Written examiner for JC/LC

infor123

Terri26 wrote: »

I'm assuming 'old breed' means his colleague didn't apply for LC HL. Most of us do it the proper way starting off at JC and moving our way up. They should be contacting ppl who've corrected OL LC and asking them to consider HL.

Surely that is up to the SEC - stating that “most of us do it the proper way” is a bit unfair. You take what you get. I certainly wouldn’t turn it down!

spurious

Correcting is a very different gig to superintending though.

RealJohn

spurious wrote: »

Correcting is a very different gig to superintending though.

Just on a point of pedantics, since it’s being said over and over by virtually every poster in this thread (and others), it’s not ‘correcting’. ‘Correcting’ is what you do for your own students, which involves marking and giving direct feedback. You don’t ‘correct’ state exams because you are not giving the student any feedback. You’re ‘marking’, as in you’re indicating what marks the student has earned.

You could also say ‘examining’, since your job title is ‘examiner’ (not ‘correcter’) but the process is generally referred to as ‘marking’ by those actually involved in it, particularly by more experienced examiners.

Not aimed at you directly spurious but it’s a bit of a ‘bugbear’ for me.

rainbowtrout

RealJohn wrote: »

Not aimed at you directly spurious but it’s a bit of a ‘bugbear’ for me.

But everyone understands what is meant by correcting so does it really matter?

*Off to do a bit of hoovering:pac:

Seannew1

RealJohn wrote: »

Just on a point of pedantics, since it’s being said over and over by virtually every poster in this thread (and others), it’s not ‘correcting’. ‘Correcting’ is what you do for your own students, which involves marking and giving direct feedback. You don’t ‘correct’ state exams because you are not giving the student any feedback. You’re ‘marking’, as in you’re indicating what marks the student has earned.

You could also say ‘examining’, since your job title is ‘examiner’ (not ‘correcter’) but the process is generally referred to as ‘marking’ by those actually involved in it, particularly by more experienced examiners.

Not aimed at you directly spurious but it’s a bit of a ‘bugbear’ for me.

Very true. I was told by a chief examiner at my first conference that we need to leave our teacher hats at home and put on our assessor hats.

ASISEEIT

Can I ask whats it like correcting the new JC English? Tempted to apply next year.

RealJohn

ASISEEIT wrote: »

Can I ask whats it like correcting the new JC English? Tempted to apply next year.

I can’t tell you anything about marking the new English course but if you’re tempted to become an examiner, I highly recommend it. Personally, I think every teacher should do it at least once and you’re better off getting on board at a time in your life when you’re feeling reasonably enthusiastic about it because it can be a bit of a slog.

Personally, I find it quite rewarding (and while the money isn’t great, it’s not that bad either). Some people have done it and hated it. You could fall into either camp. You’ll never know unless you try it (and marking is not the same as correcting your own students’ work, so how you feel about that is not necessarily an indication of how you’d feel about being an examiner).

infor123

RealJohn wrote: »

I can’t tell you anything about marking the new English course but if you’re tempted to become an examiner, I highly recommend it. Personally, I think every teacher should do it at least once and you’re better off getting on board at a time in your life when you’re feeling reasonably enthusiastic about it because it can be a bit of a slog.

Personally, I find it quite rewarding (and while the money isn’t great, it’s not that bad either). Some people have done it and hated it. You could fall into either camp. You’ll never know unless you try it (and marking is not the same as correcting your own students’ work, so how you feel about that is not necessarily an indication of how you’d feel about being an examiner).

Agree totally wit this. Money is fine. Have something that you want to buy/do with the money and it’ll make it worth while e.g. a holiday or a new kitchen whatever! It is so worth for the experience though. I learned so much about the marking scheme and (hopefully) have passed that on in my teaching.

deiseindublin

infor123 wrote: »

Agree totally wit this. Money is fine. Have something that you want to buy/do with the money and it’ll make it worth while e.g. a holiday or a new kitchen whatever!

Jeez, I think you'd want to be correcting for 20 years to get a new kitchen!

infor123

deiseindublin wrote: »

Jeez, I think you'd want to be correcting for 20 years to get a new kitchen!

Well like I meant do up your kitchen or decorate a bit of the house whatever like. Put down tarmac, whatever. Don’t just use it buy groceries. I corrected last summer and bought my wedding dress with the money so I knew it was worth it.

