How Smart

Are You?
Sample Student Responses and
Analysis

www.eslmojo.com
 1) do number puzzles
2) treat your brain like any other part of your body /
do exercise / have a healthy diet / run
3) make changes to your clothing / wear a white
Content Points coat / wear a lab coat
Aspect 1 - 4) do something that you’re not good at / do
something (uncomfortably)difficult
Improve 5) use technology to expose yourself to complex
(new) material
6) don’t go quickly from one topic to another / pick
one subject and go into it in depth
 7) speak confidently
Content Points 8) smile while you are talking
Aspect 1 - 9) wear glasses
Appear 10) use a middle initial
Sample 1
Wasted 43 words to write an introduction, only 77 words are now
available for the content points.
Total Content 4 + Language 3 = 6/16
 The candidate recognised some key
points from the text but did not observe
the word limit stated in the rubric. The
excessive length of this summary was
Improvements due to the selection of irrelevant
material at the start of the response. The
candidate needed to improve basic
grammatical structures to ensure that
points were clearly expressed.
Sample 2
An utter waste of words…

repeated
Total Content 7 + Language 5 = 12/16
 The candidate showed good understanding
of the task regarding the length of the
summary and the selection of key detail and
content points from the text. The candidate
needed to ensure that irrelevant material
Improvements did not appear, especially when attempting
to introduce the topic. The wording in the
summary was close to the wording of the
text although there was an occasional
attempt at own words. The use of cohesive
devices would improve the language marks.
Sample 3
Total Content 8 + Language 6 = 14/16
 The candidate displayed a very good attempt
at the length, relevance and accuracy of the
Improvements summary. Wherever possible, the candidate
should have attempted to paraphrase from
the text, using their own words.