Over the years, the guidelines for the marking of the summary, or precis, in the language paper have changed, almost annually, and this brief article aims at clarifying what appears to be currently required.

The English Second Language "language" paper was a national paper. The summary section counted for ten marks out of a total of eighty. Seven marks were set aside for listing seven facts. These facts had to be selected from the given passage using a given criterion - in this case, the advantages of jockey training. Candidates were instructed to present their facts in "point form", rather than by paragraph. Those who used paragraph form were not awarded any marks for language, and each sentence then counted as a "point". Only one fact per point was marked, so candidates who combined facts were disadvantaged. The first fact in any point was marked, and anything subsequent ignored.

One mark was for observing the word limit (which had to be explicitly stated or the mark was not awarded). Markers had to count every word, give a grace-limit of five extra words, and then stop reading, thus penalising facts made after the limit reached.

Two marks were awarded for language use. Students were allowed two mistakes. Thereafter one mark was awarded if three to six mistakes were made, and no marks if seven or more mistakes were made.

I hope that this very brief analysis of the marking memo for the summary will be of help. Hopefully the full memorandum for the paper will be released soon, but this has not always happened, and so it is hoped that this site can assist teachers by releasing comments on the memo by markers.