(no subject)

[deralte]

I don't seem to be having much luck this year, essay-wise. So far, of the ones I've gotten back *growls at the archaeology department*, I have a 64 and a 58, plus a tentative 62 (but I'm going to be arguing tooth and nail to get that one raised...). Now that may sound bad if you don't know the British grading system, but a 60-69 is a B and a 50-59 is a C, so I have two B's and one C.

I'm particularily annoyed at the C simply because I got the essay back and there were two comments on it. One saying the grader didn't like my introduction and two saying I had all the information I needed and it was well researched. Now, I know it didn't merit an A, but having a well researched, well written essay with a slightly weak introduction is usually grounds for a B, but all because the grader decided he didn't like it, I get a C...not to mention, where are the bloody second markers who are supposed to look over these things? Do they ever even challenge the firstmarker's pov?

Now to put this into perspective, let me tell you how much work I do on these bloody essays (they're at least 50% of my grade after all). I get the books/articles well over a month in advance, during the time afterwards, I periodically take notes on them. I rarely get through too much of them (since I'm busy writing and doing practicals and presentations during these times) so two weeks before the essay is due I start to get serious. I spend about eight hours a day doing research, and usually manage to look through about 8-10 sources before the end, from varying sources and on different subject matter. I take notes on notecards about all of these.

Sometime in the week before the essay is due I finish my research and move onto my writing. I take the notecards and spend a couple of hours labeling and ordering them to agree with a essay outline. Once these are done, I divide the cards into their respective sections, sit down at the comp and start writing. I am not a fast writer. It takes me at least an hour a page, usually much longer. I write in order from intro to conclusion, but after the essays finished I go back and tweak everything so it all makes sense and is coherent. It usually takes me three or so days of straight writing to get an essay written (word limits make it worse since then I have to cut out a lot of info, which they will invariably penalize you for not including later...you can't win).

By the end of it all, I'm mentally exhausted, incoherent and usually finding excuses to bring up the topic of my essay in average conversation to prove to myself that writing essays on such things as social exchange during the neolithic is not a waste of my time.

There is no way you can say these essays are bad. They're certainly better written then some of the junk I have to puzzle my way through in order to write them. But I seem to either be having bad luck in markers this year, or my writing has somehow degraded in some way I can't see.

My two B's for Medieval and Renaissance history - I have the marking sheet for them. In the first one, there is literally straight fours all the way down (5 is the highest on their random marking scheme), with him circling a 3 and a 4 on my conclusion since he decided it was weak, and I actually agree with that. But, shouldn't having an essay that literally fufills all the requirements within the higher range have gotten me a high B, not a low one? On one of my essays last year, I had two fives circled and all the rest as fours and ended up with a 72! Does this make any sense? No.

So, he thought my conclusion was weak. I agreed. On my next essay (the one I was doing in January) I put even more work into it, hours and hours of research. I made sure my arguement was coherent, that both my intro and conclusion were strong and interesting, and then he comes back and tells me that while it was nice and all, he didn't think I addressed the question properly and thus I get a 62, despite straight fours once again. I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong. Or if I am doing something wrong. Am I just unlucky in markers or what? Sometimes I really hate the system here.

Off to stress some more...

Comments

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

*hugs and stuff*

[tabellae.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to pretend I understand even half of what you're trying to explain, but I can guess how aggravating it must be to work that hard and not get the grades you thought you earned. *pat, pat* Maybe you'll get a better grader.

Re:

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Not likely with my Medieval tutor...but I might get lucky with markers in Islamic and Archaeology...maybe...

[thistlemeg.livejournal.com]

Definitely doesn't sound legit to me. If I wrote half as well as you and did half that work and didn't get straight A's, I'd have been camped outside wherever it is you go to complain about your grader for months now. Then again, I have been known to argue bitterly over my grade on a five point quiz.