Time spent marking essays A stack of psychology exam essays has just landed on my desk for marking. It was a 3 hour exam with 3 essay questions. This is a final year essay so I do not have to provide written feedback. How long should I be spending marking an essay?
I don't work in a field with essay exams, but I do ask my students to write proofs, so maybe my advice is still useful.

TAs at my university are contractually limited to at most 20 hours of work per week.  You have 60 exams to grade in one week; that suggests an absolute limit of 20 minutes per exam.  Since each exam has three essays, I would aim to spend at most 5 minutes per essay.  It'll probably take longer at first, especially if you also have to develop a rubric, but you'll get faster as you work through the pile.  Aiming for 5 minutes leaves you lots of slack.

Also, I strongly recommend grading vertically—grading all of essay #1 before reading anyone's essay #2—instead of horizontally—finishing each student before starting the next.