ATAR Notes: Forum
Archived Discussion => 2009 => End-of-year exams => Exam Discussion => Victoria => English => Topic started by: lolbox on October 31, 2009, 05:22:35 am
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Hey,
Just wanting to ask about a few mistakes I think I made in the english exam for reassurance I guess.
Firstly, are there huge consequences with not finishing an essay. I only managed to write a three line conclusion for my text response when the examiner said pens down. I've been getting 9's and 10's for my essays previously by various markers and english teachers at a pretty good school, but not finishing does that rule me out of a score like that automatically (be honest, I don't really care about my mark cause I tried my best, just curious to know haha)
Also, the other thing, with the Language Analysis I didn't mention Voxi at all. I didn't see the name until after the exam so I just referred to him as "the author" for the entire language analysis. Other then that, I thought I did really well on it. How detrimental would not mentioning Voxi be in my mark for language analysis.
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A guy at my school got 47 without even having a conclusion for one essay last year, so you should be ok.
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Also, the other thing, with the Language Analysis I didn't mention Voxi at all. I didn't see the name until after the exam so I just referred to him as "the author" for the entire language analysis. Other then that, I thought I did really well on it. How detrimental would not mentioning Voxi be in my mark for language analysis.
I would also like to know this. I did exactly the same thing as you.
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Also, the other thing, with the Language Analysis I didn't mention Voxi at all. I didn't see the name until after the exam so I just referred to him as "the author" for the entire language analysis. Other then that, I thought I did really well on it. How detrimental would not mentioning Voxi be in my mark for language analysis.
me too!! omg, it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one...
hopefully it doesn't matter too much because Voxi wasn't mentioned explicitly as the writer and it didn't say "posted by Voxi" like it normally does on a blog entry or whatever.
It just didn't cross my mind to write his/her name!! arghhhh
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Given that it seems a lot of people were confused about the identity of Voxi, I think most examiners will pick up on it and not care much about it.
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yeah my conclusions for the context and text response were pretty short cos i ran out of time....hopefully it doesnt affect my mark too much :I
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my text repsone was dodgey i didnt answer the question properly(misinterpretation) in my first body para, but answered correctly in my other two....
does that mean i cant get a 6-8/10 for text?
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You might. Examiners tend to get 75% of their mark from the intro+first paragraph of your essay - however, they most likely will skim over the 2nd+3rd, so if it starts to improve there they might spend an extra minute or two reading in detail. At any rate, they probably will mark you down a bit because of the 1st paragraph, but if the 2nd and 3rd are solid then you might still pull off a reasonably good mark. :p
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Really? My best paragraph for text response was probably my third one. Followed by first, then second. Do they even read your conclusion and does it mean anything significant?
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The rough process is that they'll read the intro in detail, possibly the first paragraph as well if they need confirmation of roughly where your level is, then skim over the other body paragraphs before reading the conclusion in detail.
I guess it makes sense in a way. From the intro they can glean the level of your writing quality as well the approach you're taking towards the topic+your points. Then for all the "knowledge/use of evidence" criteria they can just skim over the body paragraphs and still find quotes, examples, etc.
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You might. Examiners tend to get 75% of their mark from the intro+first paragraph of your essay - however, they most likely will skim over the 2nd+3rd, so if it starts to improve there they might spend an extra minute or two reading in detail. At any rate, they probably will mark you down a bit because of the 1st paragraph, but if the 2nd and 3rd are solid then you might still pull off a reasonably good mark. :p
o wow thanks for the confidence booster lols all i want is like 8,8,8 or at least 7,7,7 == which i hope i can get lols
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The rough process is that they'll read the intro in detail, possibly the first paragraph as well if they need confirmation of roughly where your level is, then skim over the other body paragraphs before reading the conclusion in detail.
I guess it makes sense in a way. From the intro they can glean the level of your writing quality as well the approach you're taking towards the topic+your points. Then for all the "knowledge/use of evidence" criteria they can just skim over the body paragraphs and still find quotes, examples, etc.
do you happen to know if the assessors penalise you for structure? for my context essay I wrote a page for a paragraph because I needed to explain the context then explain the textual evidence etc etc.
I know the structure does count... but do the examiners mark really harshly on this aspect of writing? =SSS. arghhh.
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not true, examiners are paid to read every single word of your essay, they do not 'skim read' the second and third paragraphs.
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The rough process is that they'll read the intro in detail, possibly the first paragraph as well if they need confirmation of roughly where your level is, then skim over the other body paragraphs before reading the conclusion in detail.
I guess it makes sense in a way. From the intro they can glean the level of your writing quality as well the approach you're taking towards the topic+your points. Then for all the "knowledge/use of evidence" criteria they can just skim over the body paragraphs and still find quotes, examples, etc.
do you happen to know if the assessors penalise you for structure? for my context essay I wrote a page for a paragraph because I needed to explain the context then explain the textual evidence etc etc.
I know the structure does count... but do the examiners mark really harshly on this aspect of writing? =SSS. arghhh.
If the way you did it made sense then it should probably be ok. They won't just be like "zomg, does not follow TEEL essay style, instant -5 marks", especially with Context which tends to get a lot of variation in response types.
not true, examiners are paid to read every single word of your essay, they do not 'skim read' the second and third paragraphs.
