'Please be lenient, I didn't study'
29 December 2008, 06:51
In the 10 years that Grace Tunzi has been marking matric exam papers, she has seen it all: some pupils beg her to be lenient when marking their papers and some even leave their phone numbers for her to call in case she can't understand their answers.
"Yes, I see the funniest things. You can't help but laugh at how some pupils try to influence a marker."
Tunzi teaches consumer studies to Grade 10s to 12s at Parktown High School for Girls and marks matric papers on that subject.
"I have always enjoyed marking, but 2008 was especially exciting with the new curriculum."
2008 was the first time matrics wrote exams on the new curriculum, the National Senior Certificate (NSC), with every candidate obliged to take either maths or maths literacy.
Tunzi has been a senior marker for about five years, but in 2008 she opted rather to be an ordinary marker.
"This time I was interested to see how pupils handled the new curriculum," she said, rather than be involved in moderating other markers' work.
Sometimes, she says, markers have to read answers repeatedly to understand what a pupil is trying to say.
"It's not as simple as having a memo in front of you and looking to see whether the answer is perfect according to that."
Among the measures they used was to consult with fellow markers with the same background as the pupil.
When asked the funniest thing she had seen during marking, she said her favourite was the child who wrote her cellphone number with the message: "Please call me if there you have a problem in understanding what I am trying to say so I can explain it to you'. Or they say things like, 'I'm begging you please, please be lenient with me, I didn't study enough'."
"Yes, I see the funniest things. You can't help but laugh at how some pupils try to influence a marker."
Tunzi teaches consumer studies to Grade 10s to 12s at Parktown High School for Girls and marks matric papers on that subject.
"I have always enjoyed marking, but 2008 was especially exciting with the new curriculum."
2008 was the first time matrics wrote exams on the new curriculum, the National Senior Certificate (NSC), with every candidate obliged to take either maths or maths literacy.
Tunzi has been a senior marker for about five years, but in 2008 she opted rather to be an ordinary marker.
"This time I was interested to see how pupils handled the new curriculum," she said, rather than be involved in moderating other markers' work.
Sometimes, she says, markers have to read answers repeatedly to understand what a pupil is trying to say.
"It's not as simple as having a memo in front of you and looking to see whether the answer is perfect according to that."
Among the measures they used was to consult with fellow markers with the same background as the pupil.
When asked the funniest thing she had seen during marking, she said her favourite was the child who wrote her cellphone number with the message: "Please call me if there you have a problem in understanding what I am trying to say so I can explain it to you'. Or they say things like, 'I'm begging you please, please be lenient with me, I didn't study enough'."
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Pretoria News on December 29, 2008
Durban
