A Question on Biology

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Looking at the marking schemes, the answers are very short for almost every question. I'm used to giving fairly long answers for Biology... would we be able to put down such brief answers and expect full marks?

By brief I mean 2 or 3 lines at the very most, unless it asks you to explain something in detail.

sugarnutmuffin

no you must give long answers ...in the marking schemes on examinations.ie they only give the key words but u must give proper detailed answers

JamesJB

Amber Bitter Neck wrote: »

Looking at the marking schemes, the answers are very short for almost every question. I'm used to giving fairly long answers for Biology... would we be able to put down such brief answers and expect full marks?

By brief I mean 2 or 3 lines at the very most, unless it asks you to explain something in detail.

According to my teacher, your best bet is as follows:

- brief points first time, very concise and succinct
- Leave tons of room, like as much as you can, then do another question
- then just come back at the end and add in waffle below your key points. not 'waffle' but rather factoids, info, anything you like, just distinguish it from your inital points.

What will happen is, usually the points suffice. They are clear and easy to correct = happy examiner. You get marks. If it isn't enough, they dip into your waffle and pull out the points you need. 3 good points is enough for 'note' type questions, according to my teacher. Works for our class!

sugarnutmuffin

hey do you know how i can ask question son this and look at some other leaving cert questions asked by other people...im new on this lol i know great timing

EvilLlamaThingy

sugarnutmuffin wrote: »

no you must give long answers ...in the marking schemes on examinations.ie they only give the key words but u must give proper detailed answers

I'm not sure about this one tbh. In biology tests I've had throughout the year, I gave plenty of one word answers and I've always gotten full marks where appropriate. In contrast, the girl who sits beside me generally writes long full sentences, and we get similar results most of the time.

So I'm more inclined to say it's not a necessity.. though you have so much time during the biology exam I'd advise you to write long answers anyway so you're not finished within an hour and a half..

Captain-America

Put in as much as you need. Not keywords, sentences. But don't write an essay on it. Paragraph at most, when they ask you for a longer answer.

They're asking you what you know. Just be as precise as possible. The examiner isn't going to have time to read things he or she doesn't need
to.

EDIT: Just to back myself up. From the EdCo papers "The marks allocated do not depend on the length of an answer. In fact the marks are allocated for correctly answering exactly and precisely what is asked."

lucybrown

the answers dont have to be long they can just be one word or one sentence. ive never given long answers and havent had a problem. most answers for biology ive come accross are short i really dunno what your talking about

sarahisdeadly

Well I gave answers in short point form for my mocks and got an a1.
It's science, not English.

The only thing I wrote lengthy answers on were the notes, and even then i got all the marks in the first paragraph.

he man rugger

Look at the marking scheme, if its a section C question then they'll obviously expect a few points. They don't have to be waffle though, get the facts down and you'll be ok. If the question says "describe", often a diagram and brief explanation will suffice.

curlypops

well my teacher said
"look at the length of space left for you to answer the question and just fill it with your key points"

so just fill in the lines left and you'll be grand ..

NR

According to Mona Murray in the Institute of Education, you can get an A1 in Biology without writing a single coherent sentence.