Postgrad10

I got my pay last year just when my laptop gave up. I know what you mean, it's great back up for the little jobs/emergencies:)

gaiscioch

I got offered LC HL in my subject for the first time. I'm doing it entirely so I can better understand how to get the H1 as I've some really motivated kids each year and my not knowing the marking is a definite weakness on my part. Apparently you have "approx. 26 days from the date of the Conference" to do all the marking. I'm expecting to be crucified with tax/PRD/USC from doing this but I'm not sure how bad my take home pay will be. I've some questions.

1. How long do you have to wait for payment this year? Has there been any improvement there? (the thread here last year or the year before was full of people waiting a long time to be paid)

2. How much more is the extra payment if you correct in Irish?

3. Where is there a list of the pay rates for correcting in 2018? Have they improved at all? (see story below)


Junior and Leaving Cert ‘at risk’ unless examiners' pay increased (5 April 2018)

Postgrad10

1. Depends on your subject and that depends how far along your subject was examined in June. Payment usually come any time from early September-end of October. You will get an advance shortly after your conference depending on your years working with the SEC.

Don't know 2.

3. There's no list of all the rates of the subjects. It will be in your form of appointment or alternatively you can email financial@examinations.ie and they will tell you.

RealJohn

I think the answer to 2 is 5% per paper marked as Gaeilge but I’m not sure about that, nor am I sure that it doesn’t vary from subject to subject.

It really should be more. We were very short on examiners capable of marking through Irish last year and the 5% extra really only covers all of the extra paperwork in my opinion, leaving you unpaid for the extra expertise required for the actual marking. I’m aware of at least one person in my subject who told me that he’ll be marking again this year but not as Gaeilge because he feels that the extra hassle isn’t worth the extra money.
More for me I suppose.

MathsManiac

ASISEEIT wrote: »

Can I ask whats it like correcting the new JC English? Tempted to apply next year.

They did this using a new online marking system last year and I heard it was WAY better than before. No totting and practically no admin work, etc. Sit at your PC, look at a piece of work, give it a mark, move on. Sounds lovely. The sooner they move all the rest of them to this way the better.

MuireannNiSh

What exactly is this extra paperwork you speak of? I've just accepted a position to correct JC OL Spanish and I said I would be willing to correct through Irish (I looked through the sample papers and it seemed very manageable - I went to a Gaelscoil and got an A2 in HL Irish for the Leaving not all that long ago). However, now I'm regretting not looking into it further.

Rodar08

This is probably such a silly question but for newbies maybe not that silly. I assume if you’ve already been offered superintending you cant also be an examiner? Subbing for years but my first time doing superintending or marking. Just noticed they’re still looking for examiners and would like the experience of jc marking. I think I’m being offered lca for 5/6 days which I hear is the norm for first time superintending.

rainbowtrout

Rodar08 wrote: »

This is probably such a silly question but for newbies maybe not that silly. I assume if you’ve already been offered superintending you cant also be an examiner? Subbing for years but my first time doing superintending or marking. Just noticed they’re still looking for examiners and would like the experience of jc marking. I think I’m being offered lca for 5/6 days which I hear is the norm for first time superintending.

Yes you can be offered both. The only problem you would have is if the conference for your subject was in mid june (probably the early subjects like English, Irish, Maths) and it overlapped with your days of supervision.

Rodar08

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Yes you can be offered both. The only problem you would have is if the conference for your subject was in mid june (probably the early subjects like English, Irish, Maths) and it overlapped with your days of supervision.

Thanks Rainbowtrout yeah my subject is English. How would that work? So should I apply now for examiner and hope for the best? What if they do clash? I’m confused lol. I’ve already accepted superintending. And also, where is the conference held? Various locations or just athlone? So I have to travel all the way there for it? that’s a bit of a trek for me.

Postgrad10

It's only in Athlone , can be in AIT , a hotel or a secondary school.

Postgrad10

Rodar08 wrote: »

Thanks Rainbowtrout yeah my subject is English. How would that work? So should I apply now for examiner and hope for the best? What if they do clash? I’m confused lol. I’ve already accepted superintending. And also, where is the conference held? Various locations or just athlone? So I have to travel all the way there for it? that’s a bit of a trek for me.

Give it a shot anyway. English is usually one of the first conferences as it's so early. Have you another subject? They might just give you CSPE which could work.

