good morning this is your edexcel GCSE
mathematics linear exam mention the word
examinations and this is the scene most
readily brought to mind for many us
we're all familiar with the nerves the
anticipation of what questions will be
asked and try hard to stay calm whilst
trying to answer them you may open the
paper and begin but far fewer of us are
familiar with what happens once
examination papers or scripts as they're
known have been completed and handed in
just how is each script tracked scanned
stored and marked this film explores
just how digital online technologies are
being used to benefit everyone in the
examination of marking processes
examinations officers teachers markers
and perhaps most importantly the
learners themselves I think it's
important the way they're not because if
they make mistakes and thus our grades
gone down and it's made a big affect to
how what our future is going to be like
it's important my exam papers I'm not
correctly because they determine what I
become it is important because these are
the GCSEs that will count for your
grades and you need it for College
University there's just the thing you
need please put your pens down now close
your papers the exam has ended I will
note collect your papers after an exam
is completed each and every script is
collected they're then packaged into
special envelopes and each envelope is
given its own unique barcode it is
printed on to the address label the
barcode means that every parcel of
scripts can be tracked most packages are
then delivered to the Pearson script
processing center in hella be South
Yorkshire it's a very busy place
particularly so after the June
examinations have been sad
the processing center is hella Bay is
predominately a data capture and data
processing site that enables Edexcel to
capture all of the exam scripts for and
about 40% of the UK's summer exams
industry will receive roundabout 97% of
Edexcel scripts through this building
that's around about four million this
summer putting that into a daily context
with processing round about 150,000
scripts a day through this site so will
receive them in prepare them slit them
scan them and then load them onto our
team arcing engines once the individual
scripts have been digitally scanned our
a marking technology epen makes it very
simple for the scripts to be accessed
and marked online by our highly trained
markers
people's used on marking student
responses from GGC a levels BTech
examinations and as markers we go on to
online and we can mark these students
responses one item at a time and that
gives us consistent seekers we're just
marking that item and then we can switch
over to another item with any time we
wish and we come out that item
consistently as well and we can log on
and mark as long as we want what time we
want and where we want a pen is very
convenient way of marking in the past
when examiner's were marking scripts
they spent a lot of their time
cross-checking the scripts they've
received with the attendance registers
waiting in for the post to arrive then
packing up the scripts and take them to
the post office all that is now removed
of the pen they simply download the
images of the candidates responses and
mark them we are using their time more
effectively they are a precious resource
it's really important to us that we've
got train markers because we know that
every single candidate's result is needs
to be right first time they're a
university place is writing on these
results so we make sure that we train
each marker to mark just the item type
that they'll be marking properly and
every marker gets trained to mark the
specific questions for that series
training aside epen also allows
supervisors or team leaders to easily
review the quality and consistency of
fellow markers assessments as a team
leader any pen we've got various
processes by which we can go back and we
can have a look at the consistency in
the standard of the marking we use a
process called baton reading and I'm
able to go into there and just take a
sample of what they've been marking and
remarket to make sure I'm happy with
them if they've made any kind of
mistakes at all then I can get back into
it with them and we can put the write
straight away these checks are necessary
so that we have confidence that we've
given the candidates the right marks
because remember behind every response
is a real candidate so we want to know
that we've given each candidate the
right mark on occasions candidates may
write their answers in unexpected places
within their answer booklets to ensure
that these responses are
also marked epen enables markers to
easily identify and review them epen is
a flexible system and has a number of
facilities on it which allow markers to
take action when they see a candidates
response is going further than the
defined answer space for example if you
see the writing disappearing off the
screen
you know the candidate is continued
writing outside the defined answer area
they will then send that answer to
review where we can review the whole
script in addition to writing outside of
the designated areas of their answer
booklets candidates can also run out of
space and need to use additional pages
to complete their responses to learn how
@xl manages these additional pages
called exceptions it's back to Helen be
home to Pearson script processing center
my job in epen exceptions focuses on the
scripts that can't be scanned and marked
electronically for various reasons
ie they they could be oversized they
contain attachments they're completed in
the wrong coloring or the damaged they
have to be booked on to the system
manually and sent out for traditional
marking technology's important but
really what makes this place tick in my
opinion are the people I'm very
fortunate to have a very stable
workforce and care desperately about
what they do and take great pride in it
well I think the importance of the job
in my my concern is is to just make sure
that we deal competently with those
scripts that we're that arrives because
there are people's work that there are
the pupils works that in from the school
hard work they have to make sure that we
