Confess. How many pages did you write. (2 Viewers)

[Rorix]

basically once you get over 8 pages with reasonable writing you won't get extra marks for writing more, its what you write that's important then

when the essays were marked out of 9, it was the "mark = # of pages + 1" trick

 

[phungus]

Exchange Rates - 14 pgs
Globalisation - 13.5 pgs (but i dun have a good feeling abt this one )

 

[nesstar]

do u actually have to write that much to get a good mark?? I'm really scared now cos i was happy with both my essays, each 5 1/2 pgs...and i got 19/20 and 20/20 in my trials for essays that long...i think that i answered the questions, so what's the point blabbing on..?

ok, im really worried now....

 

[matt_f64]

nah they arent exactly gonna go NOPE its only 5 pages therefore a crap mark.. its more wat u put in it, u hav to have a good argument with lots of figures and reference to stimulus and effects etc etc (depending on the question) and often it is hard to fit this all into only a few pages, thats y people with more pages get better marks. but anything over 6 pages should be fine as long as u hav a good argument!

 

[brunette]

do u actually have to write that much to get a good mark?? I'm really scared now cos i was happy with both my essays, each 5 1/2 pgs...and i got 19/20 and 20/20 in my trials for essays that long...i think that i answered the questions, so what's the point blabbing on..?

ok, im really worried now....

relax...the average is probably around 6 pages anywayz
as long as u answered the question and had relevent information its fine...the markers probably prefer direct answers so if u managed everything in 5 pages >>
how big is ur writing anyway???

 

[espo14]

My teacher, who used to be an HSC economics marker told us that anything past 2 booklets and he starts looking to take marks off, as the essay must include alot of waffle, and unnecessary points.
So take that all you 42 page essay fuckers.

 

[loquasagacious]

There is a very good reason that they give you 8 page booklets, two of them and recommend that you spend only 70Mins total on the essays.

They want the standard deviation around an average page count (by average writers) to top at aproximately 8 pages. You write more and you are in serious danger of waffle and loosing marks in other sections.

Whilst I agree that the time they allow for MC, SA is generous (I took about 1 hour as opposed to almost two), the idea is not to skip over them, in many cases SA is filled with easy marks, easy to get with the application of a small ammount of time and easy to loose if time is sacrificed.

At 42 pages I think that someone is either a huge writer (eg low words per line), big picture person, memorised essay or they are gilding the lily somewhat. Quite possibly any combination of the above.

 

[Rorix]

There is a very good reason that they give you 8 page booklets, two of them and recommend that you spend only 70Mins total on the essays.

I can assure you that the 70min total has nothing to do with how much they expect you to write.

 

[derek :p]

has this turned into abuse the people that write a lot? I assure you, I am not claiming that because i wrote x amount of pages therefore i am going to get y mark... but if you need to start abusing people because they wrote a lot it really shows that you are not confident enough to admit others wrote more than you...

 

[brunette]

There is a very good reason that they give you 8 page booklets, two of them and recommend that you spend only 70Mins total on the essays.

thats actually incorrect coz i went to an economics lecture day thingy where they kinda summerised the topic and tips for the exams blah blah
anywayz the guy who is a hsc marker told us that 35 minutes is what maybe a top student or teacher could possibly write the essay but realistically it is expected that approx 55 minutes be spent on each essay (i mean as if it would take u 35minutes on MC)
secondly the reason they give 8 page booklets is coz the average written for an average sized writer lets say is about 6 pages give or take...there is no need for them to give out 16 page booklets if only a quater of the canditure is goin to write that much...waste of paper
also if u havent noticed all of the exempler samples at least go into 2 booklets

so i say if u can write that much (managing in the time frame of course) go ahead i seriously doubt that they would mark u down if its irrelavent...they just wouldnt give u extra marks

 

[loquasagacious]

Thats what I'm trying to say, that writing 20 pages does not guarantee full marks as people seem to suggest.

Obviously the more you can write the more useful content you can put down however the marginal benefit (in marks gained in the essay section) of writing more decreases exponentially whilst the marginal cost in marks lost in other sections increases exponentionally. Therefore it's all about finding some balance, a balance that I personally feel is about 1 hour for each essay and 1 hour for MC/SA.

the reason they give 8 page booklets is coz the average written for an average sized writer lets say is about 6 pages give or take...there is no need for them to give out 16 page booklets if only a quater of the canditure is goin to write that much...waste of paper
also if u havent noticed all of the exempler samples at least go into 2 booklets

Exactly you get an 8 page booklet they expect the modal ammount to be about 6 and those in the 8-12 range are likely in a better position on the bell curve than those who write 6. However as we are marked against a criteria and not against each other a person who wrote 22 pages (even if they were really good) would not get any more than a person who wrote say 10 pages. And the person who wrote 22 pages must have sacrificed marks in other areas of the paper or write really big.

has this turned into abuse the people that write a lot?

As opposed to a thread abusing those who didn't write a huge ammount? If you feel I have abused those who write alot, I'm sorry. I was only trying to point out that writing a huge ammount does not guarantee you a band six, that page count is not some kind of pissing contest. If people really did want a pissing contest it could at least be more logical eg word count which takes into account different writing size and diagrams.

 

[derek :p]

i'm just saying that there has been a lot of negativity towards people that have written a lot, and thus its really frustrating to see people put others down because they wrote more...

oh and by the way i spent one hour on MC and Short Answer too

 

[coroneos]

i wrote lyk 8 pages of quality per essay and i spent lots of time on short answers

 

[mick18]

Q25: 18
Q27: 23

 

[rumour]

I only wrote 5 pages for the exchange rate & 4 for the macro policies , & I thought I asked the question !!!!