Mark it against your own module's rubric, before your marker does. That document is the actual grading criteria, it's usually on the VLE, and most students never open it.
Read the essay once per criterion rather than all at once. Any predicted grade — from a tool or a friend — is a diagnostic, not a promise: no estimate binds your marker.
The rubric is the answer, and nobody reads it
Every marked assessment in a UK university has published criteria: what a first demonstrates, what a 2:1 demonstrates, and so on, usually broken into four or five dimensions such as argument, use of evidence, structure, critical analysis and presentation. Your marker works down that grid. Reading your own essay against the same grid is the single most accurate prediction available to you, and it costs half an hour.
The trick is to read once per criterion. Reading the whole thing and forming a general impression tells you how you feel about it. Reading it four times asking one narrow question each pass tells you where it actually sits.
What separates a 2:2 from a 2:1
Almost always the same thing, across almost every subject: analysis versus description. A 2:2 essay accurately explains what the sources say. A 2:1 essay does something with them — weighs them against each other, identifies where they conflict, and says what follows.
Cover everything but one body paragraph. Does it end by telling the reader what this evidence means for your argument? Or does it end where the summary of the source ends? The second is description, and description caps at a 2:2 however well written it is.
The step from a 2:1 to a first is usually a different one: an argument that is genuinely yours, sustained across the whole essay, engaging with the strongest counter-position rather than the easiest one.
Four fast checks before you submit
- Read your introduction and conclusion back to back. If the conclusion answers a different question, the essay drifted — and markers notice this within a minute.
- Check every paragraph's first sentence in isolation. Read together, they should form a coherent argument. If they read as a list of topics, your structure is descriptive.
- Count how many sources appear more than once. A source cited once is usually decoration; a source you return to is one you actually used.
- Answer the question as literally worded. “Evaluate” and “describe” are different instructions, and marks are allocated to the one printed on the brief.
What a predicted grade is good for
A second opinion that doesn't know you and isn't tired. Useful for spotting that your evidence is thin or your structure wanders — the things you can no longer see at 1am on the fourth read. Not useful as a number to relax about, because your marker has context no tool has: the seminar, the module's emphasis, and what the rest of the cohort did.
More depth in our guides on how lecturers actually mark and pushing from a 2:2 to a 2:1.
SafeGrade gives you a rough grade band against UK criteria, plus what's holding it back — structure, evidence, referencing. Private, never stored, never used for training.
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