What's the criteria for a First Class?

Question

I'm having problems trying to figure out what would be considered a first class criteria for essays, degrees, exam answers etc.
They say something like 'extensive argument' etc. on their marking criteria but all that does is allow it to be vague and very subjective. There are no examples to follow or books (generally) to follow up against.
Saying things like 'each essay is marked based on its own merits', won't actually help very much.
I'm not saying students should have something to copy from or say XYZ are the perfect answers for a top mark assignment but it does help if we had something to work with e.g. Lett's exam guides for A Level where they have C and A grade answers so the individual knows what to expect and what to look for.
Also where would you look for examples to back up your answers? Newspaper and magazine articles are brief in detail and are definitely not comprehensive enough to give a standard answer proper merits of an extensive argument.

Answer 1

This is the criteria I have: for a low 1st- a very good answer showing insight & critical ability within the subject. Broad knowledge with good incorporation of literature & evidence of thought/analysis beyond the lecture.
For a high 1st: An outstanding answer with evidence of extensive knowledge, insight & originality. Presented in a logical & well-argued manner demonstrating extensive background reading, understanding & synthesis of subject. Excellent presentation & expression of ideas.

University is a very different thing to school; there are often no right or wrong answers for things such as essays, they are set in order for the student to show that they have read about the subject and understand it but also that they are capable of questioning ideas and arguing points, as this is how knowledge is gained/improved upon.

The sort of things you need to be looking at to back up your answers are works in that particular field that have been published ie text books, journal articles etc. Newspaper and magazine articles are NOT acceptable because they are not reliable. Journal articles are peer-reviewed (meaning they are read through by other experts) before accepted for publishing. If you base your arguments on newspaper & magazines and that's what's in your reference list you WILL fail the assignment.

Most journals need to be accessed through an educational institute or you'll have to pay for them, so access them through your institutes library website and read through them critically.

Answer 2

Grades are rather subjective depending on your professor. Extensive argument means that you have done the research to support your views and can give pros and cons and other opinions. There are no examples because professors all look for different things in their papers. Be sure you follow the directions of what to include in the content, spelling and grammar must be perfect and all material correctly cited as to where it was obtained. You will not get the appropriate research from newspapers and magazines. You will need to work with your college librarian so that they can show you how to research journals and on line sites for accepted published studies.

Answer 3

I suggest you look up Bloom's Taxonomy. Those are the criteria most of us use when setting our level requirements. The university I teach at provides somewhat more detailed marking criteria than yours appears to, but there still has to be some flexibility in what we want from a student. Very often it's not WHAT you write, but how you write it, how you have analysed and evaluated the work of others, and how you have integrated your research into your essay or report.