Minimum 1500 words in 40 minutes (1 Viewer)

[espiritulol]

We're currently doing Frankenstein & BR and our assessment task is just to answer an comparative essay question that's suppose to prepare us for trials/hsc (obviously). But the word length is 1700-2000, which is silly because I doubt we'll be able to write that much in 40 minutes.

I've talked to people from other schools and looked at essays online, and the word count varies from 900 - 1400 words (1400 words is still crazy, but achievable). So I asked my teacher and she said standard english is 1100 words min whilst advanced is 1500 words min.

So is it just me, or is that ridiculous?

 

[iBibah]

It's not only ridiculous, it's impossible.

 

[madharris]

people usually write ~1000 words in their essays
advanced AND standard

 

[nerdasdasd]

people usually write ~1000 words in their essays
advanced AND standard

Correct, just because you do advanced, doesn't mean you have to write more. Quality > quantity.

 

[oyuck]

I do believe you need both quality and quantity. But it's better to write a bad piece well than to write a good piece badly, if you know what I mean.

Aim for ~1000 words, your teacher might be a bit disillusioned. Once its handwritten though, it may look like it's 1500 words, simply because handwriting is larger than type.

 

[Hazballs]

Yeah, that's pretty nuts.. I only write about 1200 words in 40 minutes and our teacher recommends to use that we should only have to write 800-1000.. So 1700 hmm..

 

[hsclover]

Definitely 1000-1200 max

 

[louielouiee]

You're teacher set a minimum word limit for your essays?

They're actually gonna make sure you write 1500 words?

Hahahahaha oh god

*wipes tear from eye*


Seriously thats the biggest joke I've ever heard of.

I feel bad for you if you have to adhere to those guidelines for an assessment and will get marks deducted if you don't, but in the HSC, I wouldn't adhere to that bullshit.

Personally I'd memorise an essay of 850 words. That would leave me another ~250 words to mould/suit to the question itself. It was more than enough to get a decent mark.


I also second that it next to impossible to do 1500 words in 40mins.

 

[probjer]

I wrote around 700 words for each essay and the creative writing in the HSC exam and got a mark of 85 for standard English.
I hope this helps.

 

[starshine02]

1500 is achievable but it shouldn't be a minimum.

I think writing between 900-1300 is a good range to be in depending on your writing speed. Just write how much you feel like would be enough to argue your points well

 

[Lina3]

Strange...at my school the word recommendations are usually 800-1100 words. The essays I write are normally more than that, so I go through an editing process to get close to that. The most I have written in 40 mins would be 1250. For the latest exam, someone I know wrote 1300 words and it took him 1 hour. Unless you use shorthand or some other similar technique 1500 words in 40 mins is unachievable for most, let alone 2000

 

[RishBonjour]

YES THIS SO MUCH THIS.

But a large quantity of quality > a small quantity of quality.

I managed 1500 in 40 mins for my exams, but I used a laptop because I have medical problems with my wrists when holding pens, but I recognise there's no way I could've done that while handwriting. The school I attended (regularly top 5 in state) recommended 800-1200 words in 40 mins, and 1200-1600 in an hour for exams.

Also keep in mind you'll be able to write much more if you have your thoughts out beforehand (eg rote learning essays)

what do you do for uni? (unless your course doesn't have written exams)
The whole medical condition excuse is such a load of crap. How did people write all their school years? (not just you, just in general a few others who typed it too and don't have broken wrists or 4 fingers)


I only managed like 900 each for english and it was basically illegible.