’s practice works can be equally valuable.

Standard Rubric

Axis II for critical reflection

Rubric for reflection using different criteria

This rubric form Jones (n.d) gives another approach to marking reflection. Using five criteria it manages to capture a lot of what is relevant when marking reflection as well as giving clear qualities highlighted for each level of reflection.

Chabon, S. and Lee-Wilkerson, D. (2006). Use of journal writing in the assessment of CSD students’ learning about diversity: A method worthy of reflection. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 27(3), 146-158.

Dawson, P. (2017) Assessment rubrics: towards clearer and more replicable design, research and practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(3), 347-360.

Jones, S. (n.d.) Using reflection for assessment . Office of Service Learning, IUPUI. (link to PDF on external site)

Moon J.A. (2004). A handbook of reflective and experiential learning: Theory and practice. Routledge.

Kohn, A. (2006). The trouble with rubrics. English Journal, 95(4).

Wald, H.S., Borkan, J.M., Scott Taylor, J., Anthony, D., and Reis, S.P. (2012) Fostering and evaluating reflective capacity in medical education: Developing the REFLECT rubric for assessing reflective writing. Academic Medicine, 87(1), 41-50.

Assessment & Feedback: Types of Assessment

• Types of Assessments
• Presentations
• Poster Presentations
• Understanding your assessment task
• Assessment Criteria
• Interpreting & implementing feedback

What types of assessment will I do?

Essays and exams are traditional types of assessment that you might have encountered, but at university there is a wide range of assessment types that will often be different depending on the discipline you are studying.  Coursework is quite broad and course specific, ranging from traditional essays to vlogs, poster presentations, leaflets, policy briefs, business reports and much more. Depending on your course, you might also attend field trips, conduct work labs or studios, complete internships or attend clinical placements.

Your assessments will be either summative or formative.

What is a summative assessment? Summative means that assessment is designed for you to show how you meet the learning outcomes of the course and is weighted towards your final grade.

What is a formative assessment? Formative is to help you practice and the best opportunity for you to get feedback.

Below are some examples of assessments you may do. This is not an exhaustive list and you may encounter some other types depending on your discipline.

You can find detailed assessment guides for the following;

• Academic Writing
• Dissertations

Types of assessments

• Case Studies
• Research Proposals
• Lab Reports

An essay is a traditional approach to academic assessment, a structured piece of written of work based on meeting learning outcomes/ assessment criteria using academic standards of writing. You may be asked to write different types of essays throughout your course.

Argument essays

• Argument or argumentative essays are similar to discussion essays in that you have to explore different sides of an argument. 
• However, the argumentative essay will focus more on one aspect of the argument, so you will have to find strong evidence to support your line of argument.
• This does not mean that you can ignore counter arguments, but it does mean that you have to try and persuade the reader that you are making a good case.

Compare and Contrast essays

• Compare and contrast essays explore the similarities and differences of two or more things (e.g., two theories, methods or historical periods)
• There are two main ways to structure this kind of essay using a block approach or a point-by-point approach.
• The block approach involves giving all the arguments for and against for one subject first before moving on to consider all the arguments for and against for another subject. 
• The point-by-point structure considers all similarities and differences for one subject. 
• The point-by-point structure is generally clearer because it ensures that similarities and differences are stated immediately.

Reflective Essays

• Reflective writing is common in practical courses such as education and health.
• In this kind of writing, you may have to explore the relationship between theory and your own professional practice.  
• It may also involve personal reflection on your experiences of an aspect of practice using a particular model of reflection (e.g., Gibbs or Kolb’s Reflective Cycle).
• As with all assignments, essay requirements can vary, so study the essay instructions very carefully.
• A case study requires you to analyse a specific situation and to explore how its different characteristics relate to theory, legislation and professional standards.  
• The case may refer to a real-life or hypothetical event, organisation, individual or group of people and/or issue.  
• Sometimes, you may have to think of solutions or recommendations for future action.
• Make sure you check the assessment task very carefully so that you are clear on the exact nature of the task and of the case study itself.
• The structure of case study can vary from discipline to discipline but may include a Table of contents—Introduction—Discussion/Analysis—Conclusion—Reference List—Appendices.
• A report is a structured document that provides information, such as factual data, insights and recommendations, about a particular topic, issue, event, or subject matter.
• It is typically written to convey the findings, analysis, and conclusions of a research study, investigation, or inquiry.
• Reports are often used in disciplines such as accounting, finance or management and marketing.
• They often focus on case studies from the real world of business and require you to apply theory to real-world situations in order to explore problems and to suggest solutions or make recommendations.
• If a simulated situation is being used as the basis for your report, you may have to think carefully about your audience (e.g., the CEO of a company) and how this may affect your report.
• As with all assessment types, read the task carefully and structure your report accordingly.

