🎯 Think Like the Person Marking Your Paper
🎯 Think Like the Person Marking Your Paper
An AQA examiner reads your paragraph once and makes a best-fit decision. They do not count techniques or tally how many times you wrote “the writer”. They read the whole paragraph, compare it to four level descriptors, and decide which descriptor fits best.
Students who know how that decision works write differently. This topic teaches you to make the same judgement yourself — and use it to climb the ladder deliberately.
English Language glossary
- What does ‘best-fit’ mean when an examiner marks a paragraph?
- <strong>Best-fit</strong> means the examiner compares the whole paragraph to four level descriptors and awards the level that describes it most accurately overall.<br><br>• Not the highest level touched in one sentence<br>• Not the lowest level present anywhere<br>• The level that <em>fits the paragraph as a whole</em><br><br><strong>Implication:</strong> one sentence of L4 language in a mostly L2 paragraph does not earn L4. But sustained L4 habits across most sentences earns L4 even if one sentence slips. Consistency is what the best-fit judgement rewards.
Best-fit means the examiner chooses the level that describes the paragraph most accurately overall — not the highest level touched in a single sentence, and not the lowest. If most of a paragraph is Level 3 but one sentence reaches Level 4, the examiner awards Level 3. If most of a paragraph is Level 4 but one se
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 10
What does 'best-fit judgement' mean when an examiner marks a paragraph?
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