English - marking is terrible! (1 Viewer)

[Azi]

At my School (which is public), our English faculty is terrible at marking exams or essays. English is a subjective.. subject, that is what we learn, yet since the answers are subjective, not just 'yes' or =4, if seems that marking is really quite random, and based on the english teacher's personal ideas.

Yes, this is partly a rant because I recently got a terrible exam mark in Advanced (even though i got one of the top marks in Extension english), but I have also seen when I get the advantage.

eg. What feature of the text do you see foremostly?

I answer x.
my friend, y.

apparently X is right, but if y is what my friend did 'see foremostly' how are they to know that they should be seeing something different.

 

[gibbo153]

that is quite poor marking on your teachers' part.
i'm at a selective school and our english faculty marks on the basis that they should, that 'you can make any point you like, as long as you base it appropriately from the text'

your teachers are douchebags if they mark any other way.

 

[Azi]

Yeah, once I didn't explain why I chose an answer and I wasn't penalised, and a few of the other students chose a different answer and didn't back it up either, but didn't get the mark, because my choice was 'the accepted or typical answer.' It's bullshit, and it even contradicts what they teach us about one of the basis parts of english - that it is subjective.

I heard some school have a marking program where two or more teachers mark EVERY test paper, and an average is determined, which seams so much more fair, and would slightly eradicate bias and personal opionion. If the marks from teachers differered greatly, then this only serves to highlight the issue.

That kind of program would have been great for my recent exams! I was penalised almost 1/3 of marks in the creative writing section (which I thought was my strongest ability) for 'short sentencing' in the story end, plus only a few spelling mistakes.

When I brought this to the attention of my (terribly hopeless and absent minded) teacher, after talking about it with a friend in the class who read it and compared it to hers which recieved a great mark, my teacher asked whether I had used technical language etc. I had.

My friend remarked that it was definately not that, she read mine and said she used alot less.

Then my mindless teacher says "well I think you should take that up with.. oh I'm not sure, I think blah blah did that section" *waffle waffle waffle*

Urgh! This is insanity with chalkboards and uniforms!!

 

[Mu5hi]

your eng department sucks, they force people to do std eng. There like "advance english is for people wanting to be english teachers". Also marking is baised and fucked.

 

[Azi]

your eng department sucks, they force people to do std eng. There like "advance english is for people wanting to be english teachers". Also marking is baised and fucked.

I'm not the only one. by 'your' I'm guessing you meant 'yeah'.

 

[iSplicer]

Bad luck mate. Just keep trying, never give up, and pray that you don't get such fucked up teachers for the HSC

 

[denko1992]

Sounds like you go to sefton. The English department here is *shudders*