To check your own essay before you submit it, work through 7 steps in this order: decode the question, test the essay against each marking criterion, read only your topic sentences, check every piece of evidence, read it aloud, check you've acted on your last teacher feedback, then stop. It takes about 15 minutes, works on any extended response from Year 9 to the HSC, and needs only your task notification, your draft, and your last marked task.
The order matters. The first 3 checks find the problems that cost the most marks, and there's no point fixing a comma in a paragraph you're about to rewrite.
I teach History, and when I mark Stage 6 History essays, the expensive mistakes are rarely spelling. They're answers to a slightly different question, description where the question asked for a judgement, and evidence that's never explained. NESA's 2025 Ancient History marking feedback asked students to "review their response to ensure that it addresses the question requirements". Here's how to do that.
Before you start: get the marking criteria
In Years 11 and 12, NESA's rules say a task notification must include the marking criteria "where appropriate", and NESA's own example is that criteria "may be appropriate for an essay-type task, but not for a trial exam". For a past HSC question, use the marking guidelines in that year's NESA exam pack. In Year 9 or 10, if there's no criteria sheet, ask your teacher for one.
Set a timer. The minutes below are a guide.
Step 1: decode the question (2 minutes)
Circle the directive verb, then underline every other part of the question: the dates, the "TWO", the "in your response, refer to". NESA's 2025 Modern History feedback asked students to "read the question carefully to ensure that they do not miss important components of the question".
Then check what the verb asks for. Here are 2 common verbs, word for word from NESA's glossary of key words:
Explain: Relate cause and effect. Make the relationships between things evident. Provide why and/or how.
Assess: Make a judgement of value, quality, outcomes, results or size.
An explain essay needs cause and effect throughout. An assess essay needs a judgement; one that knows a lot but never judges hasn't answered the question. Read the verb as part of the whole question, though: the glossary itself warns against "rigid interpretations of key words".
This is also where a recycled essay shows. NESA's 2025 feedback for both Ancient and Modern History asked students to engage with the question "rather than presenting a pre-prepared response". If your essay would fit last term's question just as well, it isn't answering this one.
Step 2: check each marking criterion (3 minutes)
Read the top band of the criteria line by line. For each line, find the sentence in your essay that proves you've done it, and write the criterion's number in the margin beside that sentence. A line with no sentence beside it is your first fix.
Then read the band below. The words that change between bands show what the marker is sorting on. The Module B rubric guide does this for a whole NESA rubric.
Step 3: read only your topic sentences (2 minutes)
Read the first sentence of every body paragraph, in order, and nothing else. Together they should read like a short answer to the question.
NESA's 2025 Modern History markers asked for "succinct topic sentences that link directly to the question and reflect consistent evaluative judgement" (Question 12).
The quickest test: could this sentence sit at the top of anyone's essay on this topic? If so, it names a topic instead of arguing.
Before and after: a vague topic sentence made specific
Here's an example from Ancient History's Cities of Vesuvius study, which I've taught. The question and both sentences were written for this guide.
Question: Assess the usefulness of written and archaeological sources for understanding the eruption of AD 79.
Before: Pliny the Younger is an important source for the eruption of Vesuvius.
After: Pliny the Younger's letters are the most useful written source for the sequence of the eruption, but his distance from Pompeii and his reason for writing limit their reliability.
"Important" could top any paragraph about Pliny, and it doesn't judge, so it can't answer an assess question. It's the kind of sentence NESA's 2025 Ancient History markers warned against: "general information such as 'the eruption of Mount Vesuvius was significant'".
The after version uses the question's own word ("useful"), makes a judgement, and gives the paragraph its jobs: show that Pliny watched the eruption from Misenum, about 30 kilometres across the Bay of Naples from Pompeii, and that he wrote his 2 letters more than 20 years later, for the historian Tacitus, who had asked about his uncle's death. For a full worked source answer on Pliny, see how to write an HSC History source analysis.
(2026 and 2027 HSC students are on the 2017 Ancient History syllabus; the new syllabus has its first HSC exam in 2028.)
Step 4: check every piece of evidence (3 minutes)
Underline each piece of evidence and ask 2 questions. Is it specific: a name, a date, a figure, a quote, a named source? Does the next sentence explain what it proves, or just move on to the next fact?
