Rubric-based self-assessment

Grade your own work against the criteria it will actually be graded by, before you hand it in, and find the gap between what you think you've produced and what's on the page.

When to use this: When checking yourself
Learning impact: Strong change
Learning evidence: Credible with caveats
Where you are with the topic: Checking readiness
How often to use it: Worth repeating often

When to use it

You are about to submit and have only a gut feeling about the mark.
The rubric is public and you have never applied it to your own work.
Past feedback keeps naming the same criterion and you want to catch it first.

What to ask AI

Type something like: “Here's the marking rubric [paste] and here's my work [paste]. Apply the rubric strictly, criterion by criterion. For each, give the band and quote evidence from my text. Do not inflate.”

Ask it to disagree with your self-grades where your evidence is weak.

Keep the hard part on your side: you grade yourself first, then compare.

How it helps

Rubric-based self-assessment means grading your work against the criteria it will actually be graded by, before you hand it in.

Gut feelings skip the criteria that cost marks. Applying the rubric forces evidence.

Perfect agreement every time is suspicious, either the rubric is being flattered or you are not looking.

How to run it

Paste the real rubric and your work.
Grade yourself first on each criterion with a quoted evidence scrap.
Ask the AI to apply the same rubric strictly and quote evidence, no soft inflation.
Where you disagree, decide what to revise. Revise those parts yourself.
Re-score once. Stop when disagreements shrink to judgement calls, not missing evidence.

Example exchange

You

I attached the rubric and my essay. I self-scored Analysis as Upper Second because I compare two theories. Apply the rubric strictly, quote evidence from my text, and don't inflate.

Analysis looks borderline Lower Second to Upper Second. You name two theories, but the comparison criterion asks for tension and implication. Your paragraph summarises each theory in turn without a hinge between them.

You

So I need an explicit contrast sentence and a so-what.

Yes. Write those yourself, then we will re-score Analysis only.

Copyable prompt

Here's the marking rubric for my assignment [paste] and here's my work [paste].
Apply the rubric strictly, criterion by criterion. For each, give the band and quote the
evidence from my text that justifies it. Do not inflate. Then disagree with my self-grades
where my evidence is weak.

The Tell

If your self-grades and the applied rubric agree every time, you may be flattering the criteria instead of testing them.

If the AI rewrote weak sections to “earn” a band, you bought a mark simulation, not self-assessment.

Principle evidence

Strength of the underlying learning idea, not a claim about AI products.

The underlying learning idea is rated moderate. Rubric-based self-assessment sits in formative assessment and self-regulated learning. Practising criteria before submission improves calibration when students must cite evidence for each band.

AI delivery evidence

Whether an AI tutor delivers this method well is a separate question.

AI banding is speculative and can be sycophantic. Use it as a second opinion against quoted evidence; your marker still owns the real grade.