Evaluating Your Students and Yourself

TA:
In my department, the traditional way of grading all exams is for all faculty and TAs leading the class to get together right after the exam takes place and to collectively grade it. Depending on the size of the class, one or two people are assigned to a single question. Having one person evaluating all students on the same question increases the chance for the grading to be fair and less subjective. Certainly, this is not always possible. When grading together with other TAs, the most important practice is communication. For me, it works best if we all look at a few answers first, and then decide on a rubric or a detailed scoring chart for each of the important steps in the problem. If a certain mistake or misconception appears often, it is also helpful to decide exactly how much it will be penalized.

 Professor:
Ideally, I have provided an answer key or rubric that will guide your grading. If I am unable to give one to you, then you and the other TA’s need to develop one. Having a key or rubric before you start grading makes the task easier to accomplish.