A better way to mark objective answer sheets

When I was still a temporary teacher in Heng Ee Secondary School in Penang, I was asked to teach Malay in Form 2 and Form 3. After a month, we had the first term test. For the Malay language, two papers were set - one essay question and one multiple-choice paper.

After the test, I had to mark both papers. For the essay part, I marked as usual. However, I found it tedious to mark the 60 objective answers for each pupil. As I was doing the marking laboriously, one experienced teacher passed by and laughed at me. He told me that there was a better way to do it. According to him, since the answers were shaded on objective answer sheets, what I needed to do was to cut the holes where the answers were on one blank answer sheet. Then I would only need to place this sheet with holes over the students' answer sheets and tick where shaded answers showed through the holes Well, I never thought of that, being inexperienced as it was my first teaching job. Later I learned that I must not be cheated by pupils who shaded more than one answers for one question. Hence before I did any marking, I screened through the answer sheets to make sure that only one answer was shaded for each question answered.

It shows that we gain experience as we go along life's path.