JC ENGLISH -Predictions?!

ASISEEIT

Im looking for advice on what areas would you concentrate on for Exam? Honours. Hard question I know!

Icsics

Have a look at the examiners report some interesting bits in that. At our cluster we were told that the structure of the exam will change every year & so impossible to predict! But who knows..!!!

Lindy17

Pauline Kelly has only came out with a book with Gill Education, exam success is in the title. I am dipping it into a lot for exam style questions and find it better than some of the sample papers from edco and educate.ie

acequion

Icsics wrote: »

Have a look at the examiners report some interesting bits in that. At our cluster we were told that the structure of the exam will change every year & so impossible to predict! But who knows..!!!

Where would any of us get time to go wading through the examiners report,especially us Eng teachers who are swamped with work both junior and senior!

So out of curiosity is there any particular interesting bit that you could paraphrase for us in a nutshell? Thanks Icsics.

evolving_doors

acequion wrote: »

Where would any of us get time to go wading through the examiners report,especially us Eng teachers who are swamped with work both junior and senior!

So out of curiosity is there any particular interesting bit that you could paraphrase for us in a nutshell? Thanks Icsics.

Examiners reports are crucial for any subject if you want some insight as to what the chief examiner wants markers to focus on. Similarly the common errors which markers come across in a lot of schools, neglect to read them at your peril. I've known teachers to consistently focus on the wrong aspects and teach things incongruous with the syllabus, this could have been cleared up by looking at any of the reports in the last 15 years.
Although if you mark the exams yourself you'll probably end up recognising and agreeing with everything in the report.

If you want to avoid all the stats, just skip to
Conclusion (Pg. 19)
Recommendations for teachers and students (Pg. 20)
https://www.examinations.ie/misc-doc/BI-EN-51591993.pdf

History Queen

evolving_doors wrote: »

Examiners reports are crucial for any subject if you want some insight as to what the chief examiner wants markers to focus on. Similarly the common errors which markers come across in a lot of schools, neglect to read them at your peril. I've known teachers to consistently focus on the wrong aspects and teach things incongruous with the syllabus, this could have been cleared up by looking at any of the reports in the last 15 years.
Although if you mark the exams yourself you'll probably end up recognising and agreeing with everything in the report.

If you want to avoid all the stats, just skip to
Conclusion (Pg. 19)
Recommendations for teachers and students (Pg. 20)
https://www.examinations.ie/misc-doc/BI-EN-51591993.pdf

As someone who corrected the exam last year I have to say the examiners report doesn't accurately reflect mine and at least 4 other examiners experiences. I disagree with the notion that the issues in the poetry section were down to anything except poor question phrasing and layout of the paper.

Similarly it is completely disingenuous to suggest timing wasn't an issue just because many students completed the last section... from what I can see this was because they used their heads and tried in the dying minutes to fill out easier sections/parts that were quicker to complete.

I could go on but to be honest I'm so disgusted with this watered down course and exam as well as the SEC that this could descend in to a rant very quickly.

Basically take the chief examiners report as what it is... the SEC account and analysis of the SEC's perception of the strengths/weaknesses of the SEC set state exam...

acequion

evolving_doors wrote: »

Examiners reports are crucial for any subject if you want some insight as to what the chief examiner wants markers to focus on. Similarly the common errors which markers come across in a lot of schools, neglect to read them at your peril. I've known teachers to consistently focus on the wrong aspects and teach things incongruous with the syllabus, this could have been cleared up by looking at any of the reports in the last 15 years.
Although if you mark the exams yourself you'll probably end up recognising and agreeing with everything in the report.

If you want to avoid all the stats, just skip to
Conclusion (Pg. 19)
Recommendations for teachers and students (Pg. 20)
https://www.examinations.ie/misc-doc/BI-EN-51591993.pdf

With respect, evolving_doors, I find this post a bit pompous and unlike what you usually post.

"Neglect to read them at your peril!" I will hold my hand up this minute and say I've probably never read them. Nor would have of my more grounded collegues. There will always be somebody in the subject dept who's done the marking and who will pass on the crucial do's and don'ts. And very often the most important advice is summed up over a cuppa.

Like I say, no way can we be expected to wade through every report and with child protection,school SE,this and that new initiative we could literally spend our time these days reading reports. More important and more interesting things to be doing in the job than that!

evolving_doors

Well that's my take on the old course anyway (dunno how accurate the new course examiners reports are). I still think yould be nuts not to read the recommendations and common errors. Even if it's just on sentence that you can pass on to students to improve their grade or exam technique. Of any department publications that would be top of my list.