Moderation of Coursework

Why is moderation necessary?

Many GCSE and GCE A Level specifications include one or more components which are internally assessed. This means that the assessment tasks are set and marked by teachers in schools and colleges. As with all assessments, it is necessary to ensure that the marks awarded for internal assessment are consistent and reliable for all candidates' work. This is done through the process of moderation, which can be either internal moderation or external moderation.

Internal moderation

The first stage of moderation - internal moderation - is intended to ensure that the coursework marks submitted by a particular school or college are consistent, however many different teachers have been involved in the setting and marking of work. The teachers involved should compare the marks they have awarded and adjust them where necessary in order to ensure that their marking is reliable and consistent. For example they should ensure that a mark of 25 awarded by one teacher indicates the same standard as for work awarded 25 by another teacher, and that all work awarded 25 is better than any work awarded 24 or 23 etc. In other words there should be one consistent rank order of marks for the school or college as a whole.

External moderation

The second stage of moderation - external moderation - is intended to establish consistency across all the schools and colleges entering candidates for a particular assessment. External moderation is carried out by moderators with relevant teaching and assessment experience, appointed by the awarding body. The moderators are trained by the awarding body to follow the appropriate procedures and to apply the correct standards. Their work is supervised by a principal moderator, or, where there is a large number of moderators, by an assistant principal moderator or team leader.

Sampling coursework

Moderation is normally carried out by sampling work from each school or college. If the number of candidates is very small, all the work may be reviewed by the moderator. In most cases the samples of work are posted to the moderator, but where this is not feasible, for example in a number of practical subjects, the moderator may visit the centre to inspect the work (e.g. Design and Technology) or to see the assessment in progress (e.g. Physical Education, Music). The moderator requests a sample of work which should represent the types of tasks used and the range of attainment for the school or college concerned. The moderator then re-marks the sample of work using the specified assessment criteria in order to establish whether or not the original marks are in line with the agreed standard for the assessment as a whole.

Moderation outcomes

Once the moderator has re-marked the sample of work, there are a number of possible outcomes. If the moderator is satisfied that the marking is consistent, and that any variation in marks falls within agreed tolerance limits for the assessment, he/she will recommend that the marks should be accepted. If the moderator decides that the marking is internally consistent but that it is out of line with the agreed standards, he/she will recommend that the marks are adjusted up or down as appropriate, taking care to ensure that the rank order of the centre's marks is not disrupted. Where the moderator judges that the original marking is not internally consistent, the school or college will be asked to review its marking and to submit a new set of marks. The external moderation will then start again with a new sample of work.

Finalising moderation outcomes

Moderators submit moderation recommendations for each centre to their team leader or to the principal moderator or assistant principal moderator as appropriate. All recommendations are checked and signed off by the principal moderator, who submits them to the awarding body so that the appropriate adjustments can be made to each school's set of marks by the awarding body's computer system. When the results for the qualification are published, each school or college receives a report on each internally assessed component, including an indication of any adjustments that have been made to the original marks submitted to the awarding body.