Interpreting the Maths mark scheme

Modified on Fri, 30 Aug at 1:25 PM

The majority of questions are autoscored within the system. A small number of questions require teacher marking due to the open nature of the question and variety of potential correct 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.

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

The mark scheme contains the criteria against which responses should be judged and may include 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 are always cases where learners give answers that are correct but are presented differently from the examples in the mark scheme. You should use your professional judgement as to whether answers given correspond with the requirements for the award of marks, considering any additional guidance given in the ‘Accept’ and ‘Do not accept’ sections.

The following general guidance should be applied:

Responses that include spaces within numbers should be awarded the mark(s), e.g. 83 01.
Responses that include a zero or zeroes before the correct response should be awarded the mark(s), e.g. 008301.
Decimal responses that include a zero or zeroes after the last digit should be awarded the marks except for money questions, e.g. accept 1.2300 but do not accept £3.4500.
For questions requiring the rounding of a decimal number, credit should not be given if zeros are included after the decimal place to which the number must be rounded, e.g. 61.0 cannot be accepted for 60.9 rounded to a whole number.
Equivalent fractions should be accepted unless stated in the question's mark scheme.

The following guidance for Show Your Working questions should be applied:

Two marks can be awarded for a correct answer without evidence of working.
The correct response given as a final answer in the working box should be awarded two marks even if the answer box is left blank.
Responses with a correct and complete method can be awarded one mark even if there are multiple arithmetic errors.
Responses with a correct and complete method can be awarded one mark even if there is no final answer.