Science Coursework A

CathalRyano

i have so many questions. Our teacher has been very vague and hasn't told us much about our lab books (the Coursework A write-up books) which we've been writing since 1st year. I've counted my experiments and I have about 30 out of the 52 done and they're not particuarly done well and diagrams still have to be drawn. I just have so many questions in regards to how it is marked, who marks it and how harshly they mark it.

First of all, who marks it or does anyone mark it? We've written into our Coursework B books that we've done the experiments, does the department of education look at our lab book to make sure we've done them well and mark all of them, or does our teacher? How well do they mark them? Do they just flick through to see that you've written them, or do they actually look through each experiment to see if it's right? Or even do they even do any looking at your experiments? How harsh is the marking? Do they just give the marks easily away or do you actually have to have it done well? Also does handwriting and presentation matter? Both of these are poor for me. My book is basically falling apart.

Please help, I really don't know about this.

DublinArnie

CathalRyano wrote: »

i have so many questions. Our teacher has been very vague and hasn't told us much about our lab books (the Coursework A write-up books) which we've been writing since 1st year. I've counted my experiments and I have about 30 out of the 52 done and they're not particuarly done well and diagrams still have to be drawn. I just have so many questions in regards to how it is marked, who marks it and how harshly they mark it.

First of all, who marks it or does anyone mark it? We've written into our Coursework B books that we've done the experiments, does the department of education look at our lab book to make sure we've done them well and mark all of them, or does our teacher? How well do they mark them? Do they just flick through to see that you've written them, or do they actually look through each experiment to see if it's right? Or even do they even do any looking at your experiments? How harsh is the marking? Do they just give the marks easily away or do you actually have to have it done well? Also does handwriting and presentation matter? Both of these are poor for me. My book is basically falling apart.

Please help, I really don't know about this.

I'm in third year, only a few weeks away from Junior Cert, and my teacher HASN'T EVEN MENTIONED SCIENCE COURSEBOOK A, i'm gonna ask him tomorrow, but really, everyone started in 1st and 2nd year .. and we didn't even get a breeze about it. I think it's marked like all projects, an examiner looks at them with a marking scheme, and then follows it and gives marks where possible.

bluejay14

Not all of the books are marked, only a small percentage of them are actually checked. Schools are picked at random and then some of the booklets from that school are checked and graded.

Handwriting and presentation shouldn't be a problem as long as all the facts are there and it's legible.

The chances of you booklet being checked are slim, amongst the thousands of other candidates. Someone's has to be checked though so better be safe than sorry and get it done just in case.

CathalRyano

bluejaymraz wrote: »

Not all of the books are marked, only a small percentage of them are actually checked. Schools are picked at random and then some of the booklets from that school are checked and graded.

Handwriting and presentation shouldn't be a problem as long as all the facts are there and it's legible.

The chances of you booklet being checked are slim, amongst the thousands of other candidates. Someone's has to be checked though so better be safe than sorry and get it done just in case.

Thanks very much for your response. So there is only a slim chance that the department themselves will actually check the book. By any chance, do you know what the percentage of schools they check is?

Also, I understand that you wouldn't know what my teacher is going to do, but do they (or are they supposed to) actually mark them? Would they be just flicking through it and saying "Okay he's probably got all of them done" or would they check that each one is done? If all my experiments are done, albeit maybe not at a great standard, is that just grand, and I get all the marks?

Thanks, I'm a bit clueless towards the whole thing and should probably ask my teacher again tommorow.

bluejay14

CathalRyano wrote: »

Thanks very much for your response. So there is only a slim chance that the department themselves will actually check the book. By any chance, do you know what the percentage of schools they check is?

Also, I understand that you wouldn't know what my teacher is going to do, but do they (or are they supposed to) actually mark them? Would they be just flicking through it and saying "Okay he's probably got all of them done" or would they check that each one is done? If all my experiments are done, albeit maybe not at a great standard, is that just grand, and I get all the marks?

Thanks, I'm a bit clueless towards the whole thing and should probably ask my teacher again tommorow.

Just another thing I noticed about your first post. You said you only had 30/52 experiments done but only 30 of them are mandatory. If you check the department website you should find them easy enough, or a quick google should do the trick

I haven't a clue what amount are actually checked but I can't imagine it to be very high, it probably only happens if there's some kind of suspicion.

The marking probably varies greatly from teacher to teacher. I can't imagine a teacher reading ~900 experiments religiously to find out every little mistake. I'm sure they've been keeping am eye on your work the whole time and would have a fair idea of your standard of work over the 3 years. The majority of people would more than likely get the 10% I'd imagine. At the end of the day though it does depend on your teacher, although there's really no reason not to get the marks.

CathalRyano

bluejaymraz wrote: »

Just another thing I noticed about your first post. You said you only had 30/52 experiments done but only 30 of them are mandatory. If you check the department website you should find them easy enough, or a quick google should do the trick

I haven't a clue what amount are actually checked but I can't imagine it to be very high, it probably only happens if there's some kind of suspicion.

The marking probably varies greatly from teacher to teacher. I can't imagine a teacher reading ~900 experiments religiously to find out every little mistake. I'm sure they've been keeping am eye on your work the whole time and would have a fair idea of your standard of work over the 3 years. The majority of people would more than likely get the 10% I'd imagine. At the end of the day though it does depend on your teacher, although there's really no reason not to get the marks.

Yeah, there's 30 mandatory ones but many of them have 2 parts that are basically another experiment. Thanks a million for your help.

onlinenerd

If you have done coursework B you have to tick 10 experiments on Physics,Chemistry and Biology and this will count as your 10 percent as teachers are meant to make sure a student has done Coursework A if an examiner has no checked.