Computer Graded Essays

[TheRabidDeer]

So, I have taken a few years off from school and am just now planning on going back and trying to finish college. This time, the right way. However, when I was enrolling for this college, I learned I had to take a placement test to make sure everything was kosher with my abilities. This test took a long ass time (it is called a COMPASS test). Anyway, it tests reading/writing/math. Aced the math and placed into calculus (not bad for not doing math in 6 years). Aced the reading and grammar/vocabulary portions (nearly perfect scores on both). Then came the writing portion.

I was tasked with writing a 300-600 word essay on a given topic, where I must choose a side and present my arguments. I felt my essay was extremely well written with solid arguments and fully proper grammar, spelling, and organization. However, this written essay, like the rest of the test, was graded by the computer. I am not told what the computer is looking for when it is graded. I got a barely passing score on the essay (I got a 6 out of a max of 8).

So, I came home to do a bit of research. What I find is not too shocking, really. The essay isnt graded on content, strength of arguments or anything of the sort. It checks for vocabulary, long paragraphs, grammar, "style" and some other details. It cant actually understand what is written, so it could be completely nonsensical. To me, this is a pretty huge problem (and it kinda irritated me that my lone low mark was most likely because it was graded by a computer, and not a human). At least tell me how it is going to be graded. I can easily make long paragraphs and use more unconventional and creative words... as long as I know that is what you are specifically looking for.

What do you think about computer graded essays? Is it rubbish that is being forced on the system because too many people are going to colleges? Are there too many standardized tests being crammed down the throats of the students and testing facilities causing them to resort to such things?

[semaphore]

How on earth does a computer grade an essay?

6/8 sounds pretty decent though, wouldn't be passing normally be 4/8?

[TheRabidDeer]

How on earth does a computer grade an essay?

6/8 sounds pretty decent though, wouldn't be passing normally be 4/8?

Yea, its decent... puts me at college level. But if I had gotten a 7/8 or 8/8 then I wouldve probably tested out of having to take english at all until I transfer to a 4 year college.

And yea, no clue how a computer grades an essay.

[dusketernal]

Computer-graded essays serve one primary purpose - to reduce/eliminate the hours needed to actually employ people to grade those essays in the first place. Having had to deal with this on an administrative level previously, it's incredibly expensive to pay people to read the essays used for entrance exams and other types of assessments. Computer scoring of those works was seen as a cost-saving measure; however, they are unintelligent tools that rely on formulaic patterns within the writing to determine "correctness," and thus present a number of drawbacks in that regard.

At the same time, there's research showing that the scores awarded by the computers are, more often than not, within the acceptable margin of error of how an actual human would have graded the essay (though with such a small score range as is typical with those assessments - as little as 3 and apparently up to 8 in your example), it's understandable that the margin for error would be slim enough regardless, at least in most cases.

It's mainly a matter of targeted investment - the automation of the process is supposed to free up other resources to be used in other ways. The actuality of it is that there's an increasing lack of oversight as we rely more heavily on computers for such things, and the potential for error more than likely increases over time with these, at least until we hit true AI.

(edit: just reread your post - the COMPASS is exactly the one I am referring to - though I think ours, when used, is on a 6 point scale, not 8 -, since that's the primary one my institution uses for placement. It's interesting though that your institution would have permitted the 7 or 8 to allow a testing out of English courses - I didn't know of any institutions that allow that with COMPASS scores. Just an interesting thing for me to know, apparently)

[TheRabidDeer]

I dont know if it wouldve tested me out of english, I just assume that it would have considering I got a 99 and 96 on the other 2 portions of english.

EDIT: Just looked at the results again, apparently its basically the same point scale. It is 2-8.

[Duncanîdaho]

I get the purpose, but really?

Why even make the person write an essay if another person simply is not going to read it. The whole purpose of an essay is to convey your ideas in a clear and concise manner so that other PEOPLE understand it. There's zero purpose to writing an essay no one is going to read.

