Difference between a 9 and a 10?

[drmockingbird]

Hey guys!

So I just had a question.

Our school is quite strict with giving out 10/10s on essays, and teachers usually say that 9 is the highest mark they give so that students improve. Obviously this is great since we're always being pushed to work harder, but now that crunch time is here, I was wondering whether there is a clear difference between a 9/10 essay on the exam, and a 10/10. I'm asking because I generally score 9 on all of my essays on the exam and wanted to know how I could push it up just that extra notch. Does it depend on the examiner's mood or is there a clear process to determining this?

Thanks

[brenden]

Well, I'm not a VCAA examiner, but when I used to give out 10s (and I think I've only give perhaps two or three), I pretty much just read an essay and said "wow, this is so impressive that I couldn't in good conscience give it less than a 10". I think I got three 10s from separate examiners across TR and LA. The TR got 2 10s and was clearly better than the LA, which received a fair 9, so was clearly borderline. You don't need to be perfect. I incorrectly quoted stuff in my 20/20 and the last paragraph certainly wasn't the best, but if you looked at the criteria and then looked at the essay, it was just a sort of... "Yep.. that's it. That's just it" type of thing. Mostly it's just doing as best you can. Writing as best you can, analysing the best you can, etc. Those moments where you feeling like you're writing an excessively long sentence - instead of ignoring the moment, have the discipline the cross it out and think of a rephrase, even when you feel like you're about to panic. I guess it's just that level of conscientiousness that makes it happen once you get to that level.

[Orson]

How about 7 to 8? I would really like to get 8s in my essays, but I've got nothing better than a 7. I got the same score for my mid year exam and trial exam at the end of the year, even though I honestly could say I didn't know what I was doing back then.

Good luck for Wednesday!

[schooliskool]

How about 7 to 8? I would really like to get 8s in my essays, but I've got nothing better than a 7. I got the same score for my mid year exam and trial exam at the end of the year, even though I honestly could say I didn't know what I was doing back then.

Good luck for Wednesday!

Also pretty interested in the answer to this. For the trials the examiner was way to lenient (people doing a paragraph receiving 7s etc)
How good does your essay have to be to actually receive a 7/8/9? Is it a lot about vocab or ideas? My vocab is pretty poor but I (think/hope) I can come up with decent ideas in relation to the prompt.

[Orson]

Also pretty interested in the answer to this. For the trials the examiner was way to lenient (people doing a paragraph receiving 7s etc)
How good does your essay have to be to actually receive a 7/8/9? Is it a lot about vocab or ideas? My vocab is pretty poor but I (think/hope) I can come up with decent ideas in relation to the prompt.

<rant>
In my opinion, I feel that a lot of big words is what people use to impress the examiners. Have you ever seen a top notch essay where they used standard day to day language? Sure, it may seem sophisticated and whatnot, but as long as you get your point across what does it matter? If you have control of what you're saying, and what you're trying to convey, it should be fine.

My essays use pretty common language, I rarely use a fancy word, but when I do, I make sure it fits there. I guess that's why I'm stuck down here in the land of 7s, and everyone else is getting their 9s.
</rant>

[spectroscopy]

i feel like to get a 7, you can have an alright essay with a few nibbly problems and nothing amazing, or some really good components with a few others that are average, whereas once you hit the 8 region, the essay is generally quite good, and it is just lacking in a couple things eg: sentence structure, poor flow of writing, maybe bad examples, maybe not too good of an idea/contention but it was executed very well (this last one sounds more like a 7 after I've typed it out). Most 9's are good essays, with good flow and use of the language, and a good idea, but quite often you'll get a 9 because there will just be a few little things that arent perfect, or it has no zing (not saying you need an out there idea or essay), but you can read a 10/10 essay on a boring topic with a boring contention, and use BORING language thats only purpose is to tick the boxes, and you read it and you just say "there is absolutely 0 wrong with this essay, it is written well" and though it might be a boring essay, it could be written in the way that makes it as least boring as possible, but even then you could get a 'it just didnt grip me' 9.

my schools teachers feedback last year (select entry school) when i was with them and they were showing me 10/10 essays and telling me why i didnt get 10/10, was that 10/10 usually just grab the examiner. and its a whole bunch of factors, alot of it is what ned nerb said where the writing and the analysis is on point. the sentences flow nicely, there is no weird punctuation or grammar or long windedness, and i have definitely seen 10/10 essays where structure was sacrificed in some areas because the idea had absolute flair and the writing is so eloquent that succumbing to the structural conventions for the subject would take away from the pep of the essay. i feel like when people write alot of 9/10 essays for practice, eventually they will write a 10/10, read it then re-read over the 9/10s, and theyll just know its a better essay, even if they cant put their finger on it. its not even the vocab that sets you apart in terms of the writing, some essays are just written in a way that flows and is eloquent, and the ideas are so good that its got the examiner reading it and nodding their head thinking "damn this student is slick". big words that are too big and i dare say rarely used often take away from the essay cos it gets people thinking about the word rather than the idea. its usually a 10/10 essay that will correctly use the word 'loquacious' which any english teacher will know, and a poorer scoring essay that will describe a character as 'garrulous' which the student learnt off their 'learn 1 word a day at dictionary.com' subscription, and will get teachers scratching their head thinking "lmao this dude has grammar and flow errors, i doubt he even knows how to use that word"

[pi]

Have you ever seen a top notch essay where they used standard day to day language?

Actually, yes. Many of the people I know who got high 40s or 50 didn't use words I hadn't heard of, they just wrote better than me. They had sophisticated and profound ideas, they delved deeper into the texts than everyone else, they had a flair in their writing that I didn't have (and I got 44, probably an average score for AN hahaha).

Sure, there are others who use "big" words, but that doesn't necessarily differentiate a 9 and a 10. You sound a little jealous/bitter hahaha

[literally lauren]

There's 100 different things you could be doing right and wrong to earn each score. For all the Sections, there's no inherent 'if you do X, you automatically get Y score' - it's all about how the different factors of your writing combine.

Broadly speaking, the 7s-8s will do some or all of the following:

• Be relevant to the ideas in the prompt, but not the overall implication
• Will prove the prompt right, but wont challenge it or make any attempt to explore 'why' it might be true
• Will have a fairly simplistic paragraph breakdown (ie. by character in T.R. or by agree/agree/disagree in Context)
• Will use some evidence, but won't integrate it well
• When discussing the evidence, won't actually discuss its relevance, even though the evidence is relevant (ie. won't spell the links out clearly)
• Won't have much flow in their essays from sentence to sentence
• Will repeat ideas and phrasing (ie. use signposting sentences in their intro, repeat them at the start and end of every paragraph, and again in the conclusion)
• Might use "big" words, but doesn't employ them judiciously, or effectively

[Orson]

Sure, there are others who use "big" words, but that doesn't necessarily differentiate a 9 and a 10. You sound a little jealous/bitter hahaha

Yeah...a bit bitter. But I've come to accept that I have to do English, and there's nothing I can do about it. On the bright side, the writing skills I've learned have helped me with applications for courses and whatnot. Sure, I'm a bit bitter that I don't get those 8s I aim for, but hey, someone more deserving probably got them...good for them.

All I want to do at 12:15pm on Wednesday is walk out fairly happy.