History Essays

nipps

hi, am in 5th year, we have only had to write one essay so far, and my teacher says write as much as you need to get all the information in it. just wondering roughly how long should the essays be? thanks

OxfordComma

nipps wrote: »

hi, am in 5th year, we have only had to write one essay so far, and my teacher says write as much as you need to get all the information in it. just wondering roughly how long should the essays be? thanks

It all depends on the size of your writing, but the general consensus seems to be that you should write between 4 and 5 A4 pages for each essay.

spurious

Be more concerned with addressing the title of the essay than its length.

KatCookie

and bearing in mind how long you have to do the essay in the real exam..

theowen

KatCookie wrote: »

and bearing in mind how long you have to do the essay in the real exam..

Would depend on what kind of grade your looking for. For an A, you'll need 5 pages, with 10-12 paragraphs.

Junior D

theowen wrote: »

Would depend on what kind of grade your looking for. For an A, you'll need 5 pages, with 10-12 paragraphs.

How is that possible though?? Im in 6th year now and in our practice exams the max i can get written is 4pages in 35-40 minutes. and thats supposed to be good. i know its not about length but with facts still in it thats good

asdasd

Would depend on what kind of grade your looking for. For an A, you'll need 5 pages, with 10-12 paragraphs.

So do the examiners read the content, or just measure the length?

theowen

Junior D wrote: »

How is that possible though?? Im in 6th year now and in our practice exams the max i can get written is 4pages in 35-40 minutes. and thats supposed to be good. i know its not about length but with facts still in it thats good

I usually do 5-6 but my hand moves at lightening speed so, learn to write faster?

asdasd wrote: »

So do the examiners read the content, or just measure the length?

Oh they don't according to the length, no no, it's just you'll usually get 5-6 marks per paragraph with a few 7-8s so to get the 60 out of 60 you'll need between 9-12 paragraphs DEPENDING on the content. To get all the info down it should come to around 5 pages.

eireshamrock

Hi Owen

If you want and A then you need to train yourself to write four pages (approx 250 words per page) in 37.5 mins. Plan your essays before wrting them and aim for eight paragraphs per essay ie 2 paragraphs per A4 page. Its very difficult when you begin in 5th year (I know from experience) but by the time you sit the pre exams in 6th year you should be getting the hang of it. You need to write one history essay per week. If your teacher doesnt set essays for you then get past exam papers and write them yourself but HAND THE UP TO BE CORRECTED. Its the best way to improve.Best of luck.

eireshamrock

asdasd wrote: »

So do the examiners read the content, or just measure the length?

The examiners will mark out the paragraphs and your marks according to the information in your essay. No need to be overly worried about paragraphing aslong as you can write a coherent essay.

rrbm

Ok, i got an A1 in the Leaving and A's all the way through leaving cert with this formula. Writing 6 paragraphs of about 3/4 of a page each(some a bit less, some a bit more) each dealing with a different theme on the topic. This comes to about 4-5 pages. Thats a good length.

You get 120 marks for each essay question, and you get 20 marks for a perfect paragraph of which you need 5 and another 20 marks for the over all impression you make on the examiner. Thats your 120 marks. I just always wrote a 6th paragraph to cover myself on maybe a weaker paragraph since all paragraphs written add to your mark

square leg

May I make a few observations as a teacher of leaving cert history (for 20 years). Some have been made by earlier posters.
Essay is marked out of 100 - 60 for content (the cumulative mark) and 40 for overall evaluation
Each paragraph is marked out of 12 - in theory a maximum of 5 (5x12 = 60) - but all paragraphs are given marks.
They are totalled up to a maximum of 60 - so you could write 10 paragraphs and get 6 marks for each paragraph and still get full content marks - a remarkably student friendly system – hence the name the cumulative mark.
Start by making a short plan of the topics / events / themes that you are going to cover in the essay – maybe a spider diagram.
Then get into the habit of addressing the question in your introduction - this will show the examiner you are answering the question and it will make sure that you keep the question in mind as you make your points.
Paragraphs should deal with one topic and should be about 10 sentences in length. 8 paragraphs is a good guide.
On the thorny issue of length - the key is what you can write in about 35 minutes - handing up long essays that you cannot repeat in the LC exam is frankly pointless 3 1/2 to 4 A4 pages are perfect - but if you can write more fine, less would also be fine as one poster pointed out it’s not about length but how you answer the question.
It is very good practice to study a topic and take a LC question and see if you can write a good answer in 35 – 40 minutes.
Best of Luck

theowen

rrbm wrote: »

Ok, i got an A1 in the Leaving and A's all the way through leaving cert with this formula. Writing 6 paragraphs of about 3/4 of a page each(some a bit less, some a bit more) each dealing with a different theme on the topic. This comes to about 4-5 pages. Thats a good length.