You should of least been informed it was going to be graded by a machine so you could write with big superfluous words and sentences. Stupid how you have to change your writing style so it better suits.....a machine.

[Adam Jensen]

That's really fucking stupid.

All it does is test grammar and you can do that without forcing students to write an essay. The test does nothing to actually test what the true purpose of an essay is, which is the conveyance of an idea more than proper grammar.

Sure, it saves money and manpower, but it also defeats the purpose of writing an essay.

[vizzle]

Yea, its decent... puts me at college level. But if I had gotten a 7/8 or 8/8 then I wouldve probably tested out of having to take english at all until I transfer to a 4 year college.

And yea, no clue how a computer grades an essay.

You're going to have to do English courses at some point either way because it's part of General Education. So, all I have to say is, pick your battles, because this isn't worth it.

It's not a surprise that they don't care for the content of your essay. This essay isn't a part of your grade. They just want to see if u typ lyk dis bcuz ur a guy who dosnt think grammer is importnt, or if you type like this because you know it separates you from the idiots. They're just trying to see if you know the basics, not your argument.

[Chaochamp]

What in the actual fuck?

The main idea of an essay is to express the writer's idea about a specific topic. It's just silly to grade an essay on how it looks instead of what it has to say. Of course it should look good, but the entire grade should not lean on grammar and sentence structure.

[TheRabidDeer]

You're going to have to do English courses at some point either way because it's part of General Education. So, all I have to say is, pick your battles, because this isn't worth it.

It's not a surprise that they don't care for the content of your essay. This essay isn't a part of your grade. They just want to see if u typ lyk dis bcuz ur a guy who dosnt think grammer is importnt, or if you type like this because you know it separates you from the idiots. They're just trying to see if you know the basics, not your argument.

Its not really a battle that I am taking up, otherwise I wouldve had a talk with the proctor. And I do realize that I would have to take an english course at some point, I even state that in the post you quote :P
"probably tested out of having to take english at all until I transfer to a 4 year college."

EDIT: Even aside from that, if I tested out of these 2 required english classes, it is 2 fewer classes to take to get my degree. The associates transfer degree I am working towards only requires these 2, and if I tested out then I can graduate significantly faster.

It honestly just doesnt make sense to me. They tested my reading and writing skills earlier in the test. What is the point of having me write an essay testing what they already tested, except with hidden skewed variables and no real purpose?

[Prokne]

So, I came home to do a bit of research. What I find is not too shocking, really. The essay isnt graded on content, strength of arguments or anything of the sort. It checks for vocabulary, long paragraphs, grammar, "style" and some other details. It cant actually understand what is written, so it could be completely nonsensical. To me, this is a pretty huge problem (and it kinda irritated me that my lone low mark was most likely because it was graded by a computer, and not a human). At least tell me how it is going to be graded. I can easily make long paragraphs and use more unconventional and creative words... as long as I know that is what you are specifically looking for.

If this is true then all you really have to do is use vocabulary words from the test and write long, grammatically correct sentences. Unless the other details means that the computer has AI that can determine if your essay makes sense you can write whatever you want. You could write totally nonsensical sentences and as long as the grammar is good it wouldnt know. It also wouldnt know if you were even arguing a position.

Usually essays are graded by at least 2 people who are trained to grade them and if their scores differ by a certain number a third person also grades it. Also essays are now in all major entrance exams, SAT, ACT, GRE, and probably the GMAT. They use them as another way of separating applicants who all have straight As(because schools grade too easily), 8hrs a day of extracurriculars(because people are crazy), and get parents and professional writers to do their application essays.

---------- Post added 2012-04-25 at 06:26 AM ----------

It honestly just doesnt make sense to me. They tested my reading and writing skills earlier in the test. What is the point of having me write an essay testing what they already tested, except with hidden skewed variables and no real purpose?

Vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension are not the same as writing. Also the essay is testing your ability to propose an argument and defend it.