What your band and the 4 criteria actually mean
The four things a marker looks for
Every Common Module essay is judged on the same four criteria. Your report scores each one separately, because you can be strong on one and still building on another. Here is what each one is really asking, and the move that lifts it.
Conceptual understanding & thesis
Do you argue a real idea about human experience, or just describe the text? This is your thesis and how well the essay sticks to it.
Write a conceptual thesis and keep returning to it. →Textual analysis & evidence
Do you analyse your quotes, taking each from technique to effect to meaning to purpose, or name a device and move on? This is the biggest divider between bands.
Write the Explanation in every TEEL paragraph so it analyses. →Structure & sustained argument
Does the essay build one argument that keeps answering the question, or read as a list of separate points? This covers your topic sentences and return lines.
Build each paragraph in order and keep answering the question. →Expression & metalanguage
Is your writing clear, controlled and precise, using the right terms for techniques without padding? This is the polish that lets the ideas land.
Learn the techniques by name and write in a clear, formal register. →What each band really means
Bands are ranges, not exact marks, and your report gives you one to aim at. Read the band above yours: it is usually the honest description of your next step.
Insightful, sustained analysis of a conceptual argument, with well-chosen evidence and controlled, precise expression. Every paragraph earns its place.
A thoughtful, effective response with relevant evidence and a clear argument. Usually the Explanation does not push all the way to the composer's purpose, or the link to the question is not sustained.
Sound understanding with some analysis, but often more describing than analysing, and a thesis that leans on the plot or the question rather than an idea.
The response describes aspects of the text with limited analysis, and tends to recount what happens rather than argue what it means.
An attempt with elementary or basic engagement: little reference to the text, or writing that answers a different question from the one asked.
Read your band as a next step
A band is a snapshot of one essay on one day, not a ceiling on what you can do. Almost every student who lifts a band does it by changing one habit, most often by pushing the Explanation in each paragraph further, or by sharpening a plot-summary opening into a real idea. Pick the lowest of your four stats, read the guide it points to, and put that one move into your next draft.
Look at your report and find your weakest criterion. Open the guide linked next to it above, make that single change to one paragraph, and mark the essay again. Watching one stat move is the fastest way to trust that the band is not fixed.
Keep learning
The TEEL paragraph
The paragraph structure every marker knows (Topic, Evidence, Explanation, Link), and how to write the Explanation so it actually analyses.
Read the guide →The conceptual thesis
Turn a plot-summary opening into a real idea about human experience that your whole essay can argue.
Read the guide →Building a Band 6 paragraph
Embed the evidence, weave context into the analysis, land the return line, and finish on the composer's craft.
Read the guide →See it in your own essay
Paste your essay and we will mark it against the real NESA criteria and rewrite your own sentences into full TEEL analysis toward Band 6. Free, about a minute.
Mark my essay — free →Band estimates are a study guide, not an official NESA mark. Aligned to the 2017 English Advanced syllabus (2019–2026 prescriptions).