Re: Is coursework hard?
Created | Updated Sep 2, 2003
This entry is in reply to a message I find on another BBC forum. Following, is the message then my reply. I couldn't post this on the board because it is too long.
MESSAGE
hi ppl i have just been shifted in to the world of gcse where i have used alot of power to face it but i am there now and i was just wonderin from you lovely lucky ppl who have just finished y10 and y11 to help ans these q i am to ask with nice juicy ans
IS COURESWORK REALLY HARD?????
WHAT ARE THE MAIN THING A TEACHER LOOKS FOR TO GET YOU FULL MARKS?????????????????????????????????
IS MATHS COURESWORK REALLLLLLLLLY COMPLICATING AND HOW CAN YOU GO ABOUT IT????????
AND HOW ABOUT HISTORY FRENCH AND ENGLISH????????
i will really appreaciate some help from you ppl because at di moment i am very worried and i would like to ask you well you know me i tried soooooooooooooooooooo hard in y9 to get good levels like 7 but i got 6 6 6 and i was wonderin do you think i could get really good gcse my parents have been sending me to a private school all my life and they excepect me to get really good any chance
MY REPLY
The MATHS cousework question is kinda hard to answer, because in my opinion
the questions are deceptively simple...answering just the question gets you
hardly any marks, it's all about building up your work and showing how much
relevant maths you know. Prove everything you do, use diagrams, tables,
whatever, but generally only a formula will PROVE something, anything else
will pretty much just give good evidence. There are some things that you
are not expected to prove (i.e. there are 180 degrees in triangle) if in
doubt, check with your teacher. This brings me on to my main point:
Coursework is really nothing more or less than a chance to show just how
clever you can be.
This means that in ENGLISH coursework you listen carefully and make notes
when the teacher talks about the book/play/poems, make notes and talk about
anything you don't understand. I tried to refrain from putting things in
just cos they sounded clever...if you don't understand a complicated point
it will be obvious in the essay, write a really insightful comment on a
simple point instead.
HISTORY: This one I had trouble with, my teacher said that it was too
simple, that I was looking for the problems. Structure of essay is very
important in all subjects, but history (and english) essays particularly
need good structure otherwise they will confuse the reader, and this will
make it look as though you are confused, and therefore you will get lower
marks. So for history ones, start with an opening paragraph, where you
outline what the essay is about and your answer to the question. Deal with
the main body of the essay in paragraphs and end with a closing paragrah
that includes, if possible, an opinion and back it up. E.G. "Although
there were many factors that contributed to Hitler's rise to power, the
most important was the promise of work and bread to the lower classes, had
it not been for this, they would have turned to communism and Hitler would
have been unlikely to achieve power". That reminds me (sorry for making
this so long by the way!) NEVER say in your opening paragraph something
like "Hitler came to power because he promised the lower classes work and
bread", rather, say "There were a number of factors in Hitler's rise to
power..." (see how I just mirror the opening paragraph for the closing
one?) The reason for this is that if you give your opinion in the opening
paragraph, you haven't shown your ability to consider the argument before
reaching a conclusion. Last point about history essays (again though, this
applies to english as well) The end of a paragraph should, if at all
possible (and it should be possible) echo the title, e.g. The essay that I
am using as an example may well have the question "How did Hitler achieve
the support that led to his rise in power in Germany in the 1920s?" (I'm
making this up as I go along realise so some of this will be slightly more
disjointed than actual courswork, which should be read through and planned
very carefully) Therefore, at the end of every paragraph you should make a
comment to the title, e.g. "...therefore, the combination of the death of
Stresseman and the Wall Street Crash caused not only fear among the Germans
financially, but also fear because the man who had brought them out of
problems before could not do the same again, they needed someone else to
turn to and Hitler seemed to be the man, so support for him grew". (We
spent a lot of time on history coursework!)
FRENCH: I didn't take french, but I did take a Spanish GCSE that required
you to do three pieces of writing coursework. These pieces of coursework
are generally simpler because what you're going to say is never going to
cause you a problem as such, only if you CAN say it in french. Your
teacher will go through all the important points with you, but here's a
quick run-down:
Tenses, use past, present AND future tenses, you will probably not be able
to get the highest grades if you don't do this. Describe things, what does
your best friend look like? How big was the hotel you stayed in? etc etc,
tenses and description are REALLY important in language coursework.
