Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

If you hand up a question in the Leaving Cert English paper thats....

Options
  • 25-03-2010 6:12pm
    #1
    user12
    Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭


    If you hand up a question in the Leaving Cert English paper thats learned of and copied straight from notes will you still get all the marks for it even if they know its from a book?
    Honours english


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    jumpguy
    Registered Users Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    Probably not, but it's very unlikely you'll be able to do this at honours English level anyway. The questions will be phrased in such a way the spouting out information rote learned in a book will probably be irrelevant.


  • Options
    #3
    ch252
    Closed Accounts Posts: 668 ✭✭✭ch252


    well if its good then I can't see why not? I do agree with the statement that you would be very lucky to get a question to suit you answer though so its not a great idea, just do out a few sample answers and take notes from each of them.
    What I do is learn off an introduction and have a good enough grasp of the text(s) to write the rest of an answer.


  • Options
    #4
    theowen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,744 ✭✭✭theowen


    darragh-k wrote: »
    well if its good then I can't see why not? I do agree with the statement that you would be very lucky to get a question to suit you answer though so its not a great idea, just do out a few sample answers and take notes from each of them.
    What I do is learn off an introduction and have a good enough grasp of the text(s) to write the rest of an answer.
    You just have to learn how to adapt them. Usually you just have to change the intro and the leader sentences!


  • Options
    #5
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    How many times can the same question be asked?:rolleyes:

    The most important thing to do in your English exam is: answer the question

    The examiner doesn't care if the material looks familiar as long as you answer the question. They may be a bit more picky on language if it looks familiar or of they've read the same answer 100 times.

    For this reason, you're better off not learning off a full essay as this makes it very difficult for students to answer the question as they are concentrating too much on regurgitating word-for-word what they learned off. Learn off the key points, phrases and/or quotations in each paragraph instead.


  • Options
    #6
    furbey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭furbey


    If they know its learnt off they'll dock you half marks
    English is about being able to interpret the question properly and answering with an original style.
    They DO NOT want stuff you got out of a book because thats what most people do and they get half marks

    Think about it imagine reading 20 almost identical essays in one day
    All the books write a broad essay so it can be adapted not learnt word for word (plus that makes it too easy for examinaers to identify learnt off stuff)

    Freestyle - its the only way to do it


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    Lawliet
    Registered Users Posts: 2,761 ✭✭✭Lawliet


    furbey wrote: »
    If they know its learnt off they'll dock you half marks
    Never heard that one before. Surely, learnt off or not, if it answers the question well they wouldn't punish you for it


  • Options
    #8
    Evan93
    Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭Evan93


    furbey wrote: »
    If they know its learnt off they'll dock you half marks
    English is about being able to interpret the question properly and answering with an original style.


    I don't think this is true. You can write whatever you want. If it is learned word for word but suits the question, you will get full marks. Who's to say that the student did not make it up on the day? Even though it is most likely learned off.

    I highly doubt half marks are docked if it is in superb English, completely relevant and definately full marks, the examiner cannot deduct because he/she has a hunch that it is learned off.


  • Options
    #9
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,229 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    You will have a problem if someone else in the class learns off the same answer as then the examiner will have to put in a report of copying and then the real fun starts.

    Just take the information and quotes you know and answer the question. Is there really a cohort of LC students nowadays that can't do something as basic as that?


  • Options
    #10
    Seloth
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭Seloth


    Ya my teacher who is also an examiner was giving out about this today stating how an examiner will give lower marks if he or she is correcting 30-40 papers with the exact same awsner.


  • Options
    #11
    Zephyr91
    Registered Users Posts: 256 ✭✭Zephyr91


    I can totally understand someone learning off an Irish essay off by heart for the leaving, because lets face it...but English? Really?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    theowen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,744 ✭✭✭theowen


    spurious wrote: »
    You will have a problem if someone else in the class learns off the same answer as then the examiner will have to put in a report of copying and then the real fun starts.

    Just take the information and quotes you know and answer the question. Is there really a cohort of LC students nowadays that can't do something as basic as that?
    It's difficult to attain an A with that strategy though!


  • Options
    #13
    AgileMyth
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,761 ✭✭✭AgileMyth


    theowen wrote: »
    It's difficult to attain an A with that strategy though!
    Not really, that was more or less my strategy. A1 in higher level two years ago.


  • Options
    #14
    randylonghorn
    Registered Users Posts: 29,509 ✭✭✭✭randylonghorn


    theowen wrote: »
    It's difficult to attain an A with that strategy though!
    Tbh, Owen, I'd say it's harder to get an A the other way, unless you're lucky enough to get a lazy or half-asleep examiner ... and even at that there's a chance they will be picked up by the supervising examiner.

    And that's coming from someone who walked an A in English without ever rote-learning anything except quotes, did English as a degree subject and subsequently went on to correct LC Hons English.


  • Options
    #15
    MavisDavis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,263 ✭✭✭MavisDavis


    user12 wrote: »
    If you hand up a question in the Leaving Cert English paper thats learned of and copied straight from notes will you still get all the marks for it even if they know its from a book?
    Honours english

    Absolutely not. If you copy an answer from a textbook or revision book, then that is plagiarism and you will have marks taken from you. Last year I was told that examiners have been advised to severely crack down on plagiarism - they want your work, not something written in a book.

    I mean copy word-for-word or almost completely. Feel free to take points and phrases from any answer to build your own. Just don't learn off other people's stuff.


  • Options
    #16
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    furbey wrote: »
    If they know its learnt off they'll dock you half marks

    This is a pile of sh*te, pardon my English!

    Examiners are instructed to treat each essay in its own right, so as long as you answer the question, you'll get the marks (anyone seeing a pattern here.....anyone......?).


  • Options
    #17
    theowen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,744 ✭✭✭theowen


    randylonghorn wrote: »
    Tbh, Owen, I'd say it's harder to get an A the other way, unless you're lucky enough to get a lazy or half-asleep examiner ... and even at that there's a chance they will be picked up by the supervising examiner.

    And that's coming from someone who walked an A in English without ever rote-learning anything except quotes, did English as a degree subject and subsequently went on to correct LC Hons English.
    While I can get an A in paper 1, it just isn't gonna happen in paper 2. Soo I'm going to have to learn off essays for king lear and comparative if I want an A:rolleyes:


  • Options
    #18
    UnionOfV
    Closed Accounts Posts: 117 ✭✭UnionOfV


    I can speak from experience and say that this won't work. I never bothered learning off essays (far harder than simply learning what you're meant to) but all my answers were always vague, as in they approached the text(s) correctly but didn't answer the question directly enough. So say I got a question on Love As A Redemptive Force In King Lear, I wrote about how love was shown in the play but didn't touch on the redemptive bit.

    Now they were all A-ish essays, but lo and behold I get a C in the mocks accompanied with a note from the examiner that basically said ANSWER THE QUESTION!!! So all things considered it's impossible to simply learn an essay and recite it in exam, even if it sort of addresses the question - it has to follow it word for word.


Advertisement