Advice on teacher's marking (CAFS)! (1 Viewer)

girlwithnoname

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Hi everyone!
This is my first post on BoS, so hopefully it reaches the right people. :)

I'm currently a Year 12 (HSC 2022) student, and one of the courses I have chosen to undertake is Community and Family Studies, or CAFS. Recently, we completed the T1 assessment on Research Methodologies, which is the IRP. I spent many hours writing and perfecting the assignment (at least 15-20), which ended up being around 4300 words, and I'm pretty disappointed with the mark my teacher gave me. I was wondering if someone could provide some advice on what I did wrong, and if I should speak to my teacher (again).

The assignment consisted of 2 seperate parts, each worth 15 marks. I have included the marks I received for each criteria, as well as the feedback my teacher provided:

Analysis and Discussion:

- Demonstrates extensive knowledge and understanding about primary and secondary data 1/2
- Provides clear similarities and/or differences between the primary and secondary data 3/4
- Provides clear links between the trends from the data and possible reasons for the patterns 4/4
- Communicates ideas and information using relevant examples 3/ 3
- Presents a logical and cohesive answer 2/2

"Perhaps easier when analysing the data, have the figures just under the information that your analysing or state “refer to figure…..”
When analysing the qualitative data, have an introductory sentence stating that that is what you are analysing e.g. “ when looking at the qualitative question “.........
Make sure you include the name of the author when referencing secondary data. There are limited references regarding wellbeing in comparison to interpersonal relationships and smartphone usage. "

Methodologies, Conclusions, and Recommendations:

- Demonstrates extensive knowledge and understanding about research methodologies 2/2
- Provides clear research-based conclusions from the analysis and discussion and how these link to the question/hypothesis 5/6
- Provides clear justification about the appropriate research methodologies that were used 2/3
- Communicates ideas and information using relevant examples 2/2
- Presents a logical and cohesive answer 2/2

"See comments on document, - re methodologies
More emphasis on how your conclusions link with the IRP question, that is to the wellbeing of families and interrelationships, more discussion needed overall."

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So when receiving the assignment back, she had originally given me 25/30. She took marks off for "not justifying why the research methodology was used" even though I had an entire paragraph written about it, according to the scaffold she provided in class, as well as the assessment criteria. I showed this to her and the other teacher who shared the marking with her, and they agreed that I had a valid point and that would look throughout my essay to reevaluate it. She added 1 extra mark to my assignment, currently leaving me with 26/30. In class she mentioned that she had provided written comments throughout everyone's assignment, but for mine she hadn't until after I saw her. Some of these comments I really don't understand, and to be honest, I feel like she really picked apart my assignment. I am usually not someone that argues for marks, but since this will affect my ATAR, and considering I worked extremely hard to make sure I included everything, I feel really upset by this, especially since it is such a low scaling subject (my mark of 86% would scale to a 82 when using an ATAR calculator). People that generally scaled lower than me last year in Prelim have gotten higher marks than me. I don't think my teacher for this year particularly likes me, and I may be wrong, but I feel as if she had a pre-judgement of my assignment based on who I am, and who the people I sit with in class are, as she has also had seperate issues with them.

Some examples of feedback she (and the other teacher she shared the marking with) gave I don't understand:

In Analysis & Discussion:

"There are limited references regarding wellbeing in comparison to interpersonal relationships and smartphone usage. "
When doing a document search the word 'wellbeing' appears 11 times. The word 'interpersonal' appears 15 times. So I felt like it was a pretty even split and I tried to incorporate both. She made us do the actual research (questionnaires) in groups in the class, so I actually had little control of what the scope of questions included in terms of primary data.

She took a mark off (1/2) for demonstrating extensive knowledge about primary and secondary data. I don't understand where this came from, unless she was referencing the above comment; however, I have 2,400 words analysing the data. In terms of primary data, we administered 4 questionnaires, so I had 2 paragraphs for each, analysing 1. qualitative data and 2. quantitative data (total of 8 paragraphs analysing just the primary data). For secondary data, of which I have 3 sources, I have lengthy paragraphs summarising the findings of each. Similarly she took a mark off for not clearly comparing the two, which I have done throughout, as well as in a seperate paragraph.

In the actual document, she made comments such as: "this is analysis of qualitative data, make it clearer," "mention the author name," and "link this back to emotional wellbeing also." But I don't see how any of these relate to the specific criteria allowing marks to be deducted, rather just suggestions that would improve my essay generally.

In Methodologies, Conclusions and Recommendations:

I'm not sure why I am still missing a mark in justifying the research methodology (2/3). She left comments saying I needed to expand on how 'open ended' questions relate to qualitative data, i.e respondents provide their own opinions and ideas. But I guess I assumed that was a given, especially when I mentioned that participants answered multiple choice, short answer and Likert scale questions. She also said that I should have expanded on exactly HOW questionnaires reach a broad range of people and why they are time efficient, but I guess I assumed this was also just commonly accepted? We didn't do any other method of research to compare it to.

There were other nit-picky things - I mentioned, in talking about ethical behaviour, "Privacy was protected in the research by having subjects remain anonymous, changing, labelling and coding names, and storing data securely." She highlighted the word anonymous and left a comment saying I should have expanded on this, by recounting that we let participants know at the beginning of the questionnaire that they would remain anonymous.

