Answering short answer questions for HSC science subjects (1 Viewer)

[animerocker]

Hello
I was curious about different methods of answering of short answer responses.
I have a friend who said you can answer questions with dot points and still receive full marks, is this true?
Because I was always told to answer questions in full sentences. Especially for 5-7 mark questions where we have to answer in a structure similar to an essay with topic sentences and everything.
If so what is the point of having the verbs such as justify, discuss, contrast and compare etc.
Thank you

 

[someth1ng]

You can answer in any form and it's possible to get full marks but it's prolly best to use full sentences with equations and diagrams where necessary.

 

[freeeeee]

^ the man is spot on, full sentences that can be dotpoint form (note: only for Physics and Chemistry is what my Head Teacher said), diagrams to explain complex concepts in pencil
tables can be extremely useful for discuss questions

 

[OzKo]

Hello
I was curious about different methods of answering of short answer responses.
I have a friend who said you can answer questions with dot points and still receive full marks, is this true?
Because I was always told to answer questions in full sentences. Especially for 5-7 mark questions where we have to answer in a structure similar to an essay with topic sentences and everything.
If so what is the point of having the verbs such as justify, discuss, contrast and compare etc.
Thank you

It's all within reason.

Those verbs tell you what to do and more often than not, dot points won't suffice in such cases.

 

[michelle483]

You use the dot points to present what information you want to present, but in the end, you still have to do what the verbs tell you to, so just write a couple of sentences to justify, compare, evaluate, etc. at the end (at the beginning too depending on the question and whether you feel you need to or not)

 

[thekooldude]

So if we were to answer questions by doing a table. would the table have to be in pencil, including the writing in the table?

 

[OzKo]

So if we were to answer questions by doing a table. would the table have to be in pencil, including the writing in the table?

If you're going to do a table, I would still recommend using a pen. The reason being that the papers are scanned and pencil marks don't tend to show up well.

 

[Rawf]

I write out my answers in full sentences but I put like a bullet point or numbers next to my answers so the marker can distinguish my different points (I also jump to the next line)
Eg: explain two reasons why ___
Ans:
1) a reason why ____ occurs is by ___
2) likewise, ____ also leads to ____
Or for the discuss questions you can write advantage - and disadvantage - on the margin of your answers.
It makes it easier for the marker to give you marks.
And yes ive also heard in chemistry/other sciences you can draw tables in your answers.. like if you have to compare things, contrast etc