Grader? Question, please.

[Phil]

Suppose I -- I mean, my best friend -- hypothetically-- signed his envelope and everything, but didn't write his candidate number on any of the pages in his essays. Just handed in all the papers with no candidate number on it. Would his exam be graded?

Thankxs,
-Phil

P.S. Could this technique be used to save time when writing the exam?

[urysohn]

I'm not a grader, but do you really think it's a worthwhile gamble considering it would take about 30 seconds to write your candidate number on all the pages? If you're worried about it, do it first thing. Just go through 30 pages and scribble down the number. Then you can forget about it. :crazy:
(sorry, I just had to use one of those cool new emoticons :) )

[Dr T Non-Fan]

It will be noted as an incident in the Supervisor's report, if you notify the supervisor of your issue.

I don't know what happens if it's sent to the SOA without an accompanying incident report.

A grader will not know your candidate number if it's not on the answer sheets. Graders get answers for the questions they're grading, not all the answers of a candidate.

It's possible that someone at the SOA will review the answer papers to make sure the candidate number is on each paper, and write the exam number for the candidate. It's also possible that someone at the SOA will remove and destroy the papers without answer sheets. Maybe somewhere in between.

Five minutes before the end of the exam time, check your answer papers. Yes, it is your responsibility. For the first 20 seconds of the exam, write your candidate number on 10-20 pages of paper.

[FIOB]

How about if nobody puts their candidate number on the sheets? What would happen then? How about if everyone puts my candidate number on their sheets?

[Phil]

"A grader will not know your candidate number if it's not on the answer sheets. Graders get answers for the questions they're grading, not all the answers of a candidate. "

Come on, I don't believe that. Your candidate number *is* on the outside of the envelope, after all. Do you think the grader just receives a bunch of unsorted pieces of paper in the mail that have been shuffled thoroughly and piled on top of each other, with no grouping or prelabeling at all? It can't be. Someone, before the questions get separated and mailed to the graders, must paperclip the candidate's pages for each question and stick a post-it note to it saying: "This is candidate number Blah, as per the outside of the envelope."

I have heard many graders say that they really make every attempt to figure out a candidate number if it is missing. If, as you say, a grader may end up with two versions of a question, neither of which has a candidate number, then how can that statement be true?

-Phil

[E. Blackadder]

Maybe you could put a symbol on the sheets, or use a distinctive color when you write.

Better yet, attach a $100 bill to each sheet -- and you'll get special attention.

[E. Blackadder]

What if I were to use a rubber stamp instead of writing my answers down -- so the grader would know it's me!

[Dr T Non-Fan]

What part don't you believe?
Each grader grades only one question. A grader does not grade all the answers of a candidate. The bribe that EB playfully mentions will not reach the grader. Probably gets pocketed in the process of re-sorting the answers by question.

[gloid]

Why is that hard to believe? :viola:

Just put you number down and then you won't have to worry about it...

[Dr T Non-Fan]

The rules exist for a reason. Find the reason, and if it's still reasonable, then accept it and move along.
(SP security guard): I SAID move along!

[golgo13]

I think what happens is that the answer sheets are checked for any missing candidate numbers, so that if you miss out the number on 1 or 2 sheets by accident then the SoA would (probably) make the correction.

I don't know how they would treat a case where a candidate deliberately omits to note down the numbers on all his sheets. As far as I can recall, the rules state that noting down the numbers is the candidate's responbility & the SoA are perfectly within their rights to award such a candidate a zero grade.