Half the English staff at my school are exam markers. It's drilled into us that on average, examiners only have 3-4 minutes to read through+mark an essay.
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It's drilled into us that on average, examiners only have 3-4 minutes to read through+mark an essay.
+1
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that may be true, but having talked to examiners at my school, they emphasized that they do NOT skim read, and do still read every word, which is entirely possible to do in 3-4 minutes.
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Not if a response shows vast complexity.
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my text repsone was dodgey i didnt answer the question properly(misinterpretation) in my first body para, but answered correctly in my other two....
does that mean i cant get a 6-8/10 for text?
In my section 3 opinion piece I didn't actually answer the question (read it too fast and misunderstood what they were asking) yet I got a 45+ SS. So I'm sure as long as your other paragraphs were good, it shouldn't lose you too many marks.
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Also, the other thing, with the Language Analysis I didn't mention Voxi at all. I didn't see the name until after the exam so I just referred to him as "the author" for the entire language analysis. Other then that, I thought I did really well on it. How detrimental would not mentioning Voxi be in my mark for language analysis.
I had an English teacher a few years ago, who was always saying 'Authors write books, writers write articles', and from that moment on, I never wrote 'the author states that....' in a language analysis again (unless it was from a book).
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my text repsone was dodgey i didnt answer the question properly(misinterpretation) in my first body para, but answered correctly in my other two....
does that mean i cant get a 6-8/10 for text?
In my section 3 opinion piece I didn't actually answer the question (read it too fast and misunderstood what they were asking) yet I got a 45+ SS. So I'm sure as long as your other paragraphs were good, it shouldn't lose you too many marks.
yea but old study design wasnt it like the opinion piece worth 5 marks? and language analysis the other 5 marks plus 2 text response 10 marks each?
so your mistake wudnt have much of an impact as it was only worth 5 marks?
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It's drilled into us that on average, examiners only have 3-4 minutes to read through+mark an essay.
+1
yea i have to agree with this, coz there is no way they are gonna read every single essay in depth (thats like 100-200 essays) and they have a strict deadline as well. Also they dont make comments all they do is give a mark out 10 then move on to next paper. Very long and boring process. It is understandable that they can skim read some essays and make a good judgment on it (as they are qualified assessors) also if there are any huge differences in scores they have a third marker.
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yea but old study design wasnt it like the opinion piece worth 5 marks? and language analysis the other 5 marks plus 2 text response 10 marks each?
so your mistake wudnt have much of an impact as it was only worth 5 marks?
Good point. DISREGARD EVERYTHING I SAID IN ABOVE POST
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yea but old study design wasnt it like the opinion piece worth 5 marks? and language analysis the other 5 marks plus 2 text response 10 marks each?
so your mistake wudnt have much of an impact as it was only worth 5 marks?
Good point. DISREGARD EVERYTHING I SAID IN ABOVE POST
lols great. . . == im doomed then
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Half the English staff at my school are exam markers
lol only one this year actually
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Hyperbole.
About half of them have had exam marking experience, anyway.
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um most examiners are retired teachers, because marking is a rather painful process that requires them to sacrifice personally. The pay isn't high either.
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This has been bugging me for a while. It seems that all three of my essays had one 'mistake'. Eg. for context one of my short paragraphs didn't make sense, sort of formed a circular argument if you know what I mean. Now how harshly do they penalize such errors? Is it still possible to get a 10 if a few sentences were a bit out of whack with the rest of the essay. My essays are pretty long so I wonder whether the problem gets hidden or exposed and how it's treated.
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um i think it depends on the examiner/s who mark your exam. i was told that examiners pay attention to the intro, topic sentence and the link sentence, and if the body of a paragraph went on a tangent you will still be fine as long as your point is clear. um so, its hard to tell but i have this feeling that you did well NE20000
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^^ haha thanks for the confidence. English counts so much so I sometimes get worried about it (although obviously I can't change anything now).
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EvanglionZeta, mind if i ask what school you go to? i have also heard the 3-4 minutes thing, no idea if it's true... i'd like to think it's not, given the amount of effort, time and personal opinions which can go into an essay, but who knows...
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^ he goes to Melbourne Grammar.
3-4 minutes sounds reasonable, the examiner has no need to comprehensively analyze an essay determine its merits and falterings. They only need to acquire a "feel" of the essay, that is all they need to assess the student's performance.
Try it yourself, take 4 minutes to briskly read an essay and give it a mark, then take 20 minutes to read it more carefully and see if your assessment has changed. Most likely you'll spend the 20 minutes trying to justify your initial assessment rather than altering it.
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yeah fair enough... i will do that but can't be bothered now.
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Guys... the examiner acknowledges the examination situation you are in - the stress, the pressure and the constant coercion to hurry up and get things done.
Not everyone will have time management struggles, but the thing is; no examiners are looking for a PERFECT and EXPECTED response.
English is a language; hence, there will always be perceptive ideas as to how you have structured your work, how you have conveyed your views, and how you have used your texts as a vehicle through which your points of view are made clear.
If you are able to JUSTIFY yourself in your essays, write with OWNERSHIP, and SUPPORT your viewpoints with textual evidence, the examiner will know. They will immediately distinguish between the good essays and the bad ones - and I have to disagree with the 3-4 minute essay examining. What kind of fairness does this bring to the marking process?