History essays

Hey, my teacher has been fairly vague about how essays in History (not the Special Topic) are marked. I would like to know what criteria makes an A1 essay, if anyone could oblige!

Pinksocks

amm dont really how what an a1 history essay is, but is really hard to get an a1 in the leaving cert!

Scrambled egg

They like do some crazy thing were they grade each paragraph out of 12 and give you 2 marks for each bit of info I think. Hope it helps

theowen

They mark each paragraph out of 12, you'll generally get a 6 or so for a decent one. It's out of a maximum of 60, so if you've 6 paragraphs, 36 marks, 10 paragraphs, 60 marks and so on. Then the 40 remaining marks go for the overall mark, how well it's written etc.

KatCookie

Its 100 marks, 60 is Cumulative Mark 40 is Overall Mark
the 60 is made up from paragraphs that are marked out of a max of 12, even if you have 80 cm marks, you'll only get 60
and the 40 is how well written the essay is.
According to my teacher:
The first paragraph is supposed to be a kind of intro and the last is a kind of general-what happens-in-future paragraph

The "traps" that people fall into are vagueness, generalisation, throwing in your opinion and not backing it up. ..
Hope I helped!!

randylonghorn

Marking scheme for 2009 is here

Jam-Fly

History essay are marked out of 100. 60 is for Cumulative mark (CM) and 40 is for Overall Mark (OM).

The Cumulative Mark marks each paragraph out of 12. The thing to note about this, is that there is no cap to the number of paragraphs marked (e.g. you're not marked on your best 5, ALL paragraphs will be marked and counted). So if you write 10 paragraphs, you've got a better chance of getting 60/60 than somehow who writes 5 paragraphs. Both the introduction paragraph and conclusion paragraph are inculded in this. Also, be aware that if you try to abuse the system by having loads of really short paragraphs, they will probably link paragraphs together to make one paragraph.

The Overall Mark is out of 40 and deals with the overall writing of the essay. A good introduction and a good conclusion are very important to achieve a high Overall Mark. How well the essay is written, how well it links together, reference to the question and the intro and conclusion are all taken into consideration when deciding the mark out of 40.


So to answer your question, how do you go about getting an A1. Make sure you have plenty of paragraphs (8-10 fairly good paragraphs should be enough), and that should get you 60/60. Then make sure your essay flows well (e.g. generally is in chronological order, refers to the question in every paragraph etc.). The introduction should include background information, what you intend to talk about in the essay and an initial answer to the question. The conclusion should include a concluding answer to the question and either your opinion and/or a brief account of what happend next.

Tbh, it is very difficult to get a high mark in the OM. Anything over 35/40 is incredibly hard. If you want to get an A1 in the Leaving Cert, the best way to go about that is to try to get full marks in your Special Research Study, and try to aim for 95+/100 in the documents question. Then, if you achieve full marks in CM (ie 60/60) for all three of your essays, and get 25/40 in the OM in all three of your essays, that would give you 90% which is an A1. Basically, it is almost impossible to get 100/100 in an essay written the day of the exam that you don't have meticulously prepared.

Thanks guys, that's really helpful. All my teacher ever said was that there were cumulative and overall marks, and no explanation of how it worked! I usually get Bs and the occasional A2 in my essays, so I'll work really hard on my Special Topic

Shane101

What way do you guys learn off your essays? (for those that do)
Im having a bit of trouble learning off 4 and half page essays Have to learn one off for friday