I lost a mark in 'provides clear research-based conclusions from the analysis and discussion and how these link to the question/hypothesis (5/6)' However, I have a paragraph in the conclusions mentioning positive and negative results, and how the research question was answered appropriately and effectively.

Possibly the most mind-boggling feedback I have ever received in the comments:
I talked about the validity of data in one sentence. I went on to talk about how the data is ALSO reliable. The teacher highlighted my latter sentence and said, "and validity?" as if she hadn't just read my previous two sentences. :/

In saying, "Many positive impacts, such as increased communication, were gathered and result in stronger interpersonal relationships and better well-being within families " my teacher wanted me to explain HOW these are positive. How the heck am I supposed to explain how positive impacts are positive? Is it not given that better wellbeing, stronger relationships and more communication is better/positive?

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Sorry for the extremely long thread. I just wanted to give anyone who reads this a basic background of the marking criteria, and the type of feedback my teacher left, with my reasoning/proof for not understanding why I lost marks. I understand that my assignment is not perfect and of course could need improvements, adding things here and there, but I see nothing majorly wrong with it that would make me lose marks. Can someone please suggest if I am being unreasonable and have failed to do something correctly, or if my teacher has marked unfairly? Should I talk to her again, or would it be pointless considering I already have? I don't want to make her dislike me anymore than she may potentially as she will be marking me work for the rest of Year 12. Any advice greatly appreciated, please help! :confused:
 

c_z_m

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I don't think many people on this site actually do CAFS, so it's unlikely we can comment specifically on your thread. I haven't done CAFS myself, but I'll give some general advice so at least you have something to go off. But I can already tell it's a highly subjective subject, much like English. Marks can be lost here and there, and I know - most English students know - it's not a good feeling when you don't know why.

Unfortunately, we can't be too sure whether your assignment was marked fairly or not - we don't have the essay, and even if we did, most people here wouldn't know how to mark it. What I can be pretty sure though, is that certain teachers like certain things to be included in essays. Some teachers love when validity is explained in a separate, detailed paragraph (our science teachers did). Hence it would be a good idea to ask/talk to your teacher again - "You mentioned X wasn't explained clearly enough, so I've re-written it. Do you think this is explained clearly enough?" There is no point is doing mental gymnastics trying to optimise marks if you don't even know what your teacher requires to get those marks!

I understand you may be frustrated with results and may link that with teacher bias. Perhaps that is true. It's hard to tell whether that is the case. But no matter what, don't let the frustration erupt when you speak to your teacher - respect is important.

I've also noticed that you are doing 13 units. If CAFS gets to the point where your marks aren't good, you don't like your teacher, and generally are starting to hate it - drop it. There is no benefit chaining yourself to a subject that drags you down - I say that from personal experience. 11 units is more than enough, and if you do so, I do believe you can still do well (or even better!)

One last thing to keep in mind is that your raw marks - that is, your 26/30, is not indicative of your final internal HSC mark. If either you have a good internal ranking, or your school generally does well in CAFS, your "86%" internal mark might be scaled to something along the likes of 90 or even higher. Also note you have the final HSC exam, so even with low internals, you are still able to boost that up by performing well in your October exams.
 

girlwithnoname

New Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2021
Messages
20
Gender
Female
HSC
2022
I don't think many people on this site actually do CAFS, so it's unlikely we can comment specifically on your thread. I haven't done CAFS myself, but I'll give some general advice so at least you have something to go off. But I can already tell it's a highly subjective subject, much like English. Marks can be lost here and there, and I know - most English students know - it's not a good feeling when you don't know why.

Unfortunately, we can't be too sure whether your assignment was marked fairly or not - we don't have the essay, and even if we did, most people here wouldn't know how to mark it. What I can be pretty sure though, is that certain teachers like certain things to be included in essays. Some teachers love when validity is explained in a separate, detailed paragraph (our science teachers did). Hence it would be a good idea to ask/talk to your teacher again - "You mentioned X wasn't explained clearly enough, so I've re-written it. Do you think this is explained clearly enough?" There is no point is doing mental gymnastics trying to optimise marks if you don't even know what your teacher requires to get those marks!

I understand you may be frustrated with results and may link that with teacher bias. Perhaps that is true. It's hard to tell whether that is the case. But no matter what, don't let the frustration erupt when you speak to your teacher - respect is important.

I've also noticed that you are doing 13 units. If CAFS gets to the point where your marks aren't good, you don't like your teacher, and generally are starting to hate it - drop it. There is no benefit chaining yourself to a subject that drags you down - I say that from personal experience. 11 units is more than enough, and if you do so, I do believe you can still do well (or even better!)

One last thing to keep in mind is that your raw marks - that is, your 26/30, is not indicative of your final internal HSC mark. If either you have a good internal ranking, or your school generally does well in CAFS, your "86%" internal mark might be scaled to something along the likes of 90 or even higher. Also note you have the final HSC exam, so even with low internals, you are still able to boost that up by performing well in your October exams.
Thank you this was super helpful!! :)
 

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