Assessment

The four objectives

Extended answers are marked across all four assessment objectives. In plain language:

• AO1, knowledge and understanding. Precise definitions and the correct diagram. Necessary, rarely sufficient.
• AO2, application. Using the specific context or data provided, not a generic answer.
• AO3, analysis. Linked chains of reasoning, built on a diagram, with no missing steps.
• AO4, evaluation. Supported judgement: magnitude, assumptions, time frame, and what the outcome depends on.

The single habit worth policing from the first lesson: stating a point is not analysing it. "A subsidy lowers price" earns little until the student chains how and by how much. The marking desk is prompted to challenge assertion and to praise chained reasoning and weighed evaluation; using the same language in your own marking keeps the message consistent.

The levels, in practical terms

A paraphrase of how levelled extended-response schemes typically climb. Always mark against the current published grid.

Level	Broadly	What it looks like
1	Knowledge	Isolated points, a definition or a partial diagram; little application; assertion rather than analysis; no real evaluation.
2	Application	Relevant points applied to the context, a correct diagram, but chains are short and evaluation is asserted rather than developed.
3	Analysis	Developed, logically linked chains of reasoning on accurate diagrams, applied to the context; evaluation present but not yet decisive.
4/5	Evaluation	Analysis fully developed and evaluation threaded throughout, weighing magnitude, assumptions and time, and reaching a supported, context-specific judgement.

What separates the levels in practice

• Chains that finish. Weak scripts assert; strong scripts link every step to the next and back to the question. Teach the connective, not the keyword.
• Diagrams that are used. A drawn-but-unmentioned diagram is wasted. Insist the prose refers to the shift and the new equilibrium.
• Evaluation that commits. "Arguments on both sides" is not evaluation. Reward magnitude, assumptions and a judgement the student is willing to defend.

Comment-only marking and the marking desk

The site’s marking desk is deliberately grade-free: it annotates in the margin, writes an end comment and sets next steps, but will not produce a number even if asked, and it scrubs mark-like patterns as a backstop. That protects two things: the well-evidenced finding that students ignore comments once a grade is visible, and your position as the sole source of level judgements. Suggested workflow: draft, desk annotation, redraft in a different colour, then you mark the redraft against the grid. The improvement between draft and redraft is itself assessable evidence of progress.