Marking Criteria – Explained

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Criterion B: Knowledge and understanding

This criterion mainly focuses on your background research and the underlying chemistry of your EE. This criterion assesses your understanding and use of chemical theory.

Use of chemistry terminology

This can quite honestly be achieved quite easily by wording your sentences well to include lots of chemistry. Instead of saying ‘the bond is broken’ say ‘the carbon oxygen double bond is broken’, and instead of talking about positives and negatives, talk about anodes and cathodes.

Use of chemical equations

This is even more simple. Chemical equations are not included in the word count so whenever it’s not excessive, add a chemical formula. This is chemistry! Make sure you write out the chemical equations for most (not really obvious ones) reactions that occur in your experiment.

Significant figures and S.I. Units

Again, this is hopefully simple and obvious to incorporate. Don’t work in strange obscure units without good reason and without explaining them in your EE somewhere. If there’s a specific reason that you need to work in gallons or something, state the reason in your EE otherwise the marker will be very confused.

Criterion C: Critical Thinking

This is the biggest criterion of them all, and should be something you keep in mind throughout writing your EE.

How good is your research?

Have you got a good amount of relevant, chemistry based research? This criterion assesses your critical thinking skills, how did you select your sources? More importantly, how well have you used that research to support your argument/results?

Mathematical Interpretation of the data

How well have you analysed your experimental data? This part is quite difficult, and requires time and effort. It means getting the balance right of what goes in the appendix and what goes in the main body of the essay. Be careful though! The appendix is not required reading for the examiner

Presentation of Graphs and tables

Critical thinking can also be shown in the way that you present your data. How easy is your data to interpret? Well presented graphs (appropriate axis, line of best fit, error bars etc) help the examiner (and yourself) interpret trends in the data.

Criterion D: Structure and Layout

This is another important part of the essay. I’ve written an entire page on how to structure the chem EE here:

CRITERION E: ENGAGEMENT

​These marks all come from the RPPF reflections that you submit with your EE.