Does providing exemplars to students lead to a change in their grades? : an examination of the available data on this question

Exemplars have been in existence for some time. That students want and value exemplars has not been a matter of significant contention. But whether exemplars actually lead to any change in the marks or grades that students achieve is a much more problematic issue. There have been very few well-constructed, thorough, empirical studies into this question. This article analyses three recent studies that have been undertaken into the value of exemplars in leading to changes to students marks, discusses the results of these studies, their limitations and concludes with some comments about how this question can be answered.