Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

A-level students warned longer exam answers are not better after 27-page effort given grade E

'Quantity does not trump quality'

Eleanor Busby
Tuesday 30 January 2018 17:05 GMT
Comments
Students sitting exams in secondary school
Students sitting exams in secondary school (Rex)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Students have been warned that longer exam answers are not necessarily better after a 27-page effort in an exam was given a grade E.

Researchers have found there is no benefit in students writing overly wordy answers in their A-level exams as they can still be awarded low grades.

Writing more than 1,300 words in an A-level English literature exam does not necessarily lead to a higher mark, a study from Cambridge Assessment found.

The student in question filled the entire length of their 11-page answer booklet, as well as four 4-page extension booklets, in an A-level English literature exam in 2016, but any hopes it might have merited one of the higher grades were disappointed.

The finding comes after an earlier study into the ideal length of a GCSE English Literature essay, which discovered that students should not write too little, but should not write too much either.

Tom Benton, a Cambridge Assessment researcher, said: “As with the GCSE analysis, quantity does not trump quality. The curve flattens off at around 1,300 words per essay, and so writing more than this isn’t consistently associated with getting higher marks,”

The research, which analysed data from the OCR A-Level English literature exam in 2016, also found that a student student achieved an A* with two essays that were only three pages long.

On average, A-level English Literature students write around 1,000 words per hour in an exam - or 17 words per minute - which is faster than GCSE students who write around 800 words an hour.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in