You get 120 marks for each essay question, and you get 20 marks for a perfect paragraph of which you need 5 and another 20 marks for the over all impression you make on the examiner. Thats your 120 marks. I just always wrote a 6th paragraph to cover myself on maybe a weaker paragraph since all paragraphs written add to your mark

I think your talking about the old LC syllabus:rolleyes:

square leg

The old course lc essays were marked out of 80 at higher level

Scrambled egg

As much as you can get in in 35 minutes.

theowen

square leg wrote: »

The old course lc essays were marked out of 80 at higher level

Where's he getting this 120 marks from then

brianthebard

quite possibly out of his posterior...

GLUEY

I usually write about 7 paragraphs, 4 and a half, to 5 pages.

Any tips on learning an essay? I can never remember what goes into what paragraph...

square leg

Difficult one - Trial and error unfortunately is the simple answer to your post.
Try and get events in the right order. Don't worry too much about the dates. Remember you cant write everything!!!
Most textbooks have paragraph headings that correspond to the paragraphs that you need in your essay.
If you are using the book it is good practice to try and write in your own words and definitely write up notes in your own words
There is too much emphasis today on learning essays but the exam is designed to be a little unpredictable in the nature of the essays that are asked, the intention is to get students to apply the knowledge that they have learned rather than regurgtating essays that have been learned by heart.
You would expect me to say this but your teacher is your best help in this regard - good marks and you probably have got the content right!!!
By the way can you write 5 pages in 35-40 minutes?

Starstrukk

Im so dead for history im in sixth year and i can hardly write two pages in the time...DYING

TheSpecialOne

Paragraphs for each point and at end of each paragraph ALWAYS refer back to the title just to link it al toghther. Get four Pages of quality info and ye will be grand....for those worrying about lenght the booklets used in the leaving have margins on both sides so its much tighther than your normal A4 page so dont be freaking out.If i can find my essays from last year ill put them up here or can e-mail to people of if they wish.

theowen

Starstrukk wrote: »

Im so dead for history im in sixth year and i can hardly write two pages in the time...DYING

Is your writing really small?

Johnny Giles

Forget about pages...try words, quantity.

You may fit 10 words to a line, someone else might fit 6 or even 4!

spurious

PLEASE do not forget to address the exact question asked. It's by far the most important thing to keep in mind. Pages of off-topic lovely paragraphs will get you no marks, just a sore hand.

Anecdotally, the word is that the SEC is fed up of learned off essays, so be careful twists are not put in questions.

From the most recent Examiner's Report available:
"many candidates tended to give detailed accounts of events, with little or no effort to respond to the particular focus of the questions as set."
"Some candidates ignored the date parameters of the question or of the Topic"
"Even those who wrote extensively tended to treat of Parnell’s career in general rather than focussing on his strengths and weaknesses as a leader, as the question had asked."
"Question 3 was reasonably well answered though many candidates tended to write about the political and diplomatic aspects of the war, which was not what the question was asking"
"Some candidates ignored the date parameters of the question or of the Topic"
"Some candidates offered historical content which was irrelevant to the set question"
"Candidates should read each question carefully and answer it as it is set"
"Candidates and teachers should adopt strategies to avoid the various shortcomings alluded to in the Conclusions"

If a problem has that many mentions in a Chief Examiner's Report, there will be action taken to deal with it.

ateam

Key thing is to get 60 out of 60 in the CM part of the question - that requires 4 pages with 8 to 10 paragraphs, about a half a page long - each paragraph dealing with a particular theme. Make sure to stay relevant to the question asked and you should get an A. History is fairly simple to get good marks, the hard part is learning off the material.


Despite an examiners frustration reading the same essays that have been clearly learned off, they have to mark the essay on it's individual merits and as such, the essays that are learned off will get high marks. Make sure to have an authentic conclusion.

brianthebard

They won't get high marks if the learned off essay does not directly address the question as spurious said. I can't believe that needs to be clarified.

ateam

brianthebard wrote: »

They won't get high marks if the learned off essay does not directly address the question as spurious said. I can't believe that needs to be clarified.

Of course, but fundamental to the history course is learning off essays. Most students can cleverly link their learned off essay with the title - it's not rocket science. Change a few sentences here and there - this site is about giving practical advice, not P.C. department of education approved advice.

KatCookie

ateam wrote: »

Of course, but fundamental to the history course is learning off essays. Most students can cleverly link their learned off essay with the title - it's not rocket science. Change a few sentences here and there - this site is about giving practical advice, not P.C. department of education approved advice.

Learning off essays is a bad idea, you cant guarantee that certain things will appear. But, ideally, you would have done similar essays for homework.. so it almost could be a case of changing sentences to fit the title more accurately, not that you could remember every single sentence anyways.. I think remembering mind maps or spider diagrams is a much better option tbh