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I have two Level 3 students that were awarded Merit for their external assessments. They should have gained Excellence however they failed to follow instructions related to font size (Ariel 12 pt) and standard margins on A4 paper. They used 11 point and narrow margins respectively. Hence the last part of their assessments was not marked -ie deemed to have exceeded 10 pages.
Fair enough I suppose. Bad luck to get a marker that noticed the font size and margins. Other students had similar transgressions but had different markers… one gained an Excellence, it could easily have been Merit. lucky for her! We do tell students the requirements…
On a slightly different note I had another two Level 3 students that I think deserved Excellence however were marked as Not Achieved and Achieved… I have asked them to apply for a re mark of their papers. At only $20, it is worth applying – I have seen students get better grades as a consequence.
edwin bruce, teacher 
How do you know that this was the reason why the grades were lower?
“failed to follow instructions related to font size (Ariel 12 pt) and standard margins on A4 paper.”
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Good question. I cannot be 100% sure, but I did estimate the marks of all the other students correctly including several Excellences. Insofar as my own benchmarking is usually pretty accurate I think they would have gained Excellence. The marker actually wrote a note (quite correctly) on each of the last pages…
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