Did I spot that there are some MFL teachers on this thread? Can I ask a niche question about the French writing paper (Edexcel, in case it makes a difference) - my son usually writes much more than the required 80-90 words and 130-150 words. Neither of us can figure out if this a good thing or a bad thing, and the mark scheme doesn't really give me much of a clue. On the one hand, there's more opportunity to develop his ideas and use more complex structures, and on the other hand, there's simply more scope for errors. Any thoughts from anyone much appreciated - should I be coaching him to be more concise and try and fit the more complex stuff into less words, which he might find quite a challenge? Timing never appears to be an issue, he always has tonnes of time left over.
@somethingerudite the examiner will mark what is written, whether that is more or less that advised. In fact the MS is very clear that even if for the longer essay, the candidate writes less than 130 words, there will be no penalty for that. The thing is that if they write a lot less, then they are less likely to be able to hit the targets for communication (covering all bullet points, using complex language as you say). If they write more, then yes, and IME very much so, errors start to creep in.
Are his practice essays totally error-free? If not, then a better use of his time would be to correct them rather than writing more. For sure there are no extra marks for writing more; and he absolutely can get all the marks (in terms of scope for developed ideas, use of tenses) by writing the number of words requested. If he has tonnes of time left over btw that's a bit of a concern. The paper is only 80 mins – what do you mean by tonnes? As I say, a good use of time is to check his work – common mistakes include incorrect tense formation, incorrect person (Elle suis allée), use of infinitive instead of conjugated verb, mother-tongue interference and not knowing the right vocab. Gender, accents and adjective agreements are minor errors (tho obvs still best avoided).
Here's a screenshot of the relevant element of the MS: