Marking Schemes

leavingcert.

Right, well basically when we're doing exam papers in class for subjects like biology and chemistry, my teacher claims that if the answer you give isn't in the marking scheme, then answer is WRONG. However, I just don't see how this is the case. Even sometimes the answer taken from the book is not in the marking scheme. Can anyone advise me on this please? It's freaking me out about the exam and i'm much less confident now.

spurious

The book is not the syllabus, so don't rely on anything text books say.

In some subjects, yes, unless they get back what was stated as the required answer in the marking scheme (or unless a particular word is included) the marks will not be given.

'In the old days', it used to be good enough that a candidate demonstrated they knew the answer/understood the concept by means of an example or similar, but then some 'educational' businesses pioneered the notion of teaching to pass the exam, rather than teaching the subject, which is where the rot set in. This resulted in candidates learning off answers, so the marking schemes had to become much more specific.

MathsManiac

The situation is a lot more subtle than your teacher has said (if indeed that's exactly what (s)he said).

Have a look at what it says in the introduction to the Biology marking scheme: http://www.examinations.ie/archive/markingschemes/2011/LC025ALP000EV.pdf