You can find more guidance on reports here .

A portfolio is a collection of work that you have created and compiled over a period of time.  It helps to demonstrate your skills and abilities, as it makes your learning or artistic/academic development more concrete and visible. 

These are often produced as part of a project or placement, consisting of a collection of writing produced on a regular basis and then collated together into one larger piece of work.

Depending on whether your portfolio is part of your course assessment or developed for prospective employers, your portfolio should:

• Demonstrate your engagement in higher levels of thinking through enquiry and reflection
• Display your level of artistic/intellectual skill
• Present your capacity to translate your life experiences, including work, education, community service, extra-curricular or travel into evidence or artifact for learning and creativity
• Serve as an interesting conversation starter that will help you stand out as an artist or practitioner.

You can find more guidance on portfolios here .

Presentations require you to usually produce a visual element such as a poster/ creative artefact/ PowerPoint as well as verbally present your work. This may be on your own or as part of a group.

You can find more guidance and support on Presentations here .

For guidance on Poster Presentations please check here .

• A research proposal is usually a concise summary or overview of your proposed research.
• It outlines the central questions you intend to explore and provides a brief review of the literature in your chosen area.
• In other words, it provides the reader with a good idea of what is already known about the research area.
• A typical structure might include an introduction – literature review – methodology and reference list.

You can find more information on research proposals here .

• The requirements for dissertations may vary from subject to subject, so always check with your department before you begin.
• It involves an extensive review of existing literature and research, the formulation of a hypothesis or research objective, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of findings.
• Find out as much as you can, for example the word count and any requirements regarding structure.
• Longer pieces of writing like this may contain a number of different sections including an abstract—introduction—Literature review—Results—Discussion –Conclusion—References—Appendices.
• For extended pieces of writing and research, it is important to manage your time and your workload as effectively as possible.

You can find more information about dissertations here .

• Laboratory reports are also called scientific or experimental reports and they represent an important assessment type in the sciences.
• Typically, laboratory reports document the reasons for conducting experiments – the procedure or methodology used – the results or findings from the experiment—a discussion about the implications of the findings and finally a conclusion and recommendations.
• Laboratory reports should be clearly written so that, in theory, the reader could replicate the same experiment.
• A blog can be seen as a collection of short writings, often posted online format, on a regular basis.
• When creating blogs for academic purpose the assignment brief often requires you to focus on reflective writing about a particular topic or practice or project.

Vlogs is short for video blogs which are visual recording of you academically discussing a given topic/s. You are often still expected to use academic and/ or professional language as well as keep to academic standards by ensuring what you are talking about is backed by evidence and references.

The requirements and guidance for video assignments will be given to you by your course tutor. You may be producing a video on your own or with a small group of peers. The content of the video will depend on the individual assignment.

Further Reading

• Next: Types of Assessments >>
• Last Updated: Sep 4, 2023 2:54 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/assessment-feedback

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Use MCQ grids for accurate self-assessment

By Lesley Howell and Paul McDermott 2018-01-17T10:35:00+00:00

How multiple-choice questions can motivate students to assess their own confidence and knowledge – without even knowing it

Source: pathdoc / Shutterstock.com

Self-assessment data is information about student progress, provided by the student. Asking students to assess their own work can improve their progress, and their understanding of learning objectives and assessment criteria. However, self-assessment data often includes learners’ opinions about their academic abilities and the progress they think they are making. How can you get a clearer picture?

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in a grid format for students to enter their answers can motivate students to self-assess correctly, and to perform better. The grid format displays question numbers (eg 1–6) down one vertical side, and the possible answer options (eg A–D) across the top.

