It has always been a recurring issue: how does one mark the performance of their students in mock tests?

At the Cambridge ESOL office, we can still recall many times when stressed colleagues would call us seeking for an answer that the sample paper itself could not adequately provide. As you are all aware, each paper contributes 40 out of the 200 marks that a candidate needs to secure success in an examination. This weighting aims at giving each paper equal importance. However, you will notice that the total marks for the correct answers in each paper sum to over 40 marks and that can be rather confusing. Why do the correct answers give more than the 40 marks one would expect to get in each paper? How can a teacher calculate the score of the candidate on a scale out of 40? The solution comes in a very simple formula which teachers can use when marking their students mock papers. That would be to divide the score that each student receives in each paper by the possible score they can receive if they answer correctly all the questions. Then, multiply the result by 40, which is the total marks a candidate can score in each paper and you will see how the candidate has performed in it. Lets adequately illustrate this by using the FCE Reading paper as an example: In the FCE Reading paper, each question in Parts 1 and 2 is given two marks and each question in Part 3 is given one mark. So, for example a correctly answered paper may give the following score: Part 1: 8 questions = 16 marks Part 2: 7 questions = 14 marks Part 3: 15 questions = 15 marks Total number of marks possible = 45 marks. The number of marks a candidate gets for this paper is then weighted to a mark out of 40. This is done by dividing the number of marks attained by the total possible marks for that paper and then multiplying by 40 (total mark). Lets suppose that a candidate gets 35 marks (actual mark) out of a possible 45 (potential mark). The calculation 35 45 * 40 (actual mark potential mark * total mark) = a weighted mark of 31.1 out of the needed 40. The five weighted marks for each paper are then added together to make a final mark out of 200 and the grade awarded to the candidate is based on this aggregate score. It is not possible to pass or fail an individual paper.