Rodar08

Postgrad10 wrote: »

Give it a shot anyway. English is usually one of the first conferences as it's so early. Have you another subject? They might just give you CSPE which could work.

Thanks postgrad10! Yeah I only have one subject.. but it’s a core? .. see my new post and give me loads of helpful advice.

rainbowtrout

Rodar08 wrote: »

Thanks Rainbowtrout yeah my subject is English. How would that work? So should I apply now for examiner and hope for the best? What if they do clash? I’m confused lol. I’ve already accepted superintending. And also, where is the conference held? Various locations or just athlone? So I have to travel all the way there for it? that’s a bit of a trek for me.

The main conference will be at least a week after the exam. From what I remember examiners in English (LC) get Paper 1 and Paper 2, so that's the first two days of the LC. Main conference will be at least a week after Paper 2, if not 10 days, so if you only have 5-6 days of LCA, you'll probably be ok.

If you want to do it, apply for it. Conferences are held in Athlone, depends on the subject, some are in hotels, Athlone IT, depending on the size of the conference. Core subjects are going to have a lot of examiners, minority subjects s lot less, so a room in the IT is sufficient.

You will get mileage for going to the conference and if you are more than 100km then you will get an overnight as well for day 2 of the conference.

You'll only have to go to Athlone for the conference and collection of papers. You won't be bringing them back to Athlone, they go back through the post office.

Rodar08

rainbowtrout wrote: »

The main conference will be at least a week after the exam. From what I remember examiners in English (LC) get Paper 1 and Paper 2, so that's the first two days of the LC. Main conference will be at least a week after Paper 2, if not 10 days, so if you only have 5-6 days of LCA, you'll probably be ok.

If you want to do it, apply for it. Conferences are held in Athlone, depends on the subject, some are in hotels, Athlone IT, depending on the size of the conference. Core subjects are going to have a lot of examiners, minority subjects s lot less, so a room in the IT is sufficient.

You will get mileage for going to the conference and if you are more than 100km then you will get an overnight as well for day 2 of the conference.

You'll only have to go to Athlone for the conference and collection of papers. You won't be bringing them back to Athlone, they go back through the post office.

Brilliant. Thanks so much Rainbowtrout. You’re always so helpful. You helped me way back too, I remembered your name. I’ll send off my application tomorrow.

Postgrad10

Rodar08 wrote: »

Thanks postgrad10! Yeah I only have one subject.. but it’s a core? .. see my new post and give me loads of helpful advice.

You response has left me confused? I did post some advice for you. I explained that the location is always Athlone and I also acknowledged that English is examined early on in the examination session, that's why I asked if you had a second subject the SEC could call you up for, and then I suggested CSPE as Conference is later in the month and they struggle to get cspe examiners.

Rodar08

Postgrad10 wrote: »

You response has left me confused? I did post some advice for you. I explained that the location is always Athlone and I also acknowledged that English is examined early on in the examination session, that's why I asked if you had a second subject the SEC could call you up for, and then I suggested CSPE as Conference is later in the month and they struggle to get cspe examiners.

Oh I know postgrad10 sorry and thanks a mil, so helpful. I have a new post up on the forum now, looking for advice. It’s about upskilling, special needs, new junior cycle and there’s a union question in there also.

mtoutlemonde

Received letter today from SEC - no online marking this year - procurement problems with scanning companies. It looks like I won't be correcting this year!!! Not going back to the old way for love nor money!!!

nermal15

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

Received letter today from SEC - no online marking this year - procurement problems with scanning companies. It looks like I won't be correcting this year!!! Not going back to the old way for love nor money!!!

I'm still going to do it but that letter really angered me...I was so looking forward to doing without the constant trips to the post office and piles of exam papers!

Mardy Bum

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

Received letter today from SEC - no online marking this year - procurement problems with scanning companies. It looks like I won't be correcting this year!!! Not going back to the old way for love nor money!!!

Is that for all subjects?

mtoutlemonde

nermal15 wrote: »

I'm still going to do it but that letter really angered me...I was so looking forward to doing without the constant trips to the post office and piles of exam papers!

Likewise. The letter is as bad as the one introducing it online marking. Why didn't they send that letter with acceptance/decline form? I was in service and was talking to Spanish teacher who told me that they were doing online marking. I hope you send them a letter to show your dissatisfaction - I did.