I just spent 5 hours marking 60 students’ 200-word essays.
That works out to an average of 5 mins per student… which isn’t all that much, if you take each case on its’ own. But the cumulative mental fatigue is exhausting. By the end of it all my mind was nearly numb. And yet, I couldn’t stop. The same thing that drives me to play games for hours on end also drove me to mark obsessively until I finished them all, giving each student as much personal attention as I could dredge up. I think I’ve got a touch of OCD. Now I know why regular teachers groan at marking, and try to make things simpler for themselves.
Even so, though… I think I don’t really dislike marking. It’s fun to read what other people have to say about the same topic. And every now and then I come across real gems of answers – in either direction. I’ve found some really well-thought out answers, and some which sounded suspiciously like copypasta, or had misinterpreted what the question was about. It really is true that teachers can spot poor answers a mile away. You would think that your answer would be hidden in a pile of other answers, but instead the reverse is true. Because 90% of the answers are of a reasonable standard of quality, anything that diverges too much from them is immediately noticeable when you start marking in bulk. The nail that sticks out too much may get hammered, but the hole that is sunken in an otherwise level surface will also get plugged.
Still. 5 hours.
And my marking workload is expected to triple next week.
Crap.
