Sample Reflections

This is a high-quality RPPF from a World Studies (interdisciplinary) essay. This candidate received the full 6/6 points. This is an exceptional set of reflections. The student's passion and overall sense of engagement practically leap off the page.

This set of reflections earned a 2/6. That puts them firmly in the "limited" category. The examiner for this essay and RPPF noted that the reflections show some personal engagement, warranting a 2 rather than a 1, but the reflections are overly descriptive and the student asserts things without any support or discussion. (The essay overall scored a high-ish C, 19/34. Better reflections, giving a clear sense of engagement, could have pushed this to a B.)

These reflections earned 4/6 points, and come quite close to the 5-6 markband. Their strengths are in the way they reflect on decisions they made and analyze their process, but the reflections sometimes veer too far into "descriptive" territory. The first and second reflections arguably have a little too much empahsis on the student's supervisor; the supervisor should not be providing sources, and they possibly cost the student a good opportunity for engagement/reflection by giving them that level of help.

A good lesson to learn here is that your supervisor is an important part of the process, but YOU are the main event: what your supervisor says matters a lot less here than what you DO or how that pushes you in a certain direction. (e.g. "my supervisor told me my research question wasn't good enough so I changed it" vs "my supervisor told me my research question wasn't good enough, so I revisited it. Upon reflection, I saw that it was too broad, and decided to narrow my focus to ____________. This has given me a clearer idea of what I should be looking for, and I've been doing more research on ________________.")