Lenth of Geo Essay (1 Viewer)

[zenger69]

Whats the expected length of the 3 extended response question in the Geo HSC paper? How many words? Are you expected to fill in a booklet?

Do you have to write in full essay format (can u use dot points and subheadings)?

 

[malkin86]

This is the part where I get to scare you, and tell you 8 pages each question. But, really, 8 pages per question. No dot points, although subheadings and diagrams are quite OK.

 

[Tenille]

look at standards packages and see for yourself, also depends on the size of your writing etc. for me ( i wasent the biggest fan of geography) i was able to write alot for the economic activity essay but not so much for the ecosystem one and somewhere in between for the urban places one

 

[zenger69]

whats the standard package? can you tell me where I can download it....

 

[firehose]

Hmm is there a good tip for knowing each topic throughly for each of the 3 questions and being able to write 8 pages or so on each of them

 

[karen.koltrane]

whats the standard package? can you tell me where I can download it....

http://www.boredofstudies.org/mirror/

just follow the links to the folders

my geo teacher said using headings and subheadings was allowed (and I think even encouraged?) as well as the diagrams, charts, flow charts, rough maps, etc. as long as they supported your facts, and were actually necessary.

 

[Timmay]

just write until you've answered the question as thoroughly as possible but make sure you dont go over the time limit you've set yourself... saying i should write so many pages per questions is stupid, its quality not quantity and different questions require different lengths of answer...

that crapped me off, people that came out of exams thinking they aced it just cos they wrote so much, too much info and you contradict yourself or piss the marker off with irrelevant info

 

[scut]

my geo teacher said using headings and subheadings was allowed (and I think even encouraged?) as well as the diagrams, charts, flow charts, rough maps, etc. as long as they supported your facts, and were actually necessary.

Yeh, thats the advice I received from my teacher as well. The reason for headings and subheadings is so that the essay is presented in a more structured way for the marker and certainly makes it easier for yourself when you're writing it. Diagrams, charts and maps are certainly encouraged but yeh don't put them in for the sake of it. Because if it's irrelevant, it's wastes your precious time in the exam and the marker won't be too impressed.

Back to the main point of this topic, theres no real expectation of how many pages you need to write in order to get high marks. Again, it's a case of quality and not quantity. But generally you'll find that people who have written alot of pages do get the high marks, but its a result of their essays being thorough and covering all the major points, rather than the length of their essays.

 

[*Erika*]

i went really bad in geography until i managed to get my essays up to a decent length...in the exam i ended up writing a good 15 pages for each...from what i can remember...and ended up band 6

EDIT: i write kinda big...so don't be worried about getting heaps and heaps of pages

its all about having enough informtion and going into depth, while still answering the question, and i know its quality over quantity, but you really can't cover everything you need to in 4 pages....

 

[zenger69]

ok thanks...

I'll keep in mind next time I'm writing geo essays.

 

[tenfour]

Essays

My geo teacher who marks at the HSC says that the essays can be of any length as long as they answer the question and you can utilise bullet points, tables etc

 

[lukebennett]

i find giving a long answer is advantageous. good language is great too. it has a much greater affect on the marker than you realise. same with handwriting. i got 93 for geo and wrote 12 pages for each essay. that equates to about 5 normal pages probably. its not too hard. you gain time in the earlier sections so you can get 45 mins an essay rather than 40mins. it helps

 

[zenger69]

well i guess it's true, i normally write about 4 pages on normal paper and if the question is something i lots about i can end up writing about 6 pages.

But I just hope it doesn't become like a situation in English, where you just rush through and try to write about 6 pages in 40 minutes for an essay and at the same time having the expectations to be sophisticated and stuff.

 

[midnight]

The most important thing in geo extended responses is that you're clear with the points that you are making. This means don't repeat yourself just to make it a page longer, but use plenty of examples and statistics if you think it's going to be short.
Also, you must make sure that you read the question carefully. If it asks you to analyse or evaluate the response is likely to be longer than something where you just have to describe or outline. It always depends on how confident you are with the topic and how much knowledge you have though.
It's said that the first twelve marks are easier to get than the last eight.

Length of the response depends on whether you want a band 5/6 mark or not. I would say to get 15+ you need at least 2.5 A4 pages, or more than half a booklet. That's if you write small and you're very concise. I honestly do not think you can answer an extended response well in one or two A4 pages. My half yearly average was about 3 A4 pages, to get 16+, for the trials I wrote 5 to 8 booklet pages for 17+. I think I got full marks, or close to, in the HSC and I wrote a full booklet for one question, a booklet and a page for another and 1.5 for the third. I have huge booklet writing though.

I personally preferred to write in essay style because it was good practice for other subjects. It also helped me to structure the essay, and my teacher found it really easy to read. Using subheadings is good when they are appropriate.

And I agree with lukebennett, try to leave two hours for the last section if you can, because it's more advantageous to do well in the essays than it is to do well in the other sections because 60% of the paper is the essays.
But also, as everyone said, don't go over the time limit! If you've spent 40 minutes on one question then you're cutting away time, and marks, from other questions. Keep your best for last to maximise time on the others, but don't sacrifice 5 marks because you were trying to write a conclusion for one of the responses.

The most important things for getting band 5/6 in geog [everyone wants that, don't they] are: terminology, definitions and examples. Use these well and you can guarantee 19+. Work hard before the trials on writing a sophisticated and cohesive response and you could get 20.

Sorry for that essay.