Examiner case study: Robin Wichard

Robin lives near Williton, Somerset and has taught history and archaeology at The West Somerset Community College in Minehead for 24 years. He has also held various examining roles since 1987 – including moderator, team leader and principal examiner – and is currently Principal Examiner with AQA for GCSE History Specification A (Schools History Project: Medicine Through Time module).

'If you're preparing children for an exam then the best form of in-service training is to work with the people who are setting and marking the exams. It helps you get an insight into what it is they're actually asking for and you can structure your teaching accordingly.

As a principal examiner, I'm responsible for setting exam papers and writing the marking scheme. At a pre-standardisation meeting, my team leaders challenge me on what I'm proposing and whether it works for each paper. Once it's all finalised, the team leaders go through the paper and the mark scheme with their teams at their standardisation meetings.

I get so much out of examining, personally and professionally. I work with a superb group of people, many of whom have become close friends and colleagues over the years. It's a great challenge – getting the paper to work and getting it marked properly. It's not an easy ride but it's very satisfying when you bring the paper home and feel confident that candidates have achieved the grade they earned. Examining also allows networking – for instance, team leaders write mock exams for my and each other's schools. There's no doubt that my teaching has improved as a consequence of examining.

Examining also helps you progress your career without having to change jobs and roles. That suits me as I love living and working where I do and don't want to move. If you don't want the year-round extra pressure of a promotion, examining gives you a career boost while only requiring intensive working for three months.

The changes in the post-14s examination system will bring new challenges. Being an examiner allows me to have an influence over the changes – I can help inform the process so that new papers meet QCA requirements and the demands of the revised curriculum. And no matter how the process or mechanics of examining change, exams still require human minds to set and mark papers.'