Hello, I wanted to check what the process in the exam is for follow-through marks, e.g. if you make an arithmetic error at the start of a calculation but carry the rest of it out correctly. Obviously you won't get the "right" final number because of the arithmetic error, but exactly how harshly would that be penalised? I asked as I just received my mock exam script back from ActEd and I had a couple of small errors at start of parts (ii) and (v) in Question 7. In both cases I carried out the rest of the calculation correctly, but the marker stopped marking as soon as they reached that error, so I didn't receive any marks for the subsequent correct calculation methodology. Additionally, I then carried my part (ii) answer into part (iii) and received zero marks for part (iii) because of that - my feedback was that the calculation was correct, but because I carried forward an error I got the wrong final number, so I couldn't get the mark. Is this how it will be marked in the final exam? i.e. do you stop marking once you reach a calculation error, regardless if the subsequent steps in the calculation are correct? I currently spend quite a bit of time on calculation questions typing out my approach step by step in Word to ensure I pick up any calculation follow through marks, so want to check if this is still worthwhile doing?
Follow through marks are normally given (both in our Mocks/assignments, and in the actual exam), you are only penalised once for an error in a calculation. If you can contact our Marking team we can look into the marker's comments more closely to see what's going on. Thanks Ian