TOEFL Independent Writing Task
Essay Question: Students' Final Grades
Example Answer by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
ielts360toefl@hotmail.com 谢振礼
TOEFL Essay Prompt: (20130608 North America)
>Some students prefer to have their final grades determined by numerous small assignments, whereas others prefer to have their final grades determined by only a few large ones. Which do you prefer and why?
Use specific reasons and examples (based on your knowledge or experience) to support your answer.
TOEFL Sample Essay (Jeenn Lee Hsieh):
It is understandable that students are driven by the desire for grades, so they must be given rubrics with specific information about how their overall work will be graded. Typically, the grading system should focus on motivating students to effectively learn the school subjects throughout the academic year. For that purpose, it is arguable that students' final scores should be proportionally based on all assignments, both large and small.
Some students prefer to have their final grades determined by numerous small assignments such as weekly tests or homework. In theory, there are at least three upsides about this. First, as students are supposed to do their coursework regularly, this grading system serves to monitor their progress from week to week with timely feedback. Second, by frequently evaluating the results of students' academic performance, teachers can provide step-to-step updates to students on an individual base, normally with little delay. Third, students can get to realize that studying any school subject is a day-to-day business, and is not something that happens once in a blue moon. The point is: would students do their routine homework in time if no grades were given at all?
There are advantages to giving students' final grades by placing emphasis on only a few major assignments. On the one hand, students often feel bothered with so many small assignments so frequently and, so much so, they seldom take any of them seriously. In practice, for some students having more work does not mean having better academic achievements because they are likely to lose interest along with patience regarding a certain subject. On the other hand, it is probably not the best thing to do for educators to put students under constant pressure in order to determine their final grades, when one or two important assignments in time can do the same trick. Psychologically, however, it is more desirable for students to have that kind of freedom which could prevent them from never-ending stress as a result of a series of tests. This means that the number of tests assigned to students is not so important as the quality of tests, however few.
In general, the system to determine students' final grades varies from school to school, and from teacher to teacher. Usually, students do not have their say and it is not up to them to decide. All the rest of the debate is a matter of opinions among teachers about motivating students to do their work effectively. (Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh, 谢振礼ielts360toefl@hotmail.com pigai zuowen)
谢振礼简报资料来源是托福官方的统计研究报告。A Research Report: Linking TOEFL iBT Scores to IELTS Scores. 发布时间 ETS December 17, 2010. 完整的资料共16页.
1
IELTS Score TOEFL Score
雅思写作 托福写作
9.0 30
8.5 30
8.0 30
7.5 29
7.0 27-28
6.5 24-26
6.0 21-23
5.5 18-20
5.0 14-17
4.5 12-13
<=4.0 0-11
2
听说读写：四项总分
IELTS Score TOEFL Score
9.0 118-120
8.5 115-117
8.0 110-114
7.5 102-109
7.0 94-101
6.5 79-93
6.0 60-78
5.5 46-59
5.0 35-45
4.5 32-44
0-4 0-31
