Eight recent General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations, containing mainly free-response questions, were investigated in terms of their marking reliability. The tests of 200 randomly selected candidates from each subject were re-marked by a senior GCE examiner, and these marks were compared with the marks awarded previously as a result of…

The grading reliability of the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Examinations in England was investigated by correlating GCE grades awarded to examination papers during the normal grading period and grades awarded to the same papers by a senior GCE examiner after completion of the normal GCE grading procedure. (Author/MJL)

Two senior GCE examiners re-marked photocopies of the same 200 GCE examination scripts, half still containing the marks and comments of the original examiners and half with these markings removed. Removing previous markings made a considerable difference to the extent of agreement between these sets of marks. (Editor/SJL)

Two studies of the oral secondary school leaving examinations in Germany indicated variances in ratings made by different teachers. The differences were significantly influenced by speed of speaking, background information about past achievement, and contrast of performance related to sequence of presentation. (Author/MJL)