History-How long are your essays?

Fuascailt

Our teacher requires our essays to be at least five pages to get an A1. Giving 35 minutes to write an essay, that gives seven minutes per A4 page. I just about get it written in the time- but end up with cramps in my hand for the rest of the day

However, my cousin, in another school, only has to write three and a half to four, and still gets her A1... Any thoughts?What are other teachers saying?

howaya

hi - don't become hung-up on the page-length of the essay. Bear in mind that examiners award points for your treatment and presentation of information, not for how long you can write for. The writing-to-time challenge is the mechanical dimension of the exam. You can focus your attention on that next spring. In the meantime, your writing speed - and writing style - will have developed perceptibly. Banging out the essay is literally the last thing that you will need to do.
I think that the smarter thing to do would be do measure out what targets you need to hit in terms of:
-how many paragraphs per essay
-how many points will you deliver in each paragraph

Then, with an eye to that structure template, review the information you have and choose what you ought to include. Editing and marking by a teacher would be helpful at this point. This is the crux, and it takes time!

If you have a set structure that you can apply to any of the questions you anticipate, then you'll be able to respond quickly to the question by jotting down your paragraph topics. They will act as prompts for you to deliver the points of information in a structured, coherent way.

Once you know WHAT information and you know HOW you'll structure in an examiner-friendly way, you can practise on the WHEN dimension: producing your best possible essay within the allotted time.

good luck!

Corruptedmorals

You need an introduction, conclusion and 8 to 9 paragraphs with one main point per paragraph, so however many pages that is in your writing. My writing is quite small, I never went over 2 and a half-3. And remember your teacher won't be the one correcting your LC..

In the LC, I gave each essay 39 minutes, worked perfectly.

Fuascailt

Thanks! My teacher is brilliant, but i was getting a bit worried, so that helps.

Mushy

Corruptedmorals wrote:

You need an introduction, conclusion and 8 to 9 paragraphs with one main point per paragraph, so however many pages that is in your writing. My writing is quite small, I never went over 2 and a half-3. And remember your teacher won't be the one correcting your LC..

In the LC, I gave each essay 39 minutes, worked perfectly.

You only need 8 or 9 paragraphs in total, not that amount added on to the intro/conclusion. My essays just went over the 3 page limit each time, just like you, 39 mins per essay, B1.

JC 2K3

I got a B1 and my essays were 3, 2.5 and like 2.25 pages long respectively. My writing is average size(9-11 words per line).

brianthebard

Has the marking system changed? You used to get 2 marks for every relevant point/sentence, so imo you should be aiming to achieve that rather than a particular length.