nope, definitely not. Because 2.5-3 months is more than adequate time for the examiners to mark the papers and do a recheck as well as marks revision. FYI, my teacher, who was a marker himself, even told me that they were told to be lenient in marking because many student's points in the essay just didn't fit the bill. He added that if they were to follow the actual scheme, not even the best in school would get an A1. They pretty much ignore your super-duper vocabs n just close-in on whether you have the 'kata kunci' that they have n need to find in your answer, bro. And by any chance, how did you get to 'read plenty of my friends' works and they were none the less impressive' when their answer papers were already passed up after the exam? How do you define impressive in your terms? one man's meat is another man's poison. You may think their works are impressive but the examiners may think otherwise. I worry for them because I care, and care as a friend. I certainly don't like hearing or seeing people crying to their mummies after the recheck when they had to pay RM50(or more),wait for 3 months, only to find that their grades have been downgraded. Its a waste of time and money, and those two are in fact the most indispensible to humans on earth, thus wasting them are a no-no. Btw, did I degrade their blogs? I merely commented on them because they are irresponsible. Lok at their posts and u'll noe.
Yup, don't judge you when I don't even know you. Yes, you are right, I have no right. But one obvious point you neglected in the heat of your anger is that I DID NOT mention anyone being a noob out there. If you are reacting to it, then i say you are merely admitting that you are indeed a noob. Please note that I didn't say any specific person here being noob. And yes, you deserve your grade because your scientific facts aren't enuf. what proof do you have that you have enough to earn an A1? language skills alone just aint sufficient. Trust me on that. I did not mark your paper, but i know because as i stated earlier, my teacher told me so and also that i can think for myself what exactly happened. Ok fine. I retract the 'spamming' statement. But did i whine about your aforementioned noob bloggers that i put as signature? Oh ya, one more thing, just how good is your english because on a pride-saving-yet-arrogant tone you mentioned that 'I may be strong in English'?
Yes, idioms can definitely get you extra marks. They grade by your vocab, language fluency, writing flair, thoughts and ideas input, idioms used and their suitability, as well as handwriting. As for the GCE-O chaps, they may just grade your on stricter terms. They are after all, the original creators of the english language, the ones who brought english to Malaya/Malaysia and now the world, and responsible for the grading of quality of english that we use i our essays.