Biology Marking Scheme

BrownBear11

So about the marking scheme for Biol,

Can a science subject be marked against the bell curve could anyone tell me? I've been told about the sciences that they're marked versus the marking scheme only and not the usual LC bell curve, true? Seems to make sense cos' with a science surely the answers are either right or wrong, meaning the exams can't be marked up or down the way they are in the humanities (English being a prime example)

Say for example they asked features of red blood cells versus normal body cells, and, for argument's sake every candidate said the absence of a nucleus upon maturation, red in colour, biconcave in shape and containing high levels of iron then they all would get full marks as that's the right answer, no? So if hypothetically, that were to happen across all questions then surely everyone would get the A1? Like if an answer is either right or wrong opinion doesn't become a factor the way it would in an English or History exam?

Pretty much what I'm asking is does the Bell Curve apply to sciences in LC ?

Anyone who can help, any info would be much appreciated

BrownBear11

Vito Corleone wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the bell curve applies. A lot of people don't like Biology and many people wouldn't even know the question you asked. That hypothetical situation would never happen. I guess if by some sort of miracle it did happen they mightn't apply the bell curve, but it's basically impossible.

I know yeah but it was just to get my point across Like if the same were to happen in History with everyone writing A1 standard essays not everyone would get an A1 cos of the Bell Curve (apparently ). But with Biol it seems fairly black or white?

leaveiton

What happens with the bell curve is that it's something that is naturally observed - when you have any large set of data, you will have most cases falling somewhere in the middle, with fewer at each end. This makes sense when you think about it - most people doing biology will get around a C, with slightly smaller numbers getting Ds and Bs, and then even fewer getting A1s or failing. You're never going to get a case where every single person is getting an A1. (You'll be doing this in maths if you haven't already, it's been a while since I did it so my explanation isn't great :P)

The Leaving Cert is marked so that this bell curve will still occur. If the results are too skewed towards people getting lower grades, the marking scheme will be adjusted so that more people do well, as it would be unfair for one year's exam to be significantly harder than another's. Likewise if there were too many getting higher grades it wouldn't be fair for that exam to have been easier than another one. So it is marked against the marking scheme, but the marking scheme itself is adjusted to fit in with the bell curve.

BrownBear11

leaveiton wrote: »

What happens with the bell curve is that it's something that is naturally observed - when you have any large set of data, you will have most cases falling somewhere in the middle, with fewer at each end. This makes sense when you think about it - most people doing biology will get around a C, with slightly smaller numbers getting Ds and Bs, and then even fewer getting A1s or failing. You're never going to get a case where every single person is getting an A1. (You'll be doing this in maths if you haven't already, it's been a while since I did it so my explanation isn't great :P)

The Leaving Cert is marked so that this bell curve will still occur. If the results are too skewed towards people getting lower grades, the marking scheme will be adjusted so that more people do well, as it would be unfair for one year's exam to be significantly harder than another's. Likewise if there were too many getting higher grades it wouldn't be fair for that exam to have been easier than another one. So it is marked against the marking scheme, but the marking scheme itself is adjusted to fit in with the bell curve.

Thanks a million for the reply I get what you're talking about!

When you say the marking scheme itself is adjusted, how would they go about this with a science subject (which all seem to have fairly airtight marking schemes to begin with)? Sorry for being such a persistent fecker

Canard

I'm pretty sure they'd realize why people were doing badly (e.g. a badly worded/unusually hard question) and reduce the marks for it and give more marks somewhere else.

BrownBear11

Patchy~ wrote: »

I'm pretty sure they'd realize why people were doing badly (e.g. a badly worded/unusually hard question) and reduce the marks for it and give more marks somewhere else.

Got ya Was thinking as much! Thanks for that Patchy

leaveiton

BrownBear11 wrote: »

Thanks a million for the reply I get what you're talking about!

When you say the marking scheme itself is adjusted, how would they go about this with a science subject (which all seem to have fairly airtight marking schemes to begin with)? Sorry for being such a persistent fecker

They'd usually change the weighting of the marks on a question. I viewed my papers this year and it had been marked twice. Originally in the short questions I received say 1 mark for certain questions, then when it was remarked I might have gotten 3 marks for the same question.

BrownBear11

leaveiton wrote: »

They'd usually change the weighting of the marks on a question. I viewed my papers this year and it had been marked twice. Originally in the short questions I received say 1 mark for certain questions, then when it was remarked I might have gotten 3 marks for the same question.

Makes sense Thanks for all that