For teachers or lecturers interested in supplementing your income, developing professionally and deepening your understanding of the assessments your students take, becoming an examiner / assessor is an excellent opportunity. By joining teams of experienced educators who help students receive the recognition they deserve, examiners play a crucial role in supporting progression and maintaining standards. Working as an examiner / assessor offers valuable insights into subject specifications and the assessment process, while providing opportunities to network with other subject experts and enhance classroom practice.
Examining explained
The role
As an examiner, you will mark completed exam papers against a mark scheme, working as part of a team with a supervisor who will guide you through the process and answer any queries.
Exam boards ensure that you are fully trained, helping you to understand the assessment process and your part in it. There will also be standardisation activities to make sure you can apply the mark scheme consistently.
Typically, the marking window is 3-4 weeks long and falls within the period May to July.
Benefits
- Assessing enables you to improve your teaching and the learning and progress of your students at KS4 and/or 5
- Developing your knowledge of the specification
- Enabling you to apply your subject knowledge and encouraging you to expand and deepen it
- Developing your understanding of the mark schemes used
- Having experience of the practical application of the mark scheme to a wide variety of responses
- Allowing you to see common errors made by students
- Improving the ways you support students in their development of assessment techniques
- Enabling you to more easily develop assessment-style questions and create model answers
- Enabling the marking of your students’ work to become more focused on the requirements of the specification and mark scheme
- Enabling your marking to become more efficient because you know the mark scheme, your marking is more focused, and your setting of appropriate questions is improved
Profile
The role will require you to work well under pressure and have the ability to meet deadlines.
Most exam boards will ask that you have:
- A teaching qualification, a degree, or equivalent qualification in a related subject
- Relevant teaching experience gained in the last three years
- A senior professional referee able to verify your relevant experience
Some exam boards will accept, in certain subjects, applications from retired teachers, trainee teachers, NQTs, tutors, lecturers and PhD students.
Applying to examine with one of JCQ’s member awarding organisations
If you are interested in applying to become an assessor with an awarding organisation, or for more information, please visit JCQ member websites.