NESA's 2025 Ancient History markers asked students to improve by "incorporating specific pieces of evidence about industries to support their response, rather than listing examples of evidence that relate to industries" (Question 3). A list of facts shows you know things, not that you can argue with them. If your explanations are thin, the PEEL guide shows how to build one, and the TEEL guide does the same for writing about a text.
What counts as specific changes by subject: the Act, section or case name in Legal Studies, and a figure with its period and source in Economics.
Step 5: read it aloud (3 minutes)
Your ear catches what your eye skips: the sentence that runs out of breath, the missing word, the "this" that could mean 4 different things. Short of time? Read the introduction, the conclusion, and the paragraph you're least sure of.
Expression is marked. NESA's 2025 Ancient History feedback asked students to "communicate ideas and information using historical terms and concepts accurately", so check every subject term as you go.
Step 6: check your last feedback (2 minutes)
In Years 11 and 12, NESA's rules require teachers to give you feedback on each formal assessment task, so you already have notes. Find the 1 or 2 comments from last time and look for the same problem in this draft. "More analysis" sends you back to step 4; "answer the question", to steps 1 and 3.
Teachers notice when the comment on your last task would fit this one too. I do.
Step 7: know when to stop
Stop when every criterion has a sentence beside it, every topic sentence answers the question, and every piece of evidence is explained. Fix what the checks found, in that order, and submit. Past that point you're mostly swapping words, and a big rewrite the night before can break the essay you've just checked.
In an exam, it's 2 minutes
If you're sitting the 2026 HSC, your written exams run from Tuesday 13 October to Thursday 5 November. Keep steps 1 and 3. Decode the question and plan before you write (NESA's 2025 Ancient History feedback suggested using "the first page of the extended response answer booklet to develop a plan"), then read your topic sentences against the question before time's up.
This matters beyond exams. From Term 4 2026, NESA limits each HSC course to 1 take-home assessment task, worth up to 15% (Year 11 courses follow in 2027, and a few courses with major projects or practical exams are exempt). Every other task happens in class, in an exam, or under conditions your teacher monitors, where you're the only one who can check your essay.
Where MarkMate fits
Everything above works with a pen. MarkMate is a second reader, with a rule to know first.
NESA's 2026 HSC rules list "unauthorised use of generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools" as malpractice, and whether AI is allowed in a school-based assessment task is your school's decision. So use MarkMate for practice writing, such as past HSC questions before your exams, or for tasks where your school and task notification allow AI tools. If the notification doesn't say, ask your teacher first.
With MarkMate, you upload your task notification with its marking criteria (a Word, PDF or Markdown file), then paste your draft, upload it as a Word or PDF file, or photograph your handwritten pages (check the typed-up text before you run it). MarkMate scores each criterion with feedback, quotes your own sentences as strengths and areas for improvement, and flags problems such as an underdeveloped paragraph, or describing when the question says evaluate. Revise, then re-check.
The scores are a guide, not your mark, and MarkMate's results page says so: "MarkMate's feedback helps you improve your draft, but your teacher's mark is final." The fixing should be your own work, because NESA's rules require teachers to award marks "based on evidence of the student's own knowledge, skills and understanding, and not the use of generative artificial intelligence".
A free account gives you 5 self-checks a month. Student Plus is A$7.99 a month, or A$5.49 a month billed annually (A$65.88 a year), for 30 self-checks a month, GST included. Start at the essay checker.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I check my essay against the marking criteria?
Read the top band line by line and find the sentence in your essay that proves each line; any line without one is your first fix. Then read the band below, because the words that change between bands show what the marker is sorting on.
Is it cheating to use AI to check my essay?
It depends on the task: NESA's 2026 HSC rules list "unauthorised use of generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools" as malpractice, and your school decides whether AI is allowed in each school-based task. Check your task notification and your school's assessment policy, and if neither says, ask your teacher before you use any AI tool.
How do I know if my essay is a Band 6?
A single essay doesn't get a band: NESA assigns a performance band for each course, based on your HSC mark, and Band 6 is 90 to 100 marks. You can compare your writing with your course's Band 6 performance band description and NESA's HSC standards materials, which show real student responses at the borders between bands.