Question about Essay Length (1 Viewer)

[edwardf316]

For a 25 mark question the board of studies says the expected length is 1000 words or 8 pages of the exam booklet. To achieve a band 6 response do you have to write 8 pages and is it something that markers will look at when they mark an essay? I say this because my writing is quite small and on average i write about 6-7 pages.

 

[cub3root]

I assume this is for legal studies?

No; you don't have to. usually for family/shelter questions I wrote around 6-9 pages [with big and messy writing] and my marks were still pretty good.

Some people who also wrote 1-2 pages were still getting 10-12/25 because they had some judgements and structure

 

[edwardf316]

Legal and Modern

 

[cub3root]

well I don't know about modern but legal above.

read engol's guides, they were pretty useful

 

[SuchSmallHands]

I average 6-7 pages too. It's enough to get me full marks internally but I'm worried it'll be too short for the HSC

 

[strawberrye]

The amount of pages is largely irrelevant to your marks, what you should be focusing upon is answering the provided question as CLOSELY as possible under the time constraints. Nowhere in the marking criteria will it says that you won't be awarded full marks or a band 6 just because you exam response is not 8 pages long.

 

[skillstriker]

The 8 page rule is just a guideline. As long as it's around 1,000 words you'll be fine don't stress about how many pages you're writing. And as mentioned above it's important to realise that quality/answering the question is much more important than how much you're writing. Good luck!

 

[enoilgam]

The recommended length is a guide more than anything else - it isnt a strict rule nor will markers penalise you for not getting exactly 8 pages. That being said, for a Modern or Legal essay, you cannot write 500-600 words and expect to get a Band 6. Quality over quantity is a thing, but you need detail to hit those high bands and you just cant do that by writing the bare minimum.