Using assessment feedback

Steps you can take to help you better understand and use feedback you receive on your assignments.

Review the feedback

It may seem obvious, but the first step is to process the feedback you have been given—not just the grades. Here are some tips to help focus you as you absorb feedback:

  • Aim to read or listen to feedback when you have the time and feel mentally and emotionally ready.
  • Try not to take feedback personally – it’s about the piece of work you submitted, not you and your ability.
  • Look beyond the grade you were assigned and read comments or rubric descriptors provided by the marker.
  • Spend time taking in the positive comments, not just things that could be improved.
  • Start to look for patterns: are there any comments or issues that are repeated?
  • Try making notes to help you process as you review. Consider using the Assessment reflection template, under ‘Reflect’.

What if I still don’t understand?

If you don’t fully understand the feedback, or if you disagree with the marker’s comments, it’s time to review the task instructions and criteria in relation to your work.

  1. Re-read the task brief to remind yourself what you were asked to do.
  2. Look at the rubric  (if you have one). This lists the criteria and tells you what quality of work is expected to achieve different grades . Watch the video or read the transcript below for an example of this process.
  3. Read over your submitted work, looking for examples relating to the feedback comments. Can you find specific evidence to show you did everything you were asked?

    For example, if you needed to include more of your own voice, can you find places where this could have happened? eg after a citation, after a direct quote, or after a description of an issue. It might help to highlight sentences written in your voice in one colour and those written in the voices of others (ie paraphrases and direct quotations) in another.

Watch this video for an example of how to break down the feedback provided on a marking rubric.

  • So you’ve been given back your assignment – let’s make sense of a sample, marked rubric together.

    Here is my example rubric. The first column lists the areas I’ve been marked on. These are called ‘criteria’. I’m going to try to notice what I’ve done well, and what I need to work on, and I’m going to try to focus on what I needed to do differently to get a higher mark.

    One of the areas I’ve been marked on is called ‘Integrating sources’. I can see my assignment was marked 'pass’ for this criterion. This is an area I’d like to improve on. Let’s look more closely.

    H1: Systematically integrates source information synthesised with own thoughts; writer’s voice is evident
    H2: Integrates source information mostly successfully; synthesis with own voice evident; at times writer’s voice may be overshadowed by external authors’ ideas
    H3: Integrates sources & attempts to synthesise with own ideas though tends to rely on external ideas in sections
    Pass: Integrates limited source information in the assignment; voice may be frequently subordinate to external ideas
    Fail: Fails to successfully integrate source information in the assignment; voice is not evident

    So this is saying that I did integrate some sources into my paper (so that’s positive), but these were “limited” (not enough). So I need to consider including a greater number, or perhaps depth, or range of ideas from external sources (which means books, articles etc). Also my “writer’s voice was subordinate … to these external ideas”. So this is saying I need to show my own analysis and interpretation more, not just describe what others have written.

    I can also look at the higher bands to see what I should be aiming for. I will compare this feedback with performance descriptors at higher bands to better understand what I’m aiming for next time. We can see that the marker is looking to see ‘synthesis’ between source information and your own ideas, and that your own voice as a writer should be evident.

    If you’re not sure about a concept or terminology mentioned in the rubric or comments, you can look it up, or speak to your tutor or an academic skills adviser.

Reflect

Before starting this reflection, it can help to set the feedback aside, give yourself a day or two to digest it, and return with a fresh perspective.

During this stage, look back at what you have learned from the feedback on this assessment. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

  • What are the strengths of work you submitted? What did you do that helped you to achieve this?
  • What would you do differently next time?
  • What skills and/or knowledge gaps does this feedback reveal?
  • Do you need more information to understand or use of any of the feedback?

Reflect on previous assignments and:

  • Look for areas you have made progress in and take a moment to celebrate this.
  • Look for longer-term patterns – are there areas for development that come up time and again?

Consider documenting the feedback, your reflections and plans for implementation. You can download and adapt this template for your own work.

