How long should P1 essays be? English A1 SL

[veelzh]

For the external English A1 SL exam, approximately how long is a good, 7 score essay? I usually fill 3 sheets of paper (first 2 sheets have both sides filled, 3rd paper one side filled) but according to my teacher its not enough o.o

Also, good luck to may2012 class!

[Vincent Casey F]

there is no set rule for this!

I've seen HL 7s with 4 pages of writing (2 papers, front and back), and I've seen 4-5s with 8 pages of writhing! Depends on the depth of your analysis and what you want to do with the essay. I usually write 8-10 pages (4-5 papers front and back) but I have a fairly large hand writing (it gets larger under pressure of an exam session lol) and my grade for paper 1 is a 6. You want to hit around 1500 words to be on the safe side

[Costello]

I wrote 6 sides on Paper 1 and 5 sides on Paper 2 and I scored 6 and low 7 respectively in HL (and our teacher is also an examiner). So I think you're good with what you have in SL (as you do have half an hour less). Just focus more on the quality, if writing lots of content is not your thing and still score really well.

[opus92fan]

I wouldn't worry about length as much as I would worry about quality. As long as you feel you have adequately analyzed the passage (paper 1) or answered the question (paper 2) the length issue should take care of itself. I think/hope the examiners might have some sympathy on you if perhaps don't go into as much depth as you could have, as you are under the pressure of only 2 hours. Ideally, to fully understand a passage, you'd need time away from it as well, which you do not get in an exam situation.