The key difference between marking and grading is that marking refers to the correction and assessment of students’ work by academic staff, whereas grading refers to the indication of the standard of the students using a grade, possibly a letter.
Marking and grading are two processes educators use to assess and evaluate the work of students. Both marking and grading are used mainly in exams and tests.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Marking
3. What is Grading
4. Marking vs Grading in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Marking vs Grading
What is Marking?
Marking is the process of assessing the standard of written work of students by assigning points for proficiency or correct answers. Educators usually mark students’ work in tests, exams, or assessments. The process of marking can evaluate the standard of students. Marks are given for answers according to their standard.
At the school level, marking is done by the teachers. At the same time, in universities and other higher educational academies, marking is done by internal markers. In most countries, the national exam answer scripts are marked by a separate marking panel that is well trained and qualified in marking. Markers often use marking schemes in the process of marking. These marking schemes provide the correct answers or the answer key. Marking schemes usually consist of descriptors that define how marks should be offered to candidates. In structured questions or long questions, markers use a level-based criterion to give marks. It describes the quality of the answer needed to obtain a particular mark for the particular question. All marks for each question are totalized and mentioned in the paper.
What is Grading?
The process of grading involves the conversion of numerical marks obtained by students to grades. Frequently, letters from A to E are used for grading purposes. This use of letters can be different from exam to exam as well as from one institute to the other. In some exams, pass or fail is decided using a grade boundary. Most of the time, in higher education, the variation of the letter as plus and minus are also given in grading processes. For example, “A+,” “A,” and “A-.”
The marks distribution in each level is different from one another. Based on these gradings, pass or fail of a subject is decided. In national exams, there is a standard grading system to be used; based on that, pass or fail conditions are decided. Many exam systems and assessment systems around the world use grading systems to release their results. Sometimes, grading systems do not provide the actual stand or the level of the students’ performance since it does not reveal the exact mark. This might help to reduce the competition among students.
What is the Difference Between Marking and Grading?
The key difference between marking and grading is that in marking, the exact score obtained by the student is released, whereas, in grading, only a grade is issued for the overall performance of the student. Although a numerical value is used to indicate the level of the student in marking, in grading, a letter is used to indicate the standard of the performance of the candidate. Thus, this is the key difference between marking and grading. Furthermore, grades are often used to decide pass or fail conditions, whereas marks are used only in a few instances to decide pass or fail conditions.
The below infographic presents the differences between marking and grading in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Marking vs Grading
The key difference between marking and grading is that marking refers to the correction and assessment of students’ work by academic staff, whereas grading refers to the indication of the standard of the students using a grade, possibly a letter. In marking, the exact score obtained by the student is released, while, in grading, only a grade is issued for the overall performance of the student.
Reference:
1. “Marking and grading: a simple guide.” Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Correcting-proof-paper-correction” (CC0) via Pixabay
2. “Result-exam-a-first-student” (CC0) via Pixabay