Assessment! Why is it so confusing?

I was delivering another assessment session to a group of participants on the weekend and the normal pattern emerged. Half of the group got the concept almost immediately and then the other half had a great deal of trouble understanding what was required when you have to plan an assessment based on set criteria. I have been assessing for too long to understand why it seems so confusing. It just looks simple to me. Does anyone else experience this with new assessors or is it just me? The concept of assessment appears to be easy to understand but when you get into an activity where participants start to plan an assessment it seems to go into chaos for some. While we are on assessment there are some excellent articles on assessment here which may help. I have also released a number of videos which you can access from my website – here.