ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: kenhung123 on October 22, 2009, 10:58:13 pm

Title: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: kenhung123 on October 22, 2009, 10:58:13 pm
Are you penalised for spelling in science exams? I mean by spelling words slightly incorrectly however the meaning is clear and the misspelt word does not resemble another word. Example maybe in biology we are asked to name a disease and we write dyabetis instead of diabetes will we get no marks?
Title: Re: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: periwinkle on October 22, 2009, 11:01:10 pm

  eye rekkon good england speling and grammer are really importent if you dont done it in a ixam youl b in trubble
Title: Re: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: periwinkle on October 22, 2009, 11:03:09 pm


 no, seriously, it varies, sometimes they're uber-strict, sometimes not
Title: Re: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: ninwa on October 22, 2009, 11:05:54 pm
as long as it's not mistakable for another word - examiners will not guess at what you were TRYING to say
Title: Re: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: /0 on October 22, 2009, 11:08:44 pm
Chem teacher said if you misspell 'cryolite' you will lose the mark, so I would try not to 'mispell' things
(He sometimes marks vcaa exams)
Title: Re: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: periwinkle on October 22, 2009, 11:17:23 pm
Are you penalised for spelling in science exams? I mean by spelling words slightly incorrectly however the meaning is clear and the misspelt word does not resemble another word. Example maybe in biology we are asked to name a disease and we write dyabetis instead of diabetes will we get no marks?

Well you know how to spell diabetes now don't you ;)?

They are lenient, yes, but only if they can understand what you are trying to say.

Misspells like:
Thiamine     -> some nutrient
for
Thymine      -> the base

They will penalise you for this.

   what if you confuse 'organism' with 'orgasm'? :P
Title: Re: Importance of spelling in exams?
Post by: shinny on October 23, 2009, 05:47:42 pm
Are you penalised for spelling in science exams? I mean by spelling words slightly incorrectly however the meaning is clear and the misspelt word does not resemble another word. Example maybe in biology we are asked to name a disease and we write dyabetis instead of diabetes will we get no marks?

For Biology, no. As long as it sounds phonetically correct, they will give you the mark. However, if it is ambiguous as to what you're referring to, as with the whole glycogen/glucagon thing, then they aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt if you write glycogon, but you will for glikojen (well, possibly...might be too extreme of an example). Hence for that reason, you're better off just learning the spellings. I think the same rule applies to other sciences, but I haven't had teacher confirmation on the rules in the others.