Students distribute four marks for each question across the answer options in a strategic way to gain the best possible score. There is only one correct answer for each question. If the student is 100% confident, they give all four marks to one answer option. If they can’t decide between two options, they might give two marks to each, or split the marks three-to-one. If they have no confidence in their answer, they can give one mark to each answer option to guarantee a point.

Source: Lesley Howell / Paul McDermott

Multiple choice questions can also be asked in a grid format

The marking process is easy and quick, and gives almost immediate individual feedback to students. Create a copy of the answer grid on an acetate sheet with incorrect answer boxes shaded. To mark the answer grid, place the acetate over the answer sheet and points awarded to correct answers remain visible. Copy the points in any visible boxes into an additional column. Add the points in this column to give the final score.

Students are unaware they are providing self-assessment data as they focus on maximising their score. However, their answer strategies give a clear indication of a student’s confidence.

Teachers can use these answer-grid MCQs across many educational settings, including: high- and low-stakes assessments; open- and closed-book quizzes; and end-of-semester course tests. Whatever the setting these MCQs are used in, you need to use answers in feedback discussions with students to reap the key benefit.

How to approach feedback discussions:

• Did students lack confidence, or were they over-confident or well calibrated when giving their answers?
• What are their common misconceptions (shown by their confident, but incorrect, answers)?
• What strategies could they use to improve their content knowledge and their confidence in that knowledge?

The answer-grid MCQ combines performance assessment, feedback, confidence estimates and incentives for students to perform into one easily administered tool. It is simple to use and allows self-assessment of knowledge and confidence, and immediate feedback on individual questions.

Download a blank version of the self-assessment grid ( word or pdf )

Self assessment answer grid 2 x 2

• Secondary education

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• Centre Services
• Associate Extranet
• All About Maths

A-level Art and Design

7201, 7202, 7203, 7204, 7205, 7206

• Specification
• Planning resources
• Teaching resources
• Assessment resources
• Introduction
• Specification at a glance
• 3.1 Summary of subject content
• 3.2 Overarching knowledge, understanding and skills
• 3.3 Art, craft and design
• 3.4 Fine art
• 3.5 Graphic communication
• 3.6 Textile design
• 3.7 Three-dimensional design
• 3.8 Photography

Scheme of assessment

• Non-exam assessment administration
• General administration

Find past papers and mark schemes, and specimen papers for new courses, on our website at aqa.org.uk/pastpapers

The specification is designed to be taken over two years with all assessments taken at the end of the course.

Assessments and certification are eligible for submission for the first time in May/June and then every May/June for the life of the specification.

All materials are available in English only.

Synoptic assessment

Synoptic assessment in Art and Design involves students in:

• drawing together the knowledge, understanding and skills learned in different parts of the course
• selecting and presenting work which demonstrates their strengths across the areas of knowledge and the range of skills described and shows their ability to sustain their own lines of enquiry
• a stimulus or issue
• a design brief or problem
• a task which specifies an image, object or other outcome to be achieved.

There is synoptic assessment in both components of the A-level that provide stretch and challenge opportunities for students as follows:

In Component 1, students develop work based on an idea, issue, concept or theme leading to a finished outcome or a series of related finished outcomes. Practical elements should make connections with some aspect of contemporary or past practice of artist(s), designer(s), photographers or craftspeople and include written work of no less than 1000 and no more than 3000 words which supports the practical work.

In Component 2, students respond to a stimulus, provided by AQA, to produce work which provides evidence of their ability to work independently within specified time constraints, developing a personal and meaningful response which addresses all the assessment objectives and leads to a finished outcome or a series of related finished outcomes.

Courses based on these specifications should encourage students to develop:

• intellectual, imaginative, creative and intuitive capabilities
• investigative, analytical, experimental, practical, technical and expressive skills, aesthetic understanding and critical judgement
• independence of mind in developing, refining and communicating their own ideas, their own intentions and their own personal outcomes
• an interest in, enthusiasm for and enjoyment of art, craft and design
• the experience of working with a broad range of media
• an understanding of the interrelationships between art, craft and design processes and an awareness of the contexts in which they operate
• knowledge and experience of real-world contexts and, where appropriate, links to the creative industries
• knowledge and understanding of art, craft, design and media and technologies in contemporary and past societies and cultures
• an awareness of different roles, functions, audiences and consumers of art, craft and design.

