Frequently Asked Questions about Essay Grading

Show the table of contents...Hide

How to interpret the red marks?

• Check marks generally mean that a relevant comment was made. This is good. Alternatively, a single check mark for an entire paragraph or page might mean that I read the writing but it was not immediately relevant. In this case, the check mark is verification that I read that part of the answer.
• An "x" is generally not a great thing. This means that something was wrong (the anterior border of the epiploic foramen is the caudate lobe of the liver -- wrong: big red x here). X's are not thrown about lightly. If you see and X with a bunch of horizontal lines through it that means that I originally thought something was incorrectly written and later realized that it was incorrectly read.
• A cross with a circle indicates an omission. Sometimes the circle is not directly centered over the cross. Generally, a cross with a circle means that, in light of the current discourse, I expected (hoped) that certain additional information would be presented at that point in the answer. Possibly, the "omitted" information appears later in the answer. Generally, if this is the case, I go back and put a series of horizontal lines through the circled cross.
• Often times, there are circled crosses over the prompts provided by the wording of the question. For example, a circled cross over the word "lymphatics" means that something about lymphatics was omitted from the answer. In 2006, almost everyone received a cross over the word "anatomy" on the question about the pericardium. This is because only about 4-5 people mentioned the oblique and transverse sinuses.
• Low scores may be the unfortunate result of not absorbing the question. Sometimes, in their haste, people write about a question that was not asked. Please read the question from beginning to end. There have been great answers about the anterior thigh when the question asked about the anterior leg.

How to attain a perfect score?

• Please appreciate that the following information pertains to "perfect" scores. How to attain a passing score is discussed further below.
• A perfect score is reserved for a truly outstanding answer. The "best" answer given from the entire class may not receive a perfect score. Thus, you are not competing against your classmates to achieve a perfect score. The criteria are established a priori. I do not preview for the best answer from the class and then scale to that answer. A perfect answer will be much more than bulleted facts. An answer that receives a perfect score will have demonstrated that the author can integrate anatomical facts with anatomical terminology. The answer, in addition to stating facts, will stand on its own as a thoughtful account of anatomy.

How to attain a passing score?

• Provide a broad tally of relevant points.
• Drawings, tables, and sentence fragments may be a way to quickly approach a passing point value. To score higher than a passing point value (approximately 60% of the point value: 7.2 of 12 points), thoughtful written accounts of the drawings and or tables are required.
• Most essay questions provide you with a list of prompts that you might chose to use as subheadings. Be sure to address each of the specific prompts given in the question. This is also a recommended strategy for writing an answer that aspires toward a perfect score.

More Information

• Frequently Asked Questions about Essay Answers

Comments

• Set DENYTOPICVIEW =