How to mark an A-level paper

OCR H446

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Kaeren Coverdale, Ribston Hall High School

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Creating the final mark scheme

How are papers marked ?

Key Annotations

• A word/phrase that is underlined needs to be exact in the answer to award the mark point

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• A word/phrase that is bold needs that concept to be in the answer (but can be given in multiple ways) to award the mark point
• Single / means alternative word

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• Double // means an alternative statement that is acceptable for the same mark point

Key Annotations

• 3 dots at the end of one mark point and at the start of the next mark point mean that the second mark point cannot be awarded without the first being awarded, unless the mark scheme states otherwise

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• 3 dots at the start of a mark point, without 3 dots at the end of the mark point above, means the sentence carries on and there is no dependency

Key annotations

• BOD – benefit of doubt.

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• FT – this penalises a student only once per answer for the same mistake, so they only lose one mark for it.
• For instance, if they do not enclose a string in quotes, they lose marks for it the first time, but not where that string appears again without quotes in that answer.
• NAQ – statements may be true but do not relate to the question
• TV – too vague

Short answer questions

• For questions which require a number of points, only the required number can be marked. i.e. “State 2 differences… “. If the student writes more than two differences, only the first two can be marked , regardless of whether the first two got marks or not.

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Crossed out response

• If the student has crossed out an answer and provided no other answer, you can mark that answer if it is legible.

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• If a student crosses out a correct answer and writes an incorrect answer, the answer which is not crossed out is marked.

Questions about differences

Imagine the question ‘Give two differences between apples and oranges’.

When asked to explain differences between two concepts, the student must describe the same aspect for both to gain marks.

• ‘Oranges are always orange in colour and apples have brown seeds’ – not comparing the same aspect.
• ‘Oranges are always orange in colour and apples can be various colours, commonly green, red and yellow’

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Questions about differences

For the same question ‘Give two differences between apples and oranges’.

Students must be clear about the aspect for both things. Just saying ‘..and the other doesn’t/isn’t’ will not gain marks

• ‘Oranges have a thick outer peel, apples don’t’ – too vague, doesn’t give any understanding of the type of outer peel apples have if any.
• ‘Oranges have a thick outer peel, apples have a thin peel’ clearly comparing a difference.

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Questions about differences

For the same question ‘Give two differences between apples and oranges’.

Student must write about both concepts to gain full marks. The marker will not assume the opposite for the other item – be specific.

• ‘Oranges are split into segments’ isn’t enough- how does this relate to apples ?
• ‘Oranges are split into segments whereas apples have a solid inner flesh’.

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Questions about differences

Can the impact be explained in half an argument or is the other half needed to complete the point ?

• For example, in a question about lossy versus lossless compression, saying ‘lossy reduces file size’, is this compared to lossless or the original file size ? It isn’t explaining the effect it has and would be too vague (TV). 

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• Both sides of the same aspect must be compared. You can read across the whole answer, they don’t need to be in the same sentence.

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Example questions used

• All the questions I used are from the Summer 2022 paper 1, in case you want to reference them

Your turn : How many marks ?

A compiler creates an executable ; an interpreter does not

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An interpreter executes code one line at a time. A compiler shows all the errors at the end

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Your turn : How many marks ?

Your turn : How many marks ?

A compiler creates an executable ; an interpreter does not

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An interpreter executes code one line at a time. A compiler shows all the errors at the end

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1 mark

0 mark : too vague

1 mark

0 mark : not comparing the same aspect

Total marks - 2

Your turn : How many marks ?

ASCII has fewer characters

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ASCII uses 8 bits for each character, but Unicode uses 26 or 32

Your turn : How many marks ?

ASCII has fewer characters

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ASCII uses 8 bits for each character, but Unicode uses 26 or 32

1 mark

Total marks - 2

1 mark

Your turn : How many marks ?

The optimiser identifies redundant or repeated code and removes it.

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Your turn : How many marks ?

The optimiser identifies redundant or repeated code and removes it.

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Total marks – 0. This answer does not describe the purpose of optimisation. An example of NAQ.

Extended response questions

Extended response questions

Extended response questions

Extended response questions

• Top mark band – covers all parts of the question and has a conclusion or evaluation
• Middle mark band - Must have some application to the question
• Bottom mark band – shows only knowledge

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Your turn – how many marks ?

More mark scheme

More mark scheme

Your turn – how many marks ?

A CISC processor is a complex instruction set computer, whilst a RISC processor is a reduced instruction set computer. CISC processors can process multiple instructions per clock cycle whilst RISC processors can only process one instruction per clock cycle. CISC is also more expensive and has more complex circuitry, however does not support pipelining whilst RISC does.

For a mobile device, it does not require complex instructions compared to a desktop computer which requires more intensive hardware and circuitry. Therefore, RISC would be more suitable.

It is also cheaper and if CISC were to be used it would be as much as a PC with less functionality. Mobile devices would be more portable than desktop computers or laptops however CISC would not be necessary as CISC is suitable for more complex tasks that require multiple instructions per clock cycle. A mobile device will not need to carry out multiple instructions all at one time, therefore RISC is more suitable. CISC would also be more expensive overall and would not be utilised.

Total marks – 3/12

Examiners comments

• “The candidate has given a couple of relevant features of each processor type so have shown a basic knowledge which mainly focuses around the size of the instruction set but does not then go on to say what the consequences of that are. There are some inconsistencies in knowledge and although they have made an attempt at some application it is not detailed enough to gain higher marks. The conclusion is weak and lacking justification and there is not enough information to be able to evaluate the suitability of either processor type.“

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• Using the examiners report with your students can help them understand how to get the marks. You can find these on the Teach Cambridge site.

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Topic specific

• Databases - Field and table names must be spelt and capitalised to exactly match what is in the question.
• OOP - Students specify public (i.e. class) and private (i.e. attribute) as appropriate
• Factors affecting speed of the CPU – students must refer to an improvement ‘more/higher/faster’.
• Clock speed – 0 marks
• Higher clock speed – 1 mark
• Pipelining/FDE cycles – must refer to instructions or processes, not tasks

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Tips for your students

• Don’t write a digit over another digit– rewrite the whole number. Must be perfectly legible to be valid.
• The answer for two questions won’t be the same, so if you find yourself writing the same answer, look at the exact wording of questions again.
1. Check the command words.
2. How else do the questions differ ?
3. Have they given you a context to apply to that you perhaps haven’t taken into account ?

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Tips continued

• Benefits/advantages – when asked to give a benefit, state a fact and say explicitly how that is a benefit, don’t expect the marker to read between the lines (they won’t). Often will need to be linked to the given scenario.
• For example, consider the question ‘State an advantage of an electric car to a commuter’. The fact ‘They will use less petrol’. This is NOT an advantage – the advantage is ‘and therefore the commuter will save money’.
• For the same question, make sure to link to the scenario. It would not gain marks to say ‘…and using less petrol is good for the environment’ as this is an advantage for the environment NOT the commuter. The question refers specifically to the commuter.

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