I cannot think of anyone that looks forward to their annual performance evaluation. Finding out how you performed at work, or in your case, on an assignment or a quiz, can be an anxiety-provoking process. In my personal experience, I always hear the five things I did right over the past year but tend to dwell over the one thing I needed to improve. I end up magnifying that one thing into the entire evaluation and think it was a negative process. I carry this cognitive distortion into the next evaluation period waiting to hear about the few things that were less-than-best and know I will focus on those. For this reason, I do no look forward to annual evaluations.
Being the evaluator is also a stress-filled experience of potentially telling something they don't want to hear. So how do you evaluate someone when the news is negative? I found this video from Shari Harley about how to deliver bad news. I hope you find it amusing when she talks about boogers but also find her techniques helpful. After this video, Shari gives a more serious set of ideas on how to give good employee evaluations.
In addition to these videos, I have curated a list of articles that will give you an overview of tips and ideas for conducting an annual evaluation. Some of these articles have lists of items to do and to avoid, case scenarios, and general idea overviews. I found each of these resources helpful in giving a broad overview of how one could ideally conduct a performance evaluation. Please read through these resources and think about whether you agree or disagree with the methods they are suggesting. Additionally, try to imagine yourself in an evaluation as both the supervisor and the supervisee when you read through their suggestions. Think about whether or not you would like to give feedback in the way the authors recommended and, if you are the employee, how you would react to having your feedback delivered in their suggested style.
American Management Association. (2017). The do's and dont's of performance reviews. Available online: http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/The-DOs-and-DONTs-of-Performance-Reviews.aspx
Knight, R. (2011). Delivering an effective performance review. Available online: https://hbr.org/2011/11/delivering-an-effective-perfor
Pulakos, E.D. (2004). Performance management. Available online: https://www.shrm.org/india/hr-topics-and-strategy/performance-management/creating-high-performance-culture/Documents/Performance%20Management.pdf
Son, S. (2016). 100 useful phrases for performance reviews. Available online: https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/sk-useful-phrases-performance-reviews
Survey Monkey. (2017). Performance review evaluation survey templates. Available online: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/performance-review-survey/