The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
That is fine. I submitted mine with 3300 or so and had no problems. I believe that it does not matter what your word count is if you've answered your question with respectable proficiancy, as the question must allow you to write aproximately 4000 words. Keep in mind, one of the criterea (for english, anyway) is a concise writing style, so being under is a good thing.

Don't pad the essay, stuff it. If you're out of stuffing, that is okay.

In other words, you're fine.
Reply 2
I hate this sort of thread, its like in the oxbridge forums when people say:

"I got 44/45 on the IB and I have aced Step I, II and III whilst also obtaining grade 8 distinction on the Piano, Sax and Guitar. Is it worth thinking about oxbridge??"

Oh no! Not 235 words below the maximum!! Somebody fail her now :rolleyes:

Apologies for the rant and yes, anything between 3000-4000 words would be good for EE.
Reply 3
I'd also like to add that its Quality, not Quantity that matters.

And that goes for any essay :wink:
4000 is the MAXimum, while around 3000 is the MINinmum. the 4000 is limit so you don't ramble. Besides, art...depends on what you do but sometimes it's acceptable even if you only have 3000 words if you provide visuals etc. so yeah, if you've answered your questions etc etc to good quality, it's FINE!
i dunno much about art. i mean for history i would recommend be as clsoe as possible because there is going to be more to say than you could ever say in 4000 words...on most topics, i duno about art though should be fine, maths ones are normally way shorrt
Reply 6
4000 is the maximum. If you exceed it, say you have 4500, the IBO won't read the remaining 500. I don't know how in the world they would know if you have something like 100-200 words more (coz they don't count word by word, err... right?), but at least that's what my teachers said.
Reply 7
Spica P.
4000 is the maximum. If you exceed it, say you have 4500, the IBO won't read the remaining 500. I don't know how in the world they would know if you have something like 100-200 words more (coz they don't count word by word, err... right?), but at least that's what my teachers said.


And I advise everyone to not think like that - No matter HOW illogical it may seem, if you ever got caught with your essay over 4000 words, you would get a fail for it I believe - thus failing the IB. If it says below 4000 words, don't even PUSH 1 word over the limit, better safe than sorry :smile:
no, you dont fail for going over max. you just lose 3 points in one of the marking criterias on the form and presentation of the essay. but 3 points is huge. it's a difference between an A and a B and 2 or 3 bonus points, so dont go over the limit. they always catch you out if you go over. exminers are so tuned to reading 4000 words that an essay longer will atomatically seem long. so yeah, dont push it.
Reply 9
HMSChocolate
no, you dont fail for going over max. you just lose 3 points in one of the marking criterias on the form and presentation of the essay. but 3 points is huge. it's a difference between an A and a B and 2 or 3 bonus points, so dont go over the limit. they always catch you out if you go over. exminers are so tuned to reading 4000 words that an essay longer will atomatically seem long. so yeah, dont push it.


My bad - I was emphasising more on the DON'T GO OVER THE WORD LIMIT argument anyway.

I think its been drummed into my school so much about not going over the limit that i've sort of associated it with being a failing condition for the EE.

Anyway my other point still stands: Do NOT go over that limit of 4000 words - limits are put there for a reason.

Just stick to the rules guys!
Actually I went over word limit for every single IA I did except the EE: WL, Geog field work, Historical Investigation, you name it. Even TOK I believed. All the essay-based IAs with word limit, I lied on the word count. It wasn't anything outrageous, just a couple dozen of words, so that it wasn't painfully obvious that it was over.

But no, I wouldn't reccomend that to anyone, since I was constantly worrying whether I'd be caught out on it.
Reply 11
HMSChocolate
Actually I went over word limit for every single IA I did except the EE: WL, Geog field work, Historical Investigation, you name it. Even TOK I believed. All the essay-based IAs with word limit, I lied on the word count. It wasn't anything outrageous, just a couple dozen of words, so that it wasn't painfully obvious that it was over.

But no, I wouldn't reccomend that to anyone, since I was constantly worrying whether I'd be caught out on it.


Amen to that. Don't get caught over the word limit. If you find yourself over, LIE. LIE LIE LIE. I lied on my EE, psych and history IAs, and I was a good 50-100 words over on all of them. SO LIE. :biggrin:
HMSChocolate
Actually I went over word limit for every single IA I did except the EE: WL, Geog field work, Historical Investigation, you name it. Even TOK I believed. All the essay-based IAs with word limit, I lied on the word count. It wasn't anything outrageous, just a couple dozen of words, so that it wasn't painfully obvious that it was over.

But no, I wouldn't reccomend that to anyone, since I was constantly worrying whether I'd be caught out on it.

Same, including EE :redface:

But I didn't get caught :biggrin:
I didn't get caught either. :smile:

But I don't think a normal examiner with some hundred IAs to mark would sit and count the number of word you ahve (as long as you are not incredibly obvious like going 200 words over or something).

However, be warned there are weirdos (like my history teacher) who love to catch you out on exceeding word count. My teacher is an examiner and actually counted every word of an EE he marked once. To pay off his pains, the EE in question did exceed word count and he was able to knock off the 3 points for all the time he spent counting through the essay. :smile:
What about the word limit an EE in maths?
Reply 15
From the EE guide:

Word count is seldom an important factor in a good mathematical essay. Concise, elegant mathematics supported by graphs, diagrams and important proofs that do not interrupt the development of the essay are encouraged. Clearly a word total in excess of 4000 will be penalized under general assessment criterion G, but there is no recommended minimum number of words. Mastery of appropriate concepts and a facility to present these in an effective way using mathematical means should be the aim.

Math EE ... I should start on it soon. Fun fun :rolleyes:
Reply 16
niketbiyani
What about the word limit an EE in maths?


Still gonna be top limit 4000 words..
Reply 17
niketbiyani
What about the word limit an EE in maths?


But as with all science based EE:s you can put in a lot of stuff in the appendix. A friend of mine who did his EE in computer science says he had 15 000 words. 4000 in the essay, and the rest was in the appendix. He got an A.
Reply 18
saray
But as with all science based EE:s you can put in a lot of stuff in the appendix. A friend of mine who did his EE in computer science says he had 15 000 words. 4000 in the essay, and the rest was in the appendix. He got an A.


A lot of that 15000 words was code, i presume.

In which case, 15k for CS isn't that hard :smile:
HMSChocolate
I didn't get caught either. :smile:

But I don't think a normal examiner with some hundred IAs to mark would sit and count the number of word you ahve (as long as you are not incredibly obvious like going 200 words over or something).

However, be warned there are weirdos (like my history teacher) who love to catch you out on exceeding word count. My teacher is an examiner and actually counted every word of an EE he marked once. To pay off his pains, the EE in question did exceed word count and he was able to knock off the 3 points for all the time he spent counting through the essay. :smile:

I know, but my teachers used to scare me by saying they scan all the essays and had the computer count them. I probably don't mean scan scan, just somehow put it through a computer to count it. And I'm awful with all things technological so as far as I know there might very well be a word counting machine. :blushing: