How Long Should My Junior Cert English Answers Be?

padman1234

Hi everyone, I'm doing my Junior Cert this year and was just wondering how long my English answers should be?
I'm doing higher level by the way.

My teacher always say to aim for half a page for 10 marks, three quarters for 15, one and a half for 30 etc etc. But then again you could just waffle on for a page and a half and still do
bad.

I remember reading somewhere that you should explain one point and back it up for every 5 marks or so. It was something like that.
Does anyone know how many points per mark you should write?
Thanks

DublinArnie

You should do ONE paragraph for every five marks. If it's 50 marks, do 10 paragraphs. The opening and conclusion count as paragraphs, but make sure to conclude your points in conclusion and present your answer in opening.

Each paragraph, you should do a point, explanation (and quote if you can) and relate to question.

spurious

DublinArnie wrote: »

Each paragraph, you should do a point, explanation (and quote if you can) and relate to question.

This.
You might be surprised how many candidates (not just in English exams) do not answer the question they are asked.

Bazinga_N

padman1234 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm doing my Junior Cert this year and was just wondering how long my English answers should be?
I'm doing higher level by the way.

My teacher always say to aim for half a page for 10 marks, three quarters for 15, one and a half for 30 etc etc. But then again you could just waffle on for a page and a half and still do
bad.

I remember reading somewhere that you should explain one point and back it up for every 5 marks or so. It was something like that.
Does anyone know how many points per mark you should write?
Thanks

Length really isn't the most important thing. Quality is far more important in an exam. As long as you write enough to show off you're ability and skills you'll do fine.

I remember in my JC I wrote about a page and a half for the reading comprehension, four pages for the personal essay (it might have been 5 actually), one page for the functional writing and a page and half for the media studies. For my Paper 2 I'm pretty sure my three unseen questions weren't much longer than a page each. For my studied poetry and drama I did about two pages and my novel I did three pages (I did a full 30mark question rather than two 15 marks or a 10/20marks). I got an A at HL.

My friend wrote nearly double what I did in all the sections (apart from the personal essay) and she only got a C grade. It really does come down to quality over length. As long as you write enough, and write well, you'll do fine.

padman1234

Thanks everyone for helping me out
It's helped me out and now I know what my English answers should look like!