Where the marks are, line by line

A marking model, stated plainly

No official AFM 191 marking scheme is public. What follows is how constructed-response accounting papers are conventionally marked, and reviews of this course ("marked super fairly") are consistent with it. Treat it as a study discipline: if you write every answer so that it would score under this model, you will not be surprised by the real one.

Worked example — marking a student's answer to the Northlake case

Take the four sub-questions from the last lesson and a student's actual attempt.

(a) The entries — 6 marks, 1 per correct account-and-side. The student wrote:

Dr Cash                 60,000
    Cr Notes Payable            60,000
Dr Cash                 30,000
    Cr Service Revenue          30,000
Dr Utilities Expense     2,400
    Cr Accounts Payable          2,400

Line by line: Dr Cash 60,000 ✓ (1). Cr Notes Payable 60,000 ✓ (1). Dr Cash 30,000 ✓ (1). Cr Service Revenue 30,000 ✗ (0) — the passes are unearned; a right amount on the wrong account earns nothing, because the amount was never in doubt. Dr Utilities Expense ✓ (1). Cr Accounts Payable ✓ (1). Five of six. The one mark lost is the one mark the question was really testing.

(b) Current assets — 3 marks: a mark per correct line in liquidity order, one for the subtotal. The student listed Supplies, then Accounts receivable, then Cash, total 27,000. The lines are right, the total is right, but the order is not liquidity order. Under this model that costs the ordering component: the subtotal mark stands, the line marks are reduced. Write current assets cash first, then receivables, then inventory and supplies, then prepaids — the order the statement uses.

(c) Interest accrual — 2 marks: 1 for the method, 1 for the value. The student wrote "$60,000\times 6$1,000". The arithmetic slipped, but the method line is on the page — the marker gives the method mark and withholds the value mark. Had the student written only "$1,000", both marks would go. Always show the multiplication.

(d) The explanation — 3 marks: statement, direction, reason. The student wrote "Expenses go up, so profit goes down." That names a direction on the income statement — one mark, arguably two. It never mentions the balance sheet (accounts payable up, retained earnings down), and its reason is missing: the power was used in December, so the expense belongs to December regardless of the January payment. The reason mark goes to the learner who ties the rule to the case's own facts, not to the one who recites "matching principle".

The four ways an entry loses marks

1. Right amount, wrong account — Service Revenue for a deposit; Cash for a dividend merely declared. Zero for that line.
2. Right account, wrong side — crediting Accounts Receivable when a customer is billed. Zero for that line.
3. An unbalanced entry — usually a sign a line was forgotten; the missing line's mark is gone.
4. A recorded non-event — journalising a signed contract or an order. There is no mark for the entry, and there may be a deduction because the rest of the answer now carries a phantom asset.

Time is also marked

A 90-minute midterm worth, say, 75 marks allows $\frac{90}{75}=1.2$ minutes per mark. A 12-mark question therefore gets about 14 minutes; when they are spent, move on. The marks per minute are the same on every question, and the last question is worth exactly as much as the first.