I remember a physics academic I knew giving all his colleagues a short question and lots of sample incorrect answers and asking them how they would grade them o

I remember a physics academic I knew giving all his colleagues a short question and lots of sample incorrect answers and asking them how they would grade them out a certain mark. There was absolutely no agreement whatsoever. On the other hand I imagine that they all agreed that a correct answer would merit full marks. Does it matter? In the UK, your final degree generally has one of only four classes and I expect most people end up roughly the right class. There are obviously borderlines but a first class student isn't going to get a lower second or vice versa because of subtleties in the marking scheme. It's also an issue for me with too much weighting on coursework - work during the course should be for things like getting feedback on how to write proofs properly (if you are studying mathematics). By the time, you come to sit actual exams, you really shouldn't have any excuse for not knowing how to. In terms of disruption to accreditation, I think one of the main things that a degree of a certain standard signals is whether a person works hard in an environment less structured that school and can learn independently. That is much harder to measure than knowledge or raw IQ.