What do teachers look for when grading?
Having an important assignment due soon? This article will provide you with useful tips for what teachers actually look for when grading. For different assignments there are different perspectives on grading your work.
Tests
It seems pretty obvious that teachers will grade you on how many answers you got correct on a test, but there are some things you can do to increase the chance of you getting an answer correct
1. Explain and Justify -
When the test says you need to explain, not only explain, but also justify your
answer. If you justify your explanation to the question, you are more likely to get the answer correct, or get partially credit for it.
2. Write down the things you do know -
Teachers also look for your ability to remember a large amount of facts. When you don’t know the answer to a closed question (when the answer can be answered with 1 word or phrase), try to write down the things you do know, or think are true.
- Example Question: When was the internet invented?
- Example answer: The Internet was invented after the Second World War, soon after computers were invented.
This answer could be written by anyone, with or without studying. We all know that well-developed computers with working Internet were not invented before the Second World War. With this knowledge you can say that the Internet was invented soon after computers were invented, because this seems to have a high chance of being true. This way you are still able to write a decent answer, and might get partial credit without even writing any dates.
3. Use key terms! -
Teachers will be impressed when they see your answer containing the key terms they have been talking about for so long. Using key terms in your answer gives you a higher chance of getting a better grade. Disclaimer: Don’t use key terms unnecessary; this will actually lower your grade because the teacher will think you don’t understand what the key terms mean.
4. Use a PEA structure in your test answers. -
Point, Evidence, Explain/Analyse. This sequence will give you a well-structured overview on your answer. You first state the point you want to make in your answer, then give evidence for it (e.g quotes), and then explain or analyze. Doing this makes your answer more impressive since it is structured like it supposed to be.
Essays
It is sometimes very unclear what teachers actually look for in essays. They usually discuss the points they want you to include in your essay, but a lot of the times students still get confused.
Word count
A lot of the times, students wonder if the word-count matters. Based on our experiences, we answer that question by saying that more words are usually graded higher than less words. Our reason behind this is that usually when you write more, you have a better chance of writing about something that the teacher actually looks for. When your work is really short, there is a high chance that not all the things you were able to be discuss in the essay contributed in your final work.
If your work is very short, try to think out of the box and look for something that is useful and original. This way you fill up that space. When you essay contains all the things you wanted to say, but is way to long, delete things. If you have some good ideas, but a lot of irrelevant ideas, it weighs off.
Let’s say the teacher tells you the word count is between 600-1000 words, go for the full 1000 words and maybe a little bit over. You can think that this takes a lot more time, but if you think about it: a short essay takes as much time as a long one.
When you write a short essay of 600 words, you are much more likely to check the whole essay over and over again because you want to have quality instead of quantity. When you write a long essay, you check over it once or twice because you know that there are a lot of things in your essay and thus you have a better chance that something the teacher looks for is in there.
Disclaimer: Do not write because you want to reach the word count. First write, and then see if you can write more or delete some parts.
