KNOWING THE EXAM

It is so important to know the layout of the exam. You obviously have to know it but your students should to.

Firstly - what are the five parts of the exam?

Reading - 1 hour 15 minutes

Writing - 1 hour 30 minutes

Use of English - 1 hour

Listening - 40 minutes

Speaking - 15 minutes

My advice for the students on the day - DON'T SPEAK TO EACH OTHER DURING THE BREAKS!! Its only natural , the students have finished a section of the exam and it's break time. They walk over to a fellow exam taker and strike up a conversation about the test they've jst completed. In my mind it goes a little something like this:

A ) " So, how was the reading exam"

B) "It was OK. Not as bad as I thought it would be"

A) "I thought part 2 was quite tricky"

B) nods

A)" What did you choose for number 8?"

B) "uummmmm...D"

and then this is where the absolute panic starts to set it, followed by questioning and second guessing, where the student starts to think that maybe every answer is wrong.WRONG!!!!

Why does this happen? Because student A knows for a fact that for number 8, the answer he gave was "B" and not "D".

Now you have one very stressed student, who has to go back and finish writing another three exams, and their mind is on the Part 2, number 8 of the reading exam when they should be thinking about the next exam.

Simple solution, tell your students from the first day, and keep reminding them that THEY DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE EXAM DURING THE BREAKS.