How to use marking criteria and assessment briefs

Guidance to help you make best of use marking criteria and assessment briefs within different forms of assessment and exam.

What are marking criteria?

Marking criteria outline what is expected of you in an assessment, setting out the standards that your work will be judged against. They describe some of the characteristics of work at different grades and will form the basis of the feedback that you will receive. This helps to ensure fairness and consistency in marking. You will often see marking criteria presented in the form of a table which outlines the criteria alongside descriptors of what the characteristics of work at each grade would look like.

View these example marking criteria to get a sense of what they include.

Example marking criteria

If you are new to higher education, the marking criteria used might be quite different to what you are used to. You may be accustomed to getting very high marks in assessments, possibly as high as 100%. Such high marks are very unusual in higher education across the majority of disciplines. This is important to remember when reviewing and reflecting on your grades and feedback at university, where 70% on a piece of work or exam would achieve a first class mark at undergraduate level.

What are assessment briefs?

Assessment briefs are a set of instructions and supporting information, guiding you on what you need to do for a particular assessment, whatever format this is in (report, essay, presentation, blog post etc). The assessment brief should also outline why this type of assessment has been selected as a means of measuring your achievement of the learning outcomes for a particular module. Assessment briefs include a range of information to assist you, such as the details of the task, deadlines, submission details, a link to the marking criteria and more. It is important to read the assessment brief carefully before starting work on your assessment as many of the details about how you should approach the assessment will be in the brief rather than the marking criteria.

Where do you find marking criteria?

You will be introduced to the marking criteria for each assessment by your tutors within taught sessions. You will also be able to find them within module handbooks, via Blackboard and within assessment briefs. You should get an opportunity to review the marking criteria early in your module, and have a chance to discuss these with your module tutors and peers where appropriate.

Whilst there will be a degree of alignment in the marking criteria you encounter throughout your programme, don’t forget that marking criteria are likely to differ from one assignment to the next. It is therefore important to take the time to review each set of marking criteria and the assessment brief for each individual assessment and tailor your approach accordingly.

How to make use of marking criteria and assessment briefs

Don’t wait until the week of the assessment deadline or exam to review the marking criteria and assessment brief. Marking criteria are something to engage with early in the module. This will give you more time to identify what is required and which skills you may wish to focus on. For example, if critical analysis is weighted or emphasised in the marking criteria, you may want to focus on this skill more in the build up to that particular assessment.

To make the most of marking criteria and assessments briefs, it is important to consider some or all of the following.

Before starting the assignment

Read the assessment brief and marking criteria before starting an assignment. This will give you a good indication of how to plan and respond to what is needed and expected
Ensure you understand the specific requirements of different forms of assessment (e.g. essay, report, presentation), and adapt your approach accordingly, seeking guidance when you are uncertain.
Identify the instruction words to understand what is required (this is relevant for both coursework and exams). For example, are you being asked to analyse, compare, discuss etc? This glossary of instruction words for writing essays could be a useful starting point
Identify the key concepts or themes within the question and anything in the question that limits the scope
Are the criteria weighted evenly or do some contribute more to the final grade. How might this impact how you prioritise your time?
Marking criteria are almost always directly linked to the module's learning outcomes. Use the criteria to ensure your understanding of the course material aligns with what you are expected to know and be able to do
If possible, get examples of previous work and have a go at comparing it to the marking criteria. What grade would you give it and why? What can you learn from this to apply to your own work?

When undertaking the assignment

Refer back to the assignment brief and marking criteria periodically as you are completing the assignment. This could help you to refine your work. Does your work demonstrate what is outlined in the criteria?
Use the marking criteria to have a go at marking your own work. How confident are you that you have fulfilled each of the criteria?
Review the guidance on submitting online assessments. This includes opportunities to practice how to submit assignments via Blackboard.
When you receive results of an assignment and feedback, review this against the criteria and seek to learn from things that have gone well or less well and feed this forward into future assessments.

Remember, if there is something about the marking criteria or assessment brief that you aren’t sure about, ask your tutor.

Marking criteria and exams

Whenever they are available, ensure you look at the marking criteria ahead of the exam. It is not necessary to memorise the criteria, however, having a clear understanding of what is expected will help you when responding to the questions, whatever the format of the exam.

Additional things to consider when using marking criteria to support you when preparing for and taking exams include:

Exam preparation

Reviewing the marking criteria will assist you in understanding what is being assessed. You can then use this insight to target and prioritise your revision and exam preparation
In addition to content, focus on the skills being assessed. For example, the criteria may reward analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and critical thinking, rather than just description or recall of information, as these often differentiate higher grades. Are there opportunities to practice and further develop these skills ahead of the exam?
Marking criteria won’t always be the same, even for the same type of assessment. For example, an essay in an exam would have different marking criteria and expectations than an essay completed as part of coursework.
Make use of past papers if available, practice answering the questions and use the marking criteria if available to reflect on areas for improvement

During the exam

Signpost your use of criteria in your answers using clear language and paragraphing to explicitly show the examiner that you are addressing the different criteria
As discussed in relation to preparation, focus on demonstrating higher-order skills where this is reflected in the marking criteria. Pay attention to criteria that reward analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and critical thinking, rather than just description or recall of information, as these often differentiate higher grades.
When reviewing your work toward the end of the exam, have the marking criteria in mind. To what extent have you responded to these?

Using feedback alongside the marking criteria

The marking criteria will be used as the basis for providing constructive and informative feedback on your work. Reviewing your feedback alongside the marking criteria will help improve for next time and increase your chances of success in the future

It is important that you collect and collate your feedback and read it. Use the Feedback Portal to log your feedback, rating it for usefulness and pulling out the main learning points to act on next time.

You may want to consider the following questions:

Which criteria did you do well against and why? It's important to recognise what you are doing well and build on this.
Which criteria did you do less well against? Does the feedback help you to understand how to approach these ones differently next time?
Is there anything that you don't understand in the feedback? If so, make sure you ask for clarification from the module leader.

To access more resources on using feedback, visit the How to make the most of your feedback page within StudySkills@Sheffield.

Next steps

Further Resources

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