Assessment objectives

Assessment objectives (AOs) are set by Ofqual and are the same across all A-level Art and Design specifications and all exam boards.

The assessments will measure how students have achieved the following assessment objectives:

• AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
• AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
• AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
• AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

Weighting of assessment objectives for A-level Art and Design

The assessment objectives are equally weighted within each component. The table shows the approximate weighting of each of the assessment objectives across all components.

Quality of making

The ability to handle materials, techniques and processes effectively, skilfully and safely underpins all the assessment objectives. It is important in enabling students to develop a personal language, to express ideas and to link their intentions to outcomes in a confident and assured manner.

Assessment criteria

The assessment criteria must be applied to the assessment of students’ work for all components. The assessment objectives are equally weighted in each of the components. The Assessment criteria grid indicates the levels of response which would be expected for the award of marks in the ranges shown. It should be noted that the ranges have been drawn up to assist teachers in identifying individual levels of response and do not, in themselves, constitute grade descriptions.

Each component is marked out of a total of 96 marks. As the assessment objectives are equally weighted in each of the components, there is a maximum of 24 marks for each of the assessment objectives. The marks, out of 24, for each assessment objective must be added together to produce the total mark out of 96.

You are required to provide a mark for each of the assessment objectives separately in accordance with the assessment criteria and a total mark out of 96 must be provided for each component. The assessment grid must be used to identify the student’s level of performance in relation to each of the assessment objectives.

Six mark band descriptors are provided, with a range of marks for each of the four assessment objectives.

A Candidate record form must be completed for each student for each component. When completing the Candidate record form the teacher should decide which mark band descriptor best describes the student’s performance for each assessment objective, then circle the appropriate mark. These marks should be transferred to the ‘mark awarded’ row and added together. This total should be entered in the ‘total mark’ box to the right of the grid.

Four marks are available for each mark band in each assessment objective. The lower mark indicates that the student has just met the requirements described in that particular band, the next mark indicates that evidence is adequate , the next that evidence is clear and the higher mark indicates that evidence is convincing but that the student has just failed to meet the requirements set out in the next band.

Assessing the Personal investigation

This is a practical component supported by written material. The practical work and written material must be assessed as an integrated whole. The practical work and the written material must be assessed together using the assessment grid to select which of the six mark band descriptors for each assessment objective best describes the student’s overall performance.

The written material and practical work must each show evidence of meeting all four assessment objectives.

Once the mark band has been selected the mark qualifiers ‘just’, ‘adequately’, ‘clearly’ or ‘convincingly’ should be applied to determine the specific mark within the band.

For further guidance on assessing the Personal investigation refer to the online exemplification materials at the start of the course. Please also see section Teacher standardisation for more information about Teacher standardisation meetings.

Assessing to the correct standard

Work submitted for assessment for A-level components is assessed at a standard that can be reasonably expected of a student after a full A-level course of study, 360 guided learning hours (GLH).

If your school or college offers the Art, craft and design title alongside endorsed titles, evidence of an area of study for the Art, craft and design title must be assessed to the same standard as it would for the relevant endorsed title.

• all teachers delivering the course must access the on-line example materials (provided on Centre Services at the start of the course
• a senior representative from your school or college, with responsibility for conducting internal standardisation, must also attend a teacher standardisation meeting in the autumn/spring term.

For more information on attendance at Teacher standardisation meetings and Internal standardisation refer to sections Teacher standardisation and Internal standardisation

Assessment criteria grid

The grid further expands on the assessment objectives. It should be used to mark students’ work and to complete Candidate record forms.

Assessment weightings

The marks awarded will be scaled to meet the weighting of the components. Students’ final marks will be calculated by adding together the scaled marks for each component. Grade boundaries will be set using this total scaled mark. The scaling and total scaled marks are shown in the table below.

Dr.Jeffrey (PhD)

Finished Papers

John N. Williams

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