Marking across awarding bodies: one routine for every spec

Most assessors carry more than one specification at a time, often across more than one awarding organisation and level. The good news is that the marking habit transfers almost entirely. What changes is the vocabulary in the spec and how the outcome is aggregated.

What is the same everywhere

You judge located evidence against a published standard, not against other learners.
The standard is written down — criteria, learning outcomes, grade descriptors, occupational standards, or a mark scheme.
Internally assessed work is internally quality assured, so your written rationale matters as much as the outcome.
Evidence can take many forms — written work, presentations, observations, recordings, professional discussion, witness testimony — where the assessment strategy allows it.

What changes between them

Vocational graded qualifications

BTEC, NCFE, CACHE, City & Guilds and OCR vocational units commonly grade pass, merit and distinction. The main practical difference is numbering: BTEC unit criteria are typically referenced P1, M1, D1 against learning aims, while many other specifications number assessment criteria against learning outcomes as 1.1, 1.2, 2.1. Same job, different labels.

Competence and pass/fail units

NVQ-style competence units, functional skills and some certificates are achieved / not yet achieved. There is no higher band to aim at, so your feedback focuses entirely on the gap and the route to sufficiency.

T Levels and apprenticeship end-point assessment

Employer-set projects and EPA components are assessed against occupational standards and assessment plans, often by an external assessment organisation. Your role in-programme is usually preparing and evidencing readiness rather than awarding the final grade, so keep your records tightly mapped to the standard.

Access to HE and higher education

Access to HE graded units use grade descriptors rather than a numbered criteria list. HNC, HND and university assignments typically use a marking rubric with weighted bands and a percentage or classification. You are judging against band descriptors, and the same judgement / evidence / next-step structure still applies.

GCSE and A Level non-exam assessment

NEA uses a published mark scheme with mark bands and strict rules on the level of help you may give. Marks, not criteria, and the authentication requirements are stricter — always work from the current specification and mark scheme for the series you are marking.

Check the live specification

Grading structures, criteria wording and aggregation rules are revised over time and differ between qualifications of the same name. Confirm them at source rather than from memory — for example Pearson, NCFE, City & Guilds or OCR.

One routine for all of them

Whatever the labels, the loop is identical: list the standard verbatim from the spec, judge each part against located evidence, apply whatever hierarchy or banding the spec sets out, and write feedback that names the judgement, the evidence and the next step. Keeping one routine is what stops cross-cohort inconsistency when you assess two awarding bodies in the same week.

That is why Mark My Coursework works from whichever spec, brief or mark scheme you upload rather than from a fixed template — it extracts the criteria as written, in the numbering the awarding body uses.