Exemplar
An exemplar is a piece of work - often a real student answer - presented with its marks and commentary to show what a particular standard looks like in practice.
Band descriptors are necessarily general: they have to cover every answer a question might produce. That generality is what makes them hard to apply, and exemplars are the usual remedy. A descriptor says an answer should show "perceptive analysis"; an exemplar shows a paragraph that does, and one that falls short, with the difference explained.
Two audiences, two uses
For markers, exemplars are the raw material of standardisation: a department marks the same exemplars, compares judgements and argues out the differences before marking a real set. For students, exemplars make the target visible - often more effectively than any amount of description, particularly when a strong and a weak response are shown side by side.
Using them well
The common failure is presenting only excellence. A single top-band exemplar can be dispiriting and, worse, uninformative - students see what good looks like without seeing what separates it from their own work. Showing a range, and being explicit about which features move a response between bands, is what makes an exemplar teach rather than merely display.
Key takeaways
- An exemplar shows what a standard looks like, with its marks and the reasoning behind them.
- For markers, exemplars are the basis of standardisation before marking begins.
- For students, they make the target concrete in a way descriptors rarely manage.
- Showing a range works better than showing only top-band work.
Frequently asked questions
Where do exam board exemplars come from?
Boards publish exemplar material alongside specifications and after examination series, usually as real candidate responses reproduced with marks and examiner commentary. They are the closest thing available to an authoritative statement of how a mark scheme is meant to be applied.
Should students see exemplars before they write?
Generally yes - seeing the standard beforehand is one of the better-supported practices in assessment for learning. The caution is that a single exemplar can be copied in structure rather than understood in quality, which is why showing more than one, at different standards, tends to work better.
Related terms
Standardisation
Standardisation is the process of agreeing how a mark scheme should be applied before marking begins - typically by marking exemplar work together - so that every marker works to the same standard.
Levels of response marking
Levels of response marking awards marks by deciding which band descriptor an answer best fits as a whole, rather than by adding up credit for individual points.
Assessment for learning
Assessment for learning is the practice of using evidence of what students currently understand to decide what to teach next, and to help students see what they need to do to improve.
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