The Norwegian school system has a long tradition for relying on teachers’ continuous assessment. Students meet their fi rst exam at the end of lower secondary school (grade 10), and only in one written subject. The exam itself is a day-long exam because Norway has no tradition for multiplechoice tests or two-hour exams. In the subject of Norwegian this means that students are expected to produce a lengthy essay during a period of fi ve hours, on a topic selected from a generous repertoire of assignments. However, only one-fi fth of the cohort sit for Norwegian, which implies that the majority of students will leave lower secondary without having ever had their writing assessed by an external assessor. Another consequence is that most of the marks on the students’ fi nal diploma have been given by their own teachers. The marks are of importance for the students’ choice of course in upper secondary, although all students are guaranteed admittance to the school in general.