Is my teacher overly harsh when marking?

[JR1321]

Hey everyone,

We've just completed our second SAC for 3/4 Bio about photosynthesis and cellular respiration. I felt very confident going into this like my other SACs.

I ended up losing 7 marks and getting a B+, which I believe is still ranked ok in the cohort but even my teacher said the only reason why I didn't get 100% is due to either not mentioning a single word or linking back to the question, which I fully understand.

Here's an example:

We had to write the IV and DV for 2 experiments. Pretty basic stuff.

I ended up scoring 0 marks on it as the teacher said I had to write "temperature of ambient air" not "temperature" which is what I wrote. In the other experiment I wrote "pH" as the IV but he said I had to write "pH of solution" to get the mark. So in the end even though I pretty much got them all right, I wasn't awarded a single mark.

This means that in a basic question which I understand the concepts behind, I got 0 marks. Having to write temperature of "ambient air" just seemed excessive for me.

Anyway, I just want to know if the VCE bio exam markers will be this strict on questions like this or do you think maybe the way my teacher marks is harsh? Of course, my teacher knows best but just curious.

[RaspberryTau]

Ouch! That's harsh.

We had a question like that last year - where we were asked to name the molecule that transported energy - or something like that.
Everyone said "ATP" - but only those who said "Adenosine Tri Phosphate" got the mark.

In terms of your examples - saying "ambient air" is a bit mean. I do agree that you should be more specific - saying the "temperature/ph of the container/air/solution"  - or something like that. I'd say you should expect similar marking on the exam. They don't care if you've understood the question - just that u've met their rubric.

So I guess you've got to be a specific as possible. If you have the edrolo textbook - they should provide a marking rubric for each question. As painful and inconsistent as it can be, it is worth looking at it and trying to tick each box.

For the exam - there were similar type questions year to year - and by looking at the exam reports you could develop template response to them. (I attached a PDF of a doc I made last year which may help)

Anyway, hope this helps and good-luck with the year!
-