@NeilDefty

Head of Customer Relations, No More Marking Ltd. Director, Defty Consulting Ltd. Occasional charity work Obsessive runner

 Durham
nomoremarking.com
Joined October 2013
  • Tweets694
  • Following599
  • Followers289
76Media
Great Substack from mad Ming Moonraker (2,4,7)
Daisy Christodoulou
@daisychristoSep 2
In a quixotic turn of events, our start of term Substack is on...the relative difficulty of the Guardian cryptic crossword over the last century. Comparative Judgement is amazing at measuring the difficulty of tests over time. We used it for a study on A-level maths a few years ago. The obvious follow-up was to use it for cryptic crosswords! Our CEO is Mycroft Holmes level good at cryptics. I am more like a Baker Street Irregular. We recruited a lot of judges via the crossword website fifteensquared and got the help of the Guardian's Boatman setter too (Ashley Knowles). We had great fun doing this study, and in the post you can see a list of the crossword clues our judges found the hardest. Some of them are REALLY hard! substack.nomoremarking.com/p…

The difficulty of the Guardian Crossword, 1930 to 2026

Waugh is put out, Slope goes down and Golding is ungilded

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The knockout stage has kicked off! Who do you think will be lifting the Jules Rimet trophy? Help us work that one out with a bit of comparative judgement...
Daisy Christodoulou
@daisychristoJun 29
We have another Comparative Judgement World Cup task - for the knockout stages! 31 teams (we've taken out SA who lost yesterday). Get judging before this evening's matches and we'll share the results! I can tell you so far Mexico are doing very well... au.nomoremarking.com/judging…
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OK, final results of our World Cup judging. Top ten are: Spain, France, England, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia. View the whole distribution here. dropbox.com/scl/fi/anwislwpa…
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Let's use comparative judgement to find out who will win the FIFA World Cup 2026! Open your laptop or tablet, follow the link to sign up, then start judging by clicking the purple Left or Right button to choose the better team... au.nomoremarking.com/judging… @nmmarking @daisychristo
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People are often surprised by this, but I really really don't like grades. I think they encourage a (flawed) skills-based way of thinking about education. More here, including alternatives. substack.nomoremarking.com/p…
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The power and simplicity of comparative judgement has given us The Nation's Favourite Easter Egg! Despite some stiff competition, the winner is.... The Maltesers Bunnies Easter Egg! @nmmarking @daisychristo
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Top 10 here:
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And here's the full list of 45...
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There's still time to help us find The Nation's Favourite Easter Egg (with the help of comparative judgement)! Link below. Results announced tomorrow... 🐣
Neil Defty@NeilDeftyApr 2
It's the comparative judgement way to find The Nation's Favourite Easter Egg! Open your laptop or tablet, follow the link to sign up: au.nomoremarking.com/judging… Then start judging by clicking the purple Left or Right button to choose your favourite egg... @nmmarking @daisychristo
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Will you be twirling or twixing tomorrow? Help us find The Nation's Favourite Easter Egg - open your laptop or tablet, follow the link to sign up: au.nomoremarking.com/judging… Then start judging by clicking the Left or Right button to choose your favourite... @nmmarking @daisychristo
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It's the comparative judgement way to find The Nation's Favourite Easter Egg! Open your laptop or tablet, follow the link to sign up: au.nomoremarking.com/judging… Then start judging by clicking the purple Left or Right button to choose your favourite egg... @nmmarking @daisychristo
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It is easy to think that if you speed a process up, then you lose quality. But when it comes to giving feedback, speed is an aspect of quality. If you want to test the quality & speed of our AI marking system, we are giving away free credits - find out more here. substack.nomoremarking.com/p…
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Now we have AI judges. Ho ho ho! (A reference to which - definitely Christmas - movie?)
Daisy Christodoulou
@daisychristo18 Dec 2025
130 judges have taken part in our Christmas film quote judging task so far - and the level of agreement with the AI is surprisingly high at 65%! Have a go yourself - read more here substack.nomoremarking.com/p… And see what you think of the AI feedback...
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Latest on our Substack - What kind of student feedback do teachers think is best? Turns out they are quite keen on summaries of their class's performance... We've created AI-generated "examiner's reports" to help them. substack.nomoremarking.com/p…

What kind of student feedback do teachers think is best?

The tension between personalised and in-person education

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If you have heard about our AI marking projects and are intrigued, then you can take part in one for free this summer and see if you agree with the AI. CJ Dynamo is our Y6 project. CJ Lightning for Y9. Places are free but limited, so sign up asap! nomoremarking.com/?countryCo…
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Using AI to judge student writing 'has the potential to revolutionise assessment and decimate workload', say @daisychristo and @nmmarking after their trail of the approach schoolsweek.co.uk/using-ai-t…

Using AI to judge writing could 'revolutionise' assessment

No More Marking says its trial found AI is 'very good at judging student writing'

schoolsweek.co.uk
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Comparative judgement has helped us find the nation's favourite Beatles song! The winner was decided yesterday, and despite the stiff competition from 3 other classic Beatles tracks, the winner was indeed decided as... 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁 Yesterday Top 10 here:
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Thanks for the initial idea, @HCFEprincipal ! And apologies, Kemi Badenoch - although commenting on the @YouGov survey that Yellow Submarine was your favourite, it seems the rest of the nation disagrees with you!
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And you can still have a go of the judging if you want! Follow the link to sign up: au.nomoremarking.com/judging… Then start judging by clicking the purple Left/Right buttons to choose your favourite!
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