Another point about language coursework, I found that there was a lot less
help available due to the nature of the coursework, so any help your
teacher does give; handouts, phrases written on the board WRITE DOWN, you
might be able to use them as they are, or even change them slightly, but
it'll be right. Also, we had to do one piece under test conditions, but
this was a lot easier than it sounds. We got more teacher help on this
piece, we wrote the whole thing out before hand and then learned it to
write out. If you do this, MAKE SURE YOU LEARN IT OFF BY HEART...I'm sure
I could still recite much of that piece of coursework off by heart "Me
empleo ideal seria trabajar de medico. Me gustaria trabajar de medico
porque peudo ayuadar a gente, es interesante y tambien, pagar
bien".....basically, what I'm saying is write it out, bit by bit, check it,
down to all the accents, every last comma, every letter of every word, it
paid off for me, I had the best piece of Spanish coursework in the class!
FINAL NOTES: Don't get to stressed about coursework, you've got great SATs
grades, and I'm sure you'll get excellent grades at GCSE. Accept and even
ask for help whenever it's offered, and especially when it's needed.
Coursework is NOT DIFFICULT, just a hoop to jump through. It's annoying,
but that's the way the system works. Also, if you are really unhappy with
a coursework grade, ask if you can repeat the piece, if the teacher says
yes, ask for some more help with it, or at least pointers as to where you
went wrong. If the teacher says no, either accept that, realise that it's
only worth a fraction of the whole grade and forget about it or (if you're
really, really unhappy with it because you did it at 3am just to make them
happy but never had any intention of handing it in - basically you know
already that you can do better) re-do it any way, take it to your teacher
and explain. Also, never forget that you can also ask your friends,
parents, brothers/sisters and other teachers in the school for help. I'm
not saying cheat, where they do it for you, but getting help understanding
what you need to do is very important (and you're already doing this, so
well done!)
Ok, that's the end of my first post, maybe I'll come back here again someday!
MESSAGE
hi ppl i have just been shifted in to the world of gcse where i have used alot of power to face it but i am there now and i was just wonderin from you lovely lucky ppl who have just finished y10 and y11 to help ans these q i am to ask with nice juicy ans
IS COURESWORK REALLY HARD?????
WHAT ARE THE MAIN THING A TEACHER LOOKS FOR TO GET YOU FULL MARKS?????????????????????????????????
IS MATHS COURESWORK REALLLLLLLLLY COMPLICATING AND HOW CAN YOU GO ABOUT IT????????
AND HOW ABOUT HISTORY FRENCH AND ENGLISH????????
i will really appreaciate some help from you ppl because at di moment i am very worried and i would like to ask you well you know me i tried soooooooooooooooooooo hard in y9 to get good levels like 7 but i got 6 6 6 and i was wonderin do you think i could get really good gcse my parents have been sending me to a private school all my life and they excepect me to get really good any chance
MY REPLY
The MATHS cousework question is kinda hard to answer, because in my opinion
the questions are deceptively simple...answering just the question gets you
hardly any marks, it's all about building up your work and showing how much
relevant maths you know. Prove everything you do, use diagrams, tables,
whatever, but generally only a formula will PROVE something, anything else
will pretty much just give good evidence. There are some things that you
are not expected to prove (i.e. there are 180 degrees in triangle) if in
doubt, check with your teacher. This brings me on to my main point:
Coursework is really nothing more or less than a chance to show just how
clever you can be.
This means that in ENGLISH coursework you listen carefully and make notes
when the teacher talks about the book/play/poems, make notes and talk about
anything you don't understand. I tried to refrain from putting things in
just cos they sounded clever...if you don't understand a complicated point
it will be obvious in the essay, write a really insightful comment on a
simple point instead.
