TM4T has an established method for timetable analysis, used in the context of lesson planning, which is explained here:
This includes many of the elements we need to consider in the context of assessment estimation. The web-page above introduces the important notion of fragmentation in timetables: a teacher who teaches a lot of different classes tends to have a different challenge - often but not always a greater challenge - compared to a teacher who sees the same class for the same subject frequently.
Timetable Analysis also deals with shared, core and repeat lessons, and the challenges and opportunities they present. It also recommends preparing a table, similar to the one below; the only change is that we have added a column for class-size:
The techniques of timetable analysis are mainly used in the context of lesson planning. You need to be clear that the workload involved in assessment differs in important ways. In the example analysis above, the teacher has several 'repeat' lessons. These reduce the planning workload significantly, but do not help much with assessment.
If you have completed your analysis (described via the link above) you should now be able to complete the 'comments' column. Here is an entirely hypothetical example:
Points to note:
1. You need a quantitative assessment of how much work is involved in a typical week, even if this is an assumption or a guess. Of course, this will vary from term to term, but that shouldn't prevent you from estimating a typical week. You should be able to do a little mental maths, pause and consider: "do I want to spend nine hours in a typical week marking?"
2. Issues are explicitly flagged; if options exist to address the issues, they are mentioned; if not, then actions are logged.
3. This is the important point to note: At this stage, there should be no concept of 'problem subjects' or 'problem classes' regarding assessment workload. The problem - if there is one - relates to the aggregation of a teacher's commitments and whether the total commitment exceeds the time available. You either have a problem, one problem - too much assessment to cope with - or you don't.
It is really important to understand the last point. Time-mangement issues are holistic in nature. It might feel like you only have a problem with GCSE marking, but that's just because you haven't got time to do your GCSE marking. If you had done your GCSE marking, you would have suffered from a lack of time to do something else.
The purpose of this initial, ballpark guesstimate is so you can see roughly how many hours a week you are going to spend 'marking' (or any other assessment which directly involves you and your time). This means you should mentally add up your best guesses, and compare the total with your envisaged lifestyle and other commitments.
In the example above, the teacher has sketched out a mix of assessment methods, each of which looks (reasonably) sensible in isolation, but which add up to nine hours a week. This may very well be unsustainable - depending on the teacher's lifestyle and other commitments, and if so, the teacher needs to take action, or plan some action.
Some teachers may feel that the two steps we have covered so far are in the wrong order: we have, in effect, worked out what the solutions are, then decided whether we have a problem or not. This is absolutely right, absolutely deliberate, and absolutely important. Regardless of whether you feel you have a problem right now, you need to be prepared to respond intelligently if a problem arises; you need to know what tools you have at your disposal. You need to have choices: options that you can choose between depending on circumstances. Psychologically, you should always feel that you have some element of control over things - this is important in minimising the risk of stress.