Download feedback reflection template [DOCX]

Act

At this stage, you might feel ready to implement your feedback or you might still have questions.

I'm ready to take action… where do I start?

If you’ve got lots of feedback, remember it may simply not be possible to work on everything all at once. Focus on one area at a time, prioritising those that seem most impactful.

Think systematically and consider what steps you could take to improve and what strengths you can build on, based on your reflection.

  • Has this feedback highlighted gaps in your content knowledge? This points you toward further reading on those topics.
  • Do you need to make changes to the steps you take as you work through assignments? Consider how you might change up your research strategy, your technical workflow, or the way you allocate your time through the drafting process.
  • Have you identified aspects of your written communication that could be improved, eg structuring paragraphs, using particular grammar structures, or linking ideas cohesively?

One good way to target specific areas of your writing is to use class readings, model answers or exemplar papers. As you read these, look for how the author has managed to do the things you know you need to work on. For instance, in the video scenario above, the student wants to improve their skill in integrating sources in their writing. They could highlight places where the writer balances their own voice with paraphrased ideas and quotations and note expressions, patterns or linking phrases to use in their next assignment.

You can also use independent study resources. The Academic Skills website is a great starting point, with resources and links to workshops on a range of study and assessment tasks.

I’m still stuck… how do I get help?

While it’s up to you to take action, you don’t need to do it alone. You can ask your tutor or lecturer to explain their comments further, or give you examples of how you could improve.

You can also make an appointment with Academic Skills to clarify terminology in your feedback and get tips and resources to help you work on specific skills, including ways to apply what you’ve learned to future assessment tasks.

Academics' advice on using feedback

In this video, University of Melbourne teaching staff share their advice to students for making the most of the assessment feedback they are offered. As you watch or read, consider which ideas resonate most for you.

  • Nicky

    How should students use feedback? Okay, not as a personal affront. Alright? So feedback is never personal, I promise you … That's not how it works. Feedback is supposed to be about you getting the best you can.

    When I get feedback, I'll tell you my little secret for feedback. Because even as an academic, you get feedback. You hand in you papers and they come back and they've either been rejected or they've gone, 'it needs serious work.'

    So, the first thing I do is I read it all through and then I put it away for a day because if you respond to it instantly, you respond angrily. You can't you can't help yourself. You're kind of going, 'I did do that.What do you mean I didn't do that? I did. Can't you see where I did that?' And so, you kind of have to go, 'Calm down. stop, wait a day, think about it, reread it. Okay. I can see why maybe they didn't see that.'

    So, the first piece of advice that respond to feedback is not right straight back to the lecture going, 'But I did do that .' Because that just upsets everyone. Give it a day or two to think about it. Re-read through the paper. Even re-read through the marking criteria. Yeah? And go, 'Okay. They said I didn't do that. Do I think that was fair?' So, really re-analyse your work because that's how you learn.

    If all you do is get the feedback and go, 'Oh, I only got thirteen out of twenty.' You're not going to learn a thing. You're going to get thirteen out of twenty next time and the time after, and the time after as well.

    So, read it, digest it, go home ... do whatever you need to do to forget it for the night and then look at it again the next day. That's how I would use feedback.

  • Crystal

    I think the most important aspect of feedback is that opportunity to think critically about the assignments you've just submitted it and how you could do it better into the future.

    Assignments are often seen by students as being an opportunity for them to demonstrate to their lecturer how much they know. But it's not always just about how much you know. It's how you structure that knowledge and how do you critically engage with different points of understanding the subject that you might be taking.

    So, when you receive read it carefully and think about it because it's really an opportunity for you to learn. That's why you're here. It's a University. You're here to learn.

    And so, if there's anything that's unclear about what the feedback is saying; well, that's an opportunity for you to talk to your lecturer or talk to your tutors and ask a question. It's always important to seek clarification. So if something is not clear, we're really nice people come and have a chat with us.

Final tip

Remember that the feedback you get on assignments is a learning tool -  use it to help you continuously develop your knowledge and skills throughout university and beyond.