How'd everyone go?

[mba]

That said I don't think strategies and policies are interchangeable. Policy is like "To reduce HIV aids by 20%" and a strategy would be to offer sex education or something like that.

Well when it comes to marking the papers they sometimes do considering them interchangable, depending on the question. My teacher has been an examiner for the past five years so I believe what he says. Depends on how the majority of students respond. I think they will accept a policy as a strategy simply because there arn't to many global strategies out there for some of the global phenomenas.

[lara2707]

No I don't think you quite understand.

Technically, a policy is a broad statement of intent/achievable and the strategies are how organisations set out to achieve the overall policy statement.

However, when it comes to exams they usually accept either a policy or strategy when there ask those types of questions. I think they probably will do the same when it comes to the desertification question as I doubt many students would have known a specific strategy that is being used at two different locations.

Well, that was condescending. I do understand the difference, and I believe that what I said was basically the same as what you said.

Policy - Broad statement of what you want to achieve

Strategy - What is actually done to achieve it

Didn't we say the same thing?

[mba]

No I don't think you quite understand.

Technically, a policy is a broad statement of intent/achievable and the strategies are how organisations set out to achieve the overall policy statement.

However, when it comes to exams they usually accept either a policy or strategy when there ask those types of questions. I think they probably will do the same when it comes to the desertification question as I doubt many students would have known a specific strategy that is being used at two different locations.

Well, that was condescending. I do understand the difference, and I believe that what I said was basically the same as what you said.

Policy - Broad statement of what you want to achieve

Strategy - What is actually done to achieve it

Didn't we say the same thing?

Apologies if I came across that way, but I'm not commenting on the difference between policy and strategy per se. They're most definitely different as you have pointed out. What I am saying is that sometimes on the end of year paper if the question asks for a policy and one writes about a strategy, this still will be marked correct. Depends on the ambiguity of the question as demonstrated by student's responses.

[lara2707]

OK. I hope you're right about that, because otherwise people will lose heaps of marks They should

[taiga]

My teacher last year sits in an office with the guy who writes the exam (our school's head of geography), and I'm pretty sure he was rather adamant on acknowledging the difference :X

[lara2707]

Hmmm...I think it was just a really dodgy question!!

[mba]

My teacher last year sits in an office with the guy who writes the exam (our school's head of geography), and I'm pretty sure he was rather adamant on acknowledging the difference :X

That's strange, because the lady who writes the exam is Marilyn Wiber who works at Mentone Girls Grammar.

I'm just saying what my teacher who is an examiner has told me. If there is a lot of students who have talked about a policy not a strategy that will most likely give marks, as that is what has happened in the past.

I'm not going to argue about this anymore, I've made this point clear a few times now you can either believe me or not. That's your prerogative.


It was also good to see that the sketch map of your local resource wasn't worth any marks. The MDB questions were different, but quite straight forward I thought? I didn't think there would be as many marks directed to conflict either considering the whole of Q2 last year was on it.

[lara2707]

The line space for the conflict question was so small! I wrote over double the amount of space they gave us!! (in the extra space section) Mind you...I did nearly run out of time

[taiga]

My teacher last year sits in an office with the guy who writes the exam (our school's head of geography), and I'm pretty sure he was rather adamant on acknowledging the difference :X

That's strange, because the lady who writes the exam is Marilyn Wiber who works at Mentone Girls Grammar.

I'm just saying what my teacher who is an examiner has told me. If there is a lot of students who have talked about a policy not a strategy that will most likely give marks, as that is what has happened in the past.

I'm not going to argue about this anymore, I've made this point clear a few times now you can either believe me or not. That's your prerogative.


It was also good to see that the sketch map of your local resource wasn't worth any marks. The MDB questions were different, but quite straight forward I thought? I didn't think there would be as many marks directed to conflict either considering the whole of Q2 last year was on it.

