A lot of students do not understand what examiners are actually looking for in their responses. It is very common for students to resent English as a subject because its demands do not make sense. In this post, I will break down what examiners are looking for as they read through an exam.
The first thing to realise is what your current thinking is. Do you think English is overly analytical? Do you think English is too subjective? Do you think that examiners are giving marks for advanced vocabulary? However you think about the subject, just know that you are not alone in feeling that way. To truly understand what examiners are looking for takes real work, but it is very much possible to master it.
There are certain expectations that examiners have. Top students meet these expectations consistently.
What the mark scheme actually says
Mark schemes typically outline the criteria for good writing. For example, AQA has AO1, AO2, and so on. The way to meet these criteria is by creating arguments and analysing text in a way that the examiner can be impressed with.
These criteria can be confusing, and even examiners may find them challenging to interpret consistently. Ultimately, the examiners are looking for good writing. They want to see a clever argument and an interesting interpretation, but they must also be able to justify marks through the success criteria that is given to them.
Try not to focus on assessment objectives and advanced vocabulary. Instead, focus on demonstrating a clear understanding of the text and the ability to construct a well-reasoned argument.
Breaking Down the Criteria
Often with classes that I teach, I find that it is easier to teach paragraph writing without the language of the mark scheme, but it is so integral to the world of the GCSE exam that it is something that I use to show how examiners think. Here is my personal list of questions that examiners are actually looking out for when it comes to marking exams.
- Does the answer address the question directly?
- Does the student's answer make sense?
- Does the student show a clear understanding of the evidence/text used?
- Does the student explain something new or insightful?
The method
The most common way to ensure that your response meets the requirements of the examiner is to follow a routine within your writing that ensures you are successful. In my teaching, I integrate these frameworks into each students' writing so that even a moment of panic within an exam can be met with a rigid structure that helps to keep your ideas moving and allow you to land a strong response. Here are a few of the technniques and guides that I ensure my students have in their writing.
- An initial sentence that addresses the question directly and does not include a technique.
- An "embedded" quotation that does not include the phrase "in the quote"
- Analysis that has mulitple layers: "not only... but also..."
- A link that reflects the initial sentence. If the link has veered slightly, so has the argument.
Sounds easy enough, but I know that when the pressure is on, having these structures in place can make all the difference. A lot of students are walking into GCSEs with limited confidence in their writing skills and a vague idea of PETAL paragraphs. Whilst PETAL paragraphs are great tools, if youu are looking to stretch your work to the highest level, your paragraphs have to be creative and unique (within the framework that the exam board sets out).
Fundamentals
The elephant in the room when it comes to the English GCSE is that it can feel to students as though they are forced to speak an entirely new language for the purposes of the exam. When else in your life will you have to examine the colour of a fictional ceiling to determine the mood of the text? Probably never.
In this way, analytical writing is more of an art than a science. There are things that can be written today that are not acceptable that may well be accpetable in a decade or so. This is not true of Maths, where (at GCSE level), what is true today will still be true in a century.
The examiners rely on a shared set of values to be shown by the student. These values are not expressed explicitly within the education system and can be very difficult for students to accurately grasp within their writing. One example of this is "the reader". Every GCSE exam board wants to see students explain "the effect of the technique on the reader", and this sentence raises natural questions. What is the reader? What is the effect? Why is one effect correct and another incorrect?
Without making this sound too much like a sales pitch for my tutoring, but these are questions that students need guidance on if they are becoming obstacles in their writing and limiting their success. A sign that English is placing too many obstacles on a student can be something as simple as believing that English doesn't make sense, or that it is a lot of "waffling".
Fundamentally, the exam is not about extending language beyond its natural limit; instead, it is about demonstrating your ability to use the tools presented in language to make a compelling arugment in a short (often quite pressurised) amount of time.
Even simple pieces of analysis that are novel are sometimes more impressive than over-complicated answers that demonstrate a point everyone has made.
Putting it into practice
I'm often asked how a person is supposed to revise for English. With Maths, past papers with answers are the most efficent way. With Science, it's a similar story. English is a subject that seems impossible to study because it wants you to prepare for a text you have never read.
The best way to prepare is practicing analytical writing and having it marked or looked at by someone that is familiar with the exam structure and what examiners are looking for.