Legal Commentary

As I contemplate the arrival of exam-grading season, I'm considering a change in my approach.  Exam grading is without a doubt unpleasant -- it's a relentless monotony, but the worst sort of relentless monotony in that it requires my full attention.  As such, I've always deemed it prudent to rip the band-aid off all at once, resulting in one (relatively) quick sharp pain, followed by a correspondingly quick turn to scholarship.  I always begin grading as soon as the exam is over, and I don't stop until I'm done. 

I can defend the "grade them all at once" approach by emphasizing the need to keep the other exam answers in mind as I grade, but I'm not sure how much that matters unless and until my short-term memory problems kick up a notch or two.  In terms of my own sanity, though, I'm not sure if the "depart from civilization and enter the dark cave of exam grading" approach is very sensible.  I'm beginning to suspect that grading exams for forty hours spread over three days is exponentially more unpleasant than grading exams for forty hours spread over two weeks.  Have others experimented with both the "cave of darkness" and "remain in civilization and just dabble in the darkness" approaches to exam grading?  If so, can you recommend one over the other, or does it all turn on a degree of psychoanalysis that calls for far more personal introspection than I'm interested in at this stage of the semester?