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Today our school sat a trial paper for English. Whilst its all well and good, it definatley got me thinking about us poor souls who have to go through the real thing.
I am very much against the prospect of writing 3 essay's in only 3 hours. I cant speak for everybody here, but I've gone through the year, having a minimum of 2 hours for a single essay, this includes knowing the topics beforehand and having adequate time to prepare. Thats all good, no arguments there.
But the end of year examination is ridiculous, what today revealed was who can write the most in 3 hours. English essay's should be able substance, not the length, and although markers swear blindly that this isnt the case, the reality is, that a person who writes 4 pages for an essay, is going to get better marks than a person who writes 2.
Not only that, but I believe that writing for 3 hours straight is simply unrealistic, looking around the room today while I massaged my aching wrist, I saw most people doing the exact same thing. Unfortunately this was a common occurance, as I often took a break from writing to try and figure out what in the world I was going to write next. The fact is that there is simply not enough time to write 3 essays, whilst clearly demonstrating your knowledge of a specific text or piece. Yet, you cant simply increase the writing time, because it is already at a ridiculous level.
Personally I think there are two possible solutions to this. Firstly, I believe the best option would be to split the English Exam into three exams. 2 x 120 minute exams for the essays, and a 90 minute exam for the Language Analysis. This would ensure that the student would have adequate planning time in the examination period to plan an essay. Ultimatley this ensures that what your testing is the person's ability to construct an essay, as well as integrete key aspects of the text in it, and not rushing through a few pages of writing without any basic plan whatsoever, which is so often the case. We've seen the Maths Exam's broken up into parts and I think its a great way to go with English.
The second solution is a little more unrealistic. Release the prompts prior to the exam to give students time to prepare essays. Although this could be likened to cheating, you still would not be able to take this into the exam. However you would be able to prepare your answer so that you arent writing an exam cold turkey.![Thumbs Up :thumbsu: :thumbsu:](/forum/styles/baisik/xenforo/smilies/thumbsup.gif)
I am very much against the prospect of writing 3 essay's in only 3 hours. I cant speak for everybody here, but I've gone through the year, having a minimum of 2 hours for a single essay, this includes knowing the topics beforehand and having adequate time to prepare. Thats all good, no arguments there.
But the end of year examination is ridiculous, what today revealed was who can write the most in 3 hours. English essay's should be able substance, not the length, and although markers swear blindly that this isnt the case, the reality is, that a person who writes 4 pages for an essay, is going to get better marks than a person who writes 2.
Not only that, but I believe that writing for 3 hours straight is simply unrealistic, looking around the room today while I massaged my aching wrist, I saw most people doing the exact same thing. Unfortunately this was a common occurance, as I often took a break from writing to try and figure out what in the world I was going to write next. The fact is that there is simply not enough time to write 3 essays, whilst clearly demonstrating your knowledge of a specific text or piece. Yet, you cant simply increase the writing time, because it is already at a ridiculous level.
Personally I think there are two possible solutions to this. Firstly, I believe the best option would be to split the English Exam into three exams. 2 x 120 minute exams for the essays, and a 90 minute exam for the Language Analysis. This would ensure that the student would have adequate planning time in the examination period to plan an essay. Ultimatley this ensures that what your testing is the person's ability to construct an essay, as well as integrete key aspects of the text in it, and not rushing through a few pages of writing without any basic plan whatsoever, which is so often the case. We've seen the Maths Exam's broken up into parts and I think its a great way to go with English.
The second solution is a little more unrealistic. Release the prompts prior to the exam to give students time to prepare essays. Although this could be likened to cheating, you still would not be able to take this into the exam. However you would be able to prepare your answer so that you arent writing an exam cold turkey.
![Thumbs Up :thumbsu: :thumbsu:](/forum/styles/baisik/xenforo/smilies/thumbsup.gif)