Why does this keep happening?

samapp

Hi,

So I put a lot of effort into my work and I need 560 points for my course but I keep getting back crap results. Like, when I got my pres back I got all 60s.
Has anyone ever been like this then killed the actual exams? I wish this would stop happening.

spurious

Where do you lose your marks? Your teachers should be telling you this. Mock exams without feedback are entirely pointless.

samapp

spurious wrote: »

Where do you lose your marks? Your teachers should be telling you this. Mock exams without feedback are entirely pointless.

I have lost marks on either parts of the paper that werent even on the syllabus or on parts where I have followed the marking scheme but they have not accepted the answer. Its not just the pres though. In the orals I talk as well as the others and I am marked down. I just don't understand it. I mean for instance in french the teacher asked me about my favourite subject and when I said History he launched into stuff about the war in Libya. In perfect french I said sorry I dont follow politics and then he said I am marking you down because you should have spoke about politics... If I knew the mistakes I would not be so frustrated. I have tried asking them but I keep getting vague answers and after insisting on them being more precise they just keep giving me the same old vague stuff that does not pinpoint where I am going wrong....

spurious

They are paid to help you know where you went wrong. Keep at them.

Unfortunately, the level of correction is very hit and miss in the mocks marked by commercial companies. You will not be asked non-syllabus questions in the real thing. In the orals, you will be leading the conversation - your teacher had no business veering off topic to Libya when your answer was History.

Average_Joe

Maybe you are aiming too high. Often people try to achieve really high results when they don't have the intellectual capability to do so.
I would advise you to aim for a more realistic goal of about 450 points or otherwise you will just end up disappointed.

Chuchoter

To be horribly honest with you OP, I'm going to have to agree with the above poster. If you are really putting in vast amounts of effort and need effectively all As, then the most you account for poor examining is a mark down in the high 70s (except in the case of the oral, they're not allowed to mark you down for not talking about something like Libya unless you were saying I don't follow x for every single question). You need to take a hard look at the mistakes you were making and how much work you were really putting in, and if 560 is really possible.

rainbowtrout

samapp wrote: »

I have lost marks on either parts of the paper that werent even on the syllabus or on parts where I have followed the marking scheme but they have not accepted the answer. Its not just the pres though. In the orals I talk as well as the others and I am marked down. I just don't understand it. I mean for instance in french the teacher asked me about my favourite subject and when I said History he launched into stuff about the war in Libya. In perfect french I said sorry I dont follow politics and then he said I am marking you down because you should have spoke about politics... If I knew the mistakes I would not be so frustrated. I have tried asking them but I keep getting vague answers and after insisting on them being more precise they just keep giving me the same old vague stuff that does not pinpoint where I am going wrong....

I would generally agree with everything spurious said, but I would also argue that you could have given a better answer here. You could have said that you haven't been watching it on the news so you don't really know anything about it and then veer back onto history.

From what I remember the orals aren't a test what you know about different topics but they are there to see how well you can speak another language and articulate yourself and how willing you are to give an answer rather than just 'I don't know' or 'I'm not interested' over and over again.

You possibly said 'Je n'aime pas la politique' where you could have said ....

'Quand je rentre de l'ecole, je mange mon diner, puis, j'edudie pour trois heures. Je n'ai pas assez temps pour regarder la nouvelles a la television, alors je ne sais pas ce qui ce passe en Libye. C'est plus important que j'etudie l'histoire chaque soir pour le Leaving Cert.

For the non francophiles that roughly translates as 'When i get home from school, i eat my dinner, then, I study for three hours. I don't have the time for watching the news on TV, therefore I don't know anything about Libya, It's more important that I study history for my LC. You still wouldn't have to give an opinion on Libya or politics, but you would be showing your ability to speak French while at the same time getting the message across that you don't want to talk about politics.

I would also ask like the previous posters.. what kind of grades have you been getting up until now? If you are normally a straight A student then targetting 560 is realistic. But if you don't get above a C normally it may be the case that you are just not capable of getting those kind of grades.