I sense some aggression in what you're saying. I believe chief examiner is shared by Raymond Pask, and Marilyn Weber (quick google found that). He is also the guy who writes the books you use, and most likely your atlas.

I don't have any reason to unnecessarily tell you lies, if that's what you think I am doing. I didn't sit Geography this year.

There is a distinct difference between a policy and a strategy, I am pretty sure of that, you can look up Assessment reports if you wish. Whether or not it is acknowledged by VCAA is besides the point, obviously the safer way to go is to do what the question asks.

If there is a huge difference in what school's are teaching their students, I'm sure it will be acknowledged as Geography is not exactly a big subject so it will be communicated quickly.

Re. Map: If it is worth no marks, it won't matter

[mba]

My teacher last year sits in an office with the guy who writes the exam (our school's head of geography), and I'm pretty sure he was rather adamant on acknowledging the difference :X

That's strange, because the lady who writes the exam is Marilyn Wiber who works at Mentone Girls Grammar.

I'm just saying what my teacher who is an examiner has told me. If there is a lot of students who have talked about a policy not a strategy that will most likely give marks, as that is what has happened in the past.

I'm not going to argue about this anymore, I've made this point clear a few times now you can either believe me or not. That's your prerogative.


It was also good to see that the sketch map of your local resource wasn't worth any marks. The MDB questions were different, but quite straight forward I thought? I didn't think there would be as many marks directed to conflict either considering the whole of Q2 last year was on it.

I sense some aggression in what you're saying. I believe chief examiner is shared by Raymond Pask, and Marilyn Weber (quick google found that). He is also the guy who writes the books you use, and most likely your atlas.

I don't have any reason to unnecessarily tell you lies, if that's what you think I am doing. I didn't sit Geography this year.

There is a distinct difference between a policy and a strategy, I am pretty sure of that, you can look up Assessment reports if you wish. Whether or not it is acknowledged by VCAA is besides the point, obviously the safer way to go is to do what the question asks.

If there is a huge difference in what school's are teaching their students, I'm sure it will be acknowledged as Geography is not exactly a big subject so it will be communicated quickly.

Re. Map: If it is worth no marks, it won't matter

I'm fairly certain that Marilyn Weber is the only chief examiner. Our teacher showed us the "Meet the Examiners DVD" from last year which stated this.

No agression, just a bit of frustration. All I'm saying is there is precedence with the assesors marking a policy as a strategy, it occured in the 2007 and 2008 exam. As I said, my geography teacher is an assesor and I've seen the marking document in person, so I'm leaning on believing what it says.

And probably for the fourth or sixth time I understand that there is a DIFFERENCE between a policy and strategy, re-read my previous posts if you think I am arguing about that.

Re the Map: Although the sketch wasn't worth any marks, there was probably about 8 marks worth of annotations/commenting on these annotations. The map therefore had to be quite good.

[lara2707]

It's really frustrating that they're so inconsistent. Why do they drill in that we have to know the difference and then make exceptions in the exams? Gah!

[taiga]

Yeah it's more concerning that different teachers are saying different things. My teacher was an assessor as well, and Ray Pask definitely is one of the examiners (at least last year he was), that's the annoying this when it is so subjective =\

[JackMichaelson]

yeah that question was very ambiguous. =[

[chickenpop]

Yeah it's more concerning that different teachers are saying different things. My teacher was an assessor as well, and Ray Pask definitely is one of the examiners (at least last year he was), that's the annoying this when it is so subjective =\

Mr Pask? Goes to my school, I thought he writes the exams, but doesn't mark them?

[taiga]

Yeah it's more concerning that different teachers are saying different things. My teacher was an assessor as well, and Ray Pask definitely is one of the examiners (at least last year he was), that's the annoying this when it is so subjective =\

Mr Pask? Goes to my school, I thought he writes the exams, but doesn't mark them?

Well yeah then I go to your school, who are ya?

He doesen't mark them, but Mr. Keat does.