Interpreting the Reading mark schemes

Modified on Thu, 29 Aug at 3:40 PM

The majority of questions are autoscored within the system.

A small number of questions require teacher marking due to the complexity of the learners’ responses. For these questions, mark schemes are provided within the marking area of the establishment portal.

Guidance on interpreting mark schemes

The total number of marks available for each question is given on the teacher marking screens.
The mark schemes will often outline unacceptable answers under a ‘Do not accept’ heading. Please pay close attention to these answers before marking.
Incorrect or unacceptable answers should be given a mark of 0. No half marks can be awarded.
Sometimes learners are required to give two or more points, or to develop their point to be credited.
For some questions, there is a minimum acceptable answer. This is provided in the mark scheme. Where additional words beyond this minimum answer are acceptable but not required, they are provided in brackets. For example:

Award 1 mark for: (colourful) flowers - The minimum a learner must write to receive the mark is ‘flowers’ but if they write ‘colourful flowers’ they would still receive the mark.

During the development of the tests, researchers worked with a large number of schools and pupils. Alongside the question development, a mark scheme was drafted and then revised following scrutiny of real learner responses.

The mark scheme contains the criteria against which responses should be judged, examples of the correct answers that were seen frequently when marking the trial materials, and, where applicable, examples of commonly appearing answers that should not be accepted.
There will always be cases where learners give answers that are correct but are worded differently from the examples in the mark scheme. You should use your professional judgement and focus on the content, disregarding the quality of the writing, expression, spelling, or grammatical construction.