I've been at it all day and part of last night and I still have at least 25 exam papers to mark!

Anyone else at it???

I deliberate so long over the marks, then go back and do the first 10 again just to make sure I've been fair....I wonder if the academics procrastinate this much over what marks to give???

I'm at it!

I've been lecturing on a particular courses (without a PhD) for a few years, and I can tell you that no, academics don't generally spend too much time procrastinating over undergrad marks - there simply isn't the time with so many students. I found this out the hard way in the first couple of years, when all my colleagues had finished and I was still agonising over a few percent here or there! Personally, I find it easier to do as many as I can in one day, that way I have a clear idea of what constitutes each grade and I can just plough through them. If I come back to it a few days later I have to read a few to remind myself.

Great feeling when the pile is finished though :)

I've got a chapter to finish for my review panel in Feb, I'm preparing a course for the continuing education department, I'm facilitating a two-day masters research design workshop, and I've just been reminded that the exam for the course I taught last semester is tomorrow so I will have 30 exam scripts coming my way on Monday. So much to do so little time!

Finally finished the things!!!
My ususal paranoia crept in and I re marked the first 10 to make sure I was consistent!!
To be honest I was a little shocked at how bad some of them were.
Now just got to get back on with my analysis!!
Oh and note to self...never ever be lured into taking extra exam papers...an extra 15 on top of my 30 at £3 per paper was NOT worth it!!!!

I'm at the Gates of Hell! I just can't get started on marking. I don't have any specific guidelines for the exam scripts but was told to use the coursework criteria which isn't relevant in a lot of areas such as presentation, use of sources etc. I though exams would be easier as the answers are shorter but instead of marking one essay, I have to look at three different answers and then work out an overall mark. And trying to read the writing!!!
Any tips??

a glass of wine - to get into the frame of the student - usually helps.

Good advice!! And I had a case of 12 bottles delivered yesterday. I switched energy suppliers and received the wine free as a thank you. Sometimes I work when I have had a few drinks and get some good ideas. But I make sure I go back when sober and tidy up what I have written. I may do the same with the marking and go back just to make sure I have given fair marks.
Actually some of the answers and the writing make me think that some of the students went into the exam room pissed!!

pmsl - it never occured to me that my markers might have been a little inebriated when marking my exams lol - now some of the marks make so much more sense :p Good luck, not something I look forward to particularly (hopefully next year), but it must be amusing in some ways - a friend of mine who is a tutor now said how one of her students felt that Edward I was king of russia (notice king - not tsar) during the interrogation.... (whatever that is...) interesting... makes you wonder if they took some dutch courage before heading into the examination hall.

Has anybody had the problem of trying to mark an exam paper which is illegible? I can barely read the answers on one paper but I can make out some words and can read parts of the notes they made, enough to see that they have answered the question but not enough to be able to make out their arguments etc. I was thinking of giving them a 3rd as I can work out enough to know that they don't deserve a fail. Would anyone just fail it straight away?
I have issues over the use of exams for formal assessment in that it does penalise those whose writing is bad, although they should make the effort to try to write legibly. I suppose as it is a first year, and they want to query their mark and find out why it was low, they will have the chance to do something about their writing before they take exams which count towards their degree classification.

I've just checked their student number alongside their coursework and I gave them a 2:1 and then a 1st for these assignments!!

I just handed back all my undergrad essays last week. It's particularly horrendous because I have to spend 15 minutes with each of them explaining the mark and giving them feedback. Exam marking is a breeze by comparison because I don't have to explain my logic to a series of bolshy (or, more usually, tearful) nineteen year olds! By the end of last summer's exam marking I was totally sick of the magic-liners who just write the first letter of every word and a line for the rest. Also, the incorrect spelling of hypocrisy over and over irritated me so much that I ended up giving a first to the first person who spelled it right.

A ex-colleague of mine used the ibuprofen and Jack Daniels combination to get through the marking season! I did point out that this might not be the most healthy of mixes but it seemed to work for him. Personally, I use displacement activities - I am currently trying to mark 1st year under grad projects and I'm losing the will to live :p I do procrastinate when marking but more about the feedback I give than the marks themselves.

A couple of years ago I got in trouble with one of our external examiners for a commment I wrote on an exam paper. I'd been marking for hours and was so bored that when one of the papers was virtually illegible, I wrote on the paper 'This is so bad I've gone blind'. The external examiner didn't find it funny.

I remember another exam paper where the student had obviously had too much time on their hands because they'd drawn flowers on the paper and coloured them in with highlighter pens! Another one indicated that there was more written over the page by drawing an arrow that was so large it could have been seen from space. One of my favourites though was one who wrote that they couldn't remember what the lectures were about and so couldn't answer the question but wanted me to know that they had enjoyed my lectures and thought I was a good lecturer!!! What can you say to that?