The Great Marking Scheme Debate

As students, we sometimes argue that it is not really justified to have marks deducted because we have answered a certain question incorrectly. And now as an economics student, learning the economic concept of opportunity cost, scarcity and choice i think my point is further enhanced to be true.

When we attempt a certain assignment, test or exam sometimes marks are deducted for answers that are incorrect or irrelevant. In Singapore, I realize that perhaps this practice is not used as much however when a certain wrong point is made in the answer then the question is given less marks or marked completely wrong with the Singapore system. I am also previously from the United States, and have seen and experienced their system and what they do is marks are deducted for wrong answers so it is almost better to leave the ones you are unsure about blank like the major university entrance exam, the SAT. But why? Why is this needed?


What it should be is that no marks should be deducted if wrong points, irrelevant points or no points are made at all because only opportunity cost is incured. Opportunity Cost is defined as the next best alternative when an economic decision is made. An economic decision in this case is how to use our time allocated for a paper and with the basic economic problem that resources are relatively scarce but wants are infinite, the scarce resource that is now considered is TIME. Time is scarce and therefore a choice has to be made and with choice as to how to use that amount of time we are given there will be a conflict of interest as we are unable to satisfy all our wants so there is opportunity cost.

Therefore an example would be that if we have a question, and to achieve the maximums marks for the question, 3 to 4 points should be given, and the student has a paragraph that provides and explains a wrong point then the opportunity cost is that the student could have used that time to add another point that might be correct or used to thoroughly check the answer over again. Therefore, the student has incurred a loss and would probably not get the maximum marks because not enough points are given if the whole paragraph of irrelevant information is ignored and no marks is deducted because it is placed over there. The mark in this case is deducted because not enough points are made and not because there is a wrong or irrelevant point in the answers. The incorrect point is ignored in this case and is an option the system should consider.

Now, to show the concepts of scarcity, choice and opportunity cost, among other things, we have the production possibility curve. They show the maximum combinations of goods and services that can be produced by an economy in a given time period, if all the resources in the economy are being used fully and efficiently and the state of technology is fixed. The 2 axis would hold the 2 scarce resources, in this case the x-axis would have the time used to write that irrelevant and wrong point and the y-axis would hold the time that could have been used to give another additional point that may be correct. The PPC is always a curve because resources are never homogenous but for ease of constructing sometimes lines are used.

As the point moves towards the y axis on the curve, more time is spent on adding the additional point instead of writing that wrong and irrelevant point and vise versa as it moves towards the x-axis. The point is also never really on the curve. In reality it is inside the curve as resources are never fully efficient and in this context resources would be that we are never fully on our game in that given time period. We might have had a late night and our mind would not be able to think as quickly or efficiently. If the point moves outwards towards Y1 and X1 it means that more resources is allocated and in this context it means more time is allocated or more help is given to us.

Though it can also be argued that with a wrong point being made the whole answer would give a wrong impression on the real answer of the question or that it spoils the whole structure of how that question should be answered. All this again points to opportunity cost being incurred and deducting marks is not necessarily necessary. When i went over to my economics teacher to ask whether i should cancel out a wrong point i made, the teacher said there is no need because that is opportunity cost incurred and i could have used that time to add another point and marks will not be deducted because i have put in that incorrect point.

Hopefully, many other subject papers would follow suit and this option considered by the system where marks should not be deducted or be marked completely wrong because we, the students, have incurred opportunity cost and it should only be deducted because not enough points are made and that wrong or irrelevant point should not be considered. In another case, if we give more then what is required and with the one wrong point being ignored then enough points is still given and marks should be given accordingly to how correct the rest of the points are and if they reach the maximum level, maximum marks should be given. Therefore this shows the basic economic problem and opportunity cost we face in a very domestic context of our everyday lives and our time everyday used for different causes and in this case, time to answer a question.



Amanda Ong 5Z