Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?

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  1. nmccann's Avatar
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    Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    After our exams there is always the usual conversation of "What did you think" or in this case "How much did you write". General consensus was most people had written around 15 pages or so and one of my friends had written an astonishing 22. Now this guy has been the top in the class for the past year, and I know people always say quality over quantity but surely is not true that the greater the quantity the greater the quantity of the quality if you know what i mean?

    Any thoughts?
  2. magicmuggle's Avatar
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    Handwriting can play a big part in things like this....

    Honestly, in an exam it's always going to be about quality. Nobody is going to get an A in history if they ramble on for 100 pages about giraffes.
  3. HeyyImRyan's Avatar
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    Never wrote anywhere close to 15 pages in an exam, do you have a bionic arm or...?


    I fit everything I need to say and more into 8 or less, I don't think it'd be beneficial for me to write anymore..
  4. WillowSummers's Avatar
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    If you can say what you want to say in a concise manner, without waffle, you get added marks for eloquence. Thus, I've got an A for a page long essay, that someone who wrote 3 pages for got a D. So, quality is Definetly more important.
  5. iSoftie's Avatar
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    well regarding to quantity- you'd eventually get there
  6. emilie18's Avatar
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    It's definitely about quality. All of my subjects are essay-based, and you just don't get marks for rambling on and not making any credit-worthy points.
  7. nmccann's Avatar
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    • Location: Eire
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    (Original post by emilie18)
    It's definitely about quality. All of my subjects are essay-based, and you just don't get marks for rambling on and not making any credit-worthy points.
    I completely agree that quality is more important yet, it seems he writes more in his essay because he holds a greater knowledge of the content than most, and its hardly as if he is trailing off topic because he always comes out with top marks?
  8. RobertWhite's Avatar
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    Re: Essay based A-levels (History/English/RE/Politics etc) - Quality over quantity?
    I tend to write 4-6 pages per essay question (35 marks) and usually end up with an A. Sometimes people write lots of quality. What it is saying is be concise, don't blabber on about nothing, and then write as much as you can about it.
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