HISTORY: This one I had trouble with, my teacher said that it was too
simple, that I was looking for the problems. Structure of essay is very
important in all subjects, but history (and english) essays particularly
need good structure otherwise they will confuse the reader, and this will
make it look as though you are confused, and therefore you will get lower
marks. So for history ones, start with an opening paragraph, where you
outline what the essay is about and your answer to the question. Deal with
the main body of the essay in paragraphs and end with a closing paragrah
that includes, if possible, an opinion and back it up. E.G. "Although
there were many factors that contributed to Hitler's rise to power, the
most important was the promise of work and bread to the lower classes, had
it not been for this, they would have turned to communism and Hitler would
have been unlikely to achieve power". That reminds me (sorry for making
this so long by the way!) NEVER say in your opening paragraph something
like "Hitler came to power because he promised the lower classes work and
bread", rather, say "There were a number of factors in Hitler's rise to
power..." (see how I just mirror the opening paragraph for the closing
one?) The reason for this is that if you give your opinion in the opening
paragraph, you haven't shown your ability to consider the argument before
reaching a conclusion. Last point about history essays (again though, this
applies to english as well) The end of a paragraph should, if at all
possible (and it should be possible) echo the title, e.g. The essay that I
am using as an example may well have the question "How did Hitler achieve
the support that led to his rise in power in Germany in the 1920s?" (I'm
making this up as I go along realise so some of this will be slightly more
disjointed than actual courswork, which should be read through and planned
very carefully) Therefore, at the end of every paragraph you should make a
comment to the title, e.g. "...therefore, the combination of the death of
Stresseman and the Wall Street Crash caused not only fear among the Germans
financially, but also fear because the man who had brought them out of
problems before could not do the same again, they needed someone else to
turn to and Hitler seemed to be the man, so support for him grew". (We
spent a lot of time on history coursework!)
FRENCH: I didn't take french, but I did take a Spanish GCSE that required
you to do three pieces of writing coursework. These pieces of coursework
are generally simpler because what you're going to say is never going to
cause you a problem as such, only if you CAN say it in french. Your
teacher will go through all the important points with you, but here's a
quick run-down:
Tenses, use past, present AND future tenses, you will probably not be able
to get the highest grades if you don't do this. Describe things, what does
your best friend look like? How big was the hotel you stayed in? etc etc,
tenses and description are REALLY important in language coursework.
Another point about language coursework, I found that there was a lot less
help available due to the nature of the coursework, so any help your
teacher does give; handouts, phrases written on the board WRITE DOWN, you
might be able to use them as they are, or even change them slightly, but
it'll be right. Also, we had to do one piece under test conditions, but
this was a lot easier than it sounds. We got more teacher help on this
piece, we wrote the whole thing out before hand and then learned it to
write out. If you do this, MAKE SURE YOU LEARN IT OFF BY HEART...I'm sure
I could still recite much of that piece of coursework off by heart "Me
empleo ideal seria trabajar de medico. Me gustaria trabajar de medico
porque peudo ayuadar a gente, es interesante y tambien, pagar
bien".....basically, what I'm saying is write it out, bit by bit, check it,
down to all the accents, every last comma, every letter of every word, it
paid off for me, I had the best piece of Spanish coursework in the class!
FINAL NOTES: Don't get to stressed about coursework, you've got great SATs
grades, and I'm sure you'll get excellent grades at GCSE. Accept and even
ask for help whenever it's offered, and especially when it's needed.
Coursework is NOT DIFFICULT, just a hoop to jump through. It's annoying,
but that's the way the system works. Also, if you are really unhappy with
a coursework grade, ask if you can repeat the piece, if the teacher says
yes, ask for some more help with it, or at least pointers as to where you
went wrong. If the teacher says no, either accept that, realise that it's
only worth a fraction of the whole grade and forget about it or (if you're
really, really unhappy with it because you did it at 3am just to make them
happy but never had any intention of handing it in - basically you know
already that you can do better) re-do it any way, take it to your teacher
and explain. Also, never forget that you can also ask your friends,
parents, brothers/sisters and other teachers in the school for help. I'm
not saying cheat, where they do it for you, but getting help understanding
what you need to do is very important (and you're already doing this, so
well done!)
Ok, that's the end of my first post, maybe I'll come back here again someday!
