The Marky blog
Practical advice on exam marking, GCSE, AS-level and A-level preparation, and how AI is changing assessment in UK schools.
Choosing an AI marker: seven questions the brochures do not answer
The AI marking market got crowded fast, and every product page makes the same six promises. Here are the questions that actually separate one tool from another, what we found when we looked at the rest of the market, and where Marky lands on each, limits included.
Your grade came back lower than your mock. What now?
A results day that goes wrong is disorienting, and the first advice you get is usually either "appeal it" or "it will be fine". Here is what actually happened, what your real options are in order of usefulness, and how long you have to act.
Can I get my paper remarked? Reviews of marking explained
It is the top question on results day, and most of the advice is vague. Here is exactly how a review of marking works in 2026, what the numbers actually say about your chances, why the request has to go through your school, and the honest limits of what a remark can do.
A-level results day 2026: a teacher's guide to Thursday 13 August
Results land on Thursday 13 August, and unlike GCSE day the clock is running from the moment students wake up. Here is how to prepare your sixth form team, your UCAS conversations and your post-results analysis.
How grade boundaries actually work (and why they move)
Almost everything students believe about grade boundaries is wrong. There is no quota, you are not marked against the person next to you, and a lower boundary is not a gift. Here is what actually happens between the last exam and results day.
Using AI to revise without cheating yourself
Every student has a chatbot now, and the advice they get about it is either "do not" or nothing at all. Here is the honest version: what AI is genuinely good at during revision, the specific ways it makes you worse, and where the line into malpractice actually sits.
Marking your own work is harder than it looks
Self-marking a past paper sounds like the easy part. It is the part where the whole exercise usually goes wrong, and not because students are soft on themselves. The mark scheme shows you the answer at the exact moment it asks you to judge whether you knew it.
Six-mark questions: how levels marking really works
Students write more, hoping length will do it. Extended answers are not marked by adding up points. They are placed in a band first, and only then given a mark inside it. Here is what moves an answer between bands.
Command words: what "explain" requires that "describe" does not
State, describe, explain, evaluate. They are not stylistic preferences, they are instructions about the shape of the answer the mark scheme will accept. Here is what each one is really asking for, with the mark that goes missing when you get it wrong.
What "show your working" actually means to an examiner
It is the most repeated instruction in school and one of the vaguest. Here is which lines of your working earn marks, which are decoration, and the specific habits that turn a page of scribble into credit.
Past papers: you are probably doing them wrong
Past papers are the highest value revision activity there is, and most students get almost nothing from them. The failure is not effort. It is doing them untimed, with the mark scheme open, and never going back to the marks that were lost.
GCSE results day 2026: what teachers should prepare for
With grading back to pre-pandemic standards, here is what teachers need to know about GCSE results day and how to support students through it.
AI marking in schools: what teachers need to know in 2026
AI marking tools are becoming increasingly common in UK schools. Here is a practical, honest look at what they can actually do, where they fall short, and how to evaluate whether one is right for your department.
5 time-saving habits for teachers who mark too much
Marking does not have to consume your evenings and weekends. Here are five practical habits that experienced teachers use to stay on top of the pile without burning out.
How to give feedback that students actually use
You spend hours writing detailed comments on student work. Most of it goes unread. Here is how to structure your feedback, set follow-up tasks, and create a loop that students actually engage with.
The GCSE revision strategies that actually work (according to research)
Highlighting textbooks and re-reading notes feel productive but barely help. Here is what cognitive science says students should actually be doing, and how teachers can help them do it.
M1, A1, B1: what the letters in a mark scheme actually mean
You have been told to check your work against the mark scheme. Nobody has told you how to read one. Here is what the codes mean, why a wrong answer can still be worth most of the marks, and the notation that quietly decides whether you get credit.
Where GCSE maths marks actually go missing
We looked at 155 GCSE maths scripts marked question by question against the official scheme. Most lost marks do not come from careless slips on questions students nearly got right. They come from questions that scored nothing at all, and they cluster in one place.