Every year, millions of Chinese students enter the national university entrance exam, also known as Gaokao. When the exam ends, what many parents and students are interested in is how essay exams, especially Literature, are graded to ensure fairness.
Multi-round grading, application of monitoring technology
According to Xinhua News Agency, at exam grading points in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guizhou, an exam paper before being graded must go through many layers of technical and professional control.
Immediately after leaving the exam room, the candidate's paper was escorted by the police force to the grading center for digitization scanning. All personal information is encrypted before being put into the online grading system to ensure that the grading person cannot know the candidate's identity.
Each examiner does not grade the entire exam paper but is only assigned a specific part of the question by the random distribution system. They cannot view the entire paper as well as the candidate's information.
At a Literature exam grading point in Shanghai, only the assigned content is displayed on the teacher's computer screen. The system also allows enlarging the handwriting and adjusting the screen background color to support reading, limiting errors when processing a large number of exam papers.
To minimize emotional factors, before official grading, professional teams must study the answer keys, take sample exam papers, trial grading and complete grading instructions. All participating teachers are trained to unify how to understand and apply the scoring scale.
According to Mr. Vuong Tung Linh, Head of the University Admissions Department of Tianjin Institute of Examination and Education, trial grading results continue to be used to adjust grading guidelines and technical parameters before mass grading.
For essays, China applies the "independent double marking" mechanism. Each paper is marked separately by two teachers. If the score difference exceeds the permissible limit, the exam paper will be moved to the third or fourth marking round.
Mr. La Vinh Tuong - Deputy Head of the Gaokao Exam Scoring Steering Committee of Guizhou province - said that if the scoring rounds still do not reach consensus, the exam paper will be transferred to the expert council to make a final decision.
Not only relying on people, the system also uses big data analysis technology to monitor the scoring process. Unusual cases such as essay and multiple-choice scores differing too much, appearing abnormal 0s or other suspicious signs will be automatically transferred to experts for review. Articles with similar signs, inconsistent handwriting or containing identification symbols are also processed separately according to regulations.
After completing the grading, the data continues to go through many rounds of testing. In Beijing, two independent systems are used to compare results before publication. In Chongqing, two groups of personnel use different software and methods to synthesize scores according to the "cross-checking" mechanism to minimize errors.
Xinhua News Agency added that for exam papers with absolute scores, the recognition of exam scores must wait for the final decision of the expert council.
Parents and students are invited to the exam marking points.
A noteworthy point is that many Chinese localities have proactively opened exam grading points for parents, students and the press to visit.
According to Xinhua News Agency, in Shanghai, parents can directly observe the Literature grading process. In Beijing, the press is allowed to enter exam grading points located at Peking University and Tsinghua University.
After the tour, candidate Tang Hang in Quy Duong said that she had changed her mind about grading her essay.
Before, I thought the essay would only be graded through the introduction, conclusion or beautiful handwriting like what is spread on the internet. But in reality it is not at all true. The teachers graded very carefully," she told Xinhua News Agency reporters.
Another candidate, Au Duong Vu Hang in Chongqing, also said that he was surprised to see that the process of grading an essay question was much more complicated than he imagined.
