Directed Essay - So Easy!

The culture of the students in back classes is - when they get the English papers, they promptly sleep. Then, they will hand in a blank - or nearly blank - paper after the exam finishes. This happens all the time, including in the ongoing March test in my current school. I've finished marking for three Form 5 classes (G, I and J) because it was so easy to mark; there were few essays to be read! The directed essay required was an informal letter, and the 12 contents given were so easy to understand as if 12 marks already in the students hand (plus 3 marks for the letter format of address, salutation and signature). Nevertheless, they still slept all the way for 2 hours and a half, writing nothing except the information gap questions (even there they did not get full marks).

Here are several essays I marked:

The first one is from a back class student (Class J). She is more active in class compared to her classmates, thus able to get good scores. Full marks for Format (circled), full marks for Contents (underlined), and able to get 12 marks for Language.



The second one is from her classmate. He only manages to get 2 marks for Format, 10 marks for Contents and 1 mark for Language.


The last one is from a higher class (Class G). The student does not get a high mark because he wasted time elaborating on a point for too long, thus did not able to include all the contents needed. Better language though.