I'v just noticed that, in the standard's package, for a question such as "what is your personal understanding of so and so".
Unanimously, without fail, the band 1 responses all started with "my understanding" or had some form of first person.
Similarly the band 6 responses had no trace of first person, or any regard to what the question asked, or how it would be responded to if someone asked the question in the real world.
(re-Read the above sentences assuming that band 1 meant the HIGHEST marks, and band 6 meant the LOWEST marks. It makes a lot more sense that way, testament of how awkwardly worded the questions are, in relation to the responses their expecting)
One of two things is happening here:
Clearly the responses starting with "my understanding" were not rehearsed. Thus there is favor to rehearsed responses.
The marker's expectation steps away from "answer the question", towards the fields of "Just regurgitate everything your teacher said in class". Or some uncomfortable middle ground between the two.
Also, there seems to be some bias towards longer essays and higher marks.
After observing the Standard's package responses (and yes, BOS will hate me for using them to identify marking habits rather than response styles), it seems that the band you get for your essay is a function of not just the quality of your essay, but how many pages you wrote. Band 5/6 generally means you wrote 6-8 pages. Band 4/5 means you wrote 5-7 pages, and so on.
You might say, well Cloesd, that's obvious! The more you write the more marks you get! But its the consistency that intrigues me. There is not a single 8 page essay that is a band 1, and not a single sub-5-page essay that is a band 6. Surely the distribution of the student's capabilities of being succinct are not SO narrow? And if so, then the marks should also be so narrow (but they are not). So we have students with different capabilities of compressing or saying the same thing in succinct ways, but with similar marks.
What we should expect to see is that given that the candidature has different abilities some
5 page band 6 responses (an extremely succinct student) and some 9 page band 6 responses (a student that says the same things but drags it out). But what we see is a whole set of 7-8 page band 6 responses, almost as if the students had the exact same level of succinctness, but of course they don't, the problem thus must lie in the markers bias towards certain page lengths.
Thus i contend, from the observed evidence, that first the marker picks up the page, flicks through counting the number of pages of writing, and establishes an "anchor mark". Then he/she begins reading through the essay. The anchor mark serves as a starting point, your essay doesn't start with 0 marks and get more as the marker ticks your techniques etc. IT starts with the anchor mark, and gets LESS or MORE as he notices a flourish or lack of techniques/quotes etc.
What this means?
It is vitally important to create a LONG essay, so even before the marker reads your work, you start of with as high an anchor mark as possible.
Along with PEEL, one of the most vital skills for English (absolutely vital, similar to what a pair of hind legs do for a cheetah) is writing speed. 8 pages in 40 minutes, along with some PEEL, and some flair... and that's as close to a band 6 as you're going to get without a fully rehearsed response (Which by the way risks missing the point of the question, due to failed adaption).
Discuss.
Unanimously, without fail, the band 1 responses all started with "my understanding" or had some form of first person.
Similarly the band 6 responses had no trace of first person, or any regard to what the question asked, or how it would be responded to if someone asked the question in the real world.
(re-Read the above sentences assuming that band 1 meant the HIGHEST marks, and band 6 meant the LOWEST marks. It makes a lot more sense that way, testament of how awkwardly worded the questions are, in relation to the responses their expecting)
One of two things is happening here:
Clearly the responses starting with "my understanding" were not rehearsed. Thus there is favor to rehearsed responses.
The marker's expectation steps away from "answer the question", towards the fields of "Just regurgitate everything your teacher said in class". Or some uncomfortable middle ground between the two.
Also, there seems to be some bias towards longer essays and higher marks.
After observing the Standard's package responses (and yes, BOS will hate me for using them to identify marking habits rather than response styles), it seems that the band you get for your essay is a function of not just the quality of your essay, but how many pages you wrote. Band 5/6 generally means you wrote 6-8 pages. Band 4/5 means you wrote 5-7 pages, and so on.
You might say, well Cloesd, that's obvious! The more you write the more marks you get! But its the consistency that intrigues me. There is not a single 8 page essay that is a band 1, and not a single sub-5-page essay that is a band 6. Surely the distribution of the student's capabilities of being succinct are not SO narrow? And if so, then the marks should also be so narrow (but they are not). So we have students with different capabilities of compressing or saying the same thing in succinct ways, but with similar marks.
What we should expect to see is that given that the candidature has different abilities some
5 page band 6 responses (an extremely succinct student) and some 9 page band 6 responses (a student that says the same things but drags it out). But what we see is a whole set of 7-8 page band 6 responses, almost as if the students had the exact same level of succinctness, but of course they don't, the problem thus must lie in the markers bias towards certain page lengths.
Thus i contend, from the observed evidence, that first the marker picks up the page, flicks through counting the number of pages of writing, and establishes an "anchor mark". Then he/she begins reading through the essay. The anchor mark serves as a starting point, your essay doesn't start with 0 marks and get more as the marker ticks your techniques etc. IT starts with the anchor mark, and gets LESS or MORE as he notices a flourish or lack of techniques/quotes etc.
What this means?
It is vitally important to create a LONG essay, so even before the marker reads your work, you start of with as high an anchor mark as possible.
Along with PEEL, one of the most vital skills for English (absolutely vital, similar to what a pair of hind legs do for a cheetah) is writing speed. 8 pages in 40 minutes, along with some PEEL, and some flair... and that's as close to a band 6 as you're going to get without a fully rehearsed response (Which by the way risks missing the point of the question, due to failed adaption).
Discuss.
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