handle them correctly securely and we
get them right every time for every
pupil once every script has been marked
and the results have been published it
is possible that a candidate or teacher
may be disappointed with the mark
obtained through ed excels digital
scanning processes it is possible to
apply for a review of the mark through a
process known as inquiry it's about
results inquiries about results is an
online tool and we use this after the
publication of results we can just
select the students and there's a
drop-down menu for which level of
service that you require and then you
get an immediate response from it Excel
once you've submitted an inquiry and it
tells you the fees and all the
information you need to know our systems
have been built so that we've retained
that bank of candidates images in our
systems that means that a student can
access that image a center can access
that image or we can send the image to
inquiries about results marker
who'll be able to view that instantly
online send the mark back to us and we
can get that mark back to the student as
an exams officer using the online ed
excel inquiry about results service so
so much time it means I don't have to
fill out paperwork which I don't always
get the time to do it's such a busy time
and the results have been published it's
quick and easy you also get the results
of the inquiry within 24 hours 48 hours
which is very quick around results time
did speed about return it's so important
for candidates because the university
places can be riding on their getting
the right mark out them just the quicker
we can turn that round the better for
the students
but scanning technology has other
benefits to the digital processing of
scripts creates a rich and dynamic set
of data that can be used to support the
teaching and learning processes this is
perhaps best demonstrated through our
online tool results plus results class
is an online tool that we use within
school in order to give us an overview
of how students have currently performed
in their most recent public examinations
from a whole-school point of view we can
use results class to inform us of where
pupils do well with in certain areas
within the exams and also the areas that
they're falling down in from my point of
view as a math teacher I can look at
different classes in particular to find
out different teachers strengths and
therefore identify them for needs within
the future for our future planning and
on a further sort of level towards that
we can then look at individual pupils
with the case for modular exams where
pupils might need to resit we can inform
them exactly where they've been able to
secure the marks and where they're
falling short of the marks that they
need previously we might get an overall
grade for a student and overall mark for
a student but we were never sure exactly
where those grades and marks had come
from now we can actually sit down and
break it down into every single mark
that they've achieved and what they've
done to achieve those marks that they've
secured this family of digital
technologies is growing and Pearson is
not standing still it understands that
it must ensure that assessment processes
meet the needs of increasingly IT
literate candidates not just in schools
and colleges but also in the work place
where on-screen testing is already
popular in training our web-based
learning provider we're part of the
Newcastle College group and we deliver
apprenticeship programs to candidates in
their workplace EDX I'll offer a broad
range of products on the on screen
testing facility and we use quite a wide
selection of those and key skills the
BTech Awards including things like
customer service business admin retail
dgv and we take up that facility on the
young screen-testing route for a lot of
those awards it works in today's
environment that the candidates that
we're dealing with them are used to
dealing with PCs laptops electronic
equipment so they have less fear of that
than a traditional paper exam obviously
because she used computers a lot in
everyday life like at home and at work
it's just more it seems more natural
nowadays to use that as a medium for an
exam if you look at our learners and our
students they're really comfortable with
and they really use technology every
single day of their lives more so than
we ever did as youngsters so ultimately
I think those learners and those
students will demand that we introduce
it and I think we need to be prepared
prepared for that it's really important
to us to keep developing the technology
because what ultimately we're trying to
do is make sure that each candidate gets
the right result the more we can develop
systems that will support getting the
right results of the candidate and the
more we need to keep doing that delivery
result that we publish has to be
accurate because each of those results
are going out to individual people
they're going to the learners who have
studied hard for the examinations and we
want to make absolutely sure that the
qualifications they receive have that
integrity and are an accurate reflection
fair their efforts I think we all
understand and appreciate the
significance of what we do and everyone
in the organization's have shares that
same sense that on results day we all
want to make sure that students when
they open their results they they trust
the outcome on the piece of paper that
they're reading but equally that result
is delivered correctly at the right time
into the right candidate it's important
that make sense so mark quickly because
I feel that if I've worked really hard
to fit this paper it deserves me mark
correctly because I want to have a good
reliable mark so I can achieve any
achievements I want achieve makes when
right
to be honest I never really thought
about having mark exam I just expect my
result back but when I think about it
it's like it's a really big deal because
what if there's someone there he doesn't
even care and they mock it wrong
it's gonna affect your whole future
because it's the difference between a
grade and there's so many people out
there you need to compete against so you
should get the prize and get
you