FOR TEACHERS ONLY: Some notes on the exam

[Essam ABDOU]

I`m very sorry for being out of sight for quite a long time, but my main work is away from Thanwya Amma.

Teacher to teacher, the exam is fine and fair for the average student, but there are some points that should be noted:
- In Q 1, "answers will vary", so any student can answer all of it correctly.
- In Q 2, surely "aliens` department" and "embassy" have been studied throughout the year.
- In Q 3: MCQ 4: "plateau" is also not mentioned in any of the 3 books! Why do we insist on confusing the students when there are hundreds of words to use instead? Then, In MCQ 6: Look up "harvest" in Cambridge Advanced Learner`s Dictionary, you`ll find that one of the examples used is: grain harvest, but the official answer to MCQ 6 is "yield". You cannot say that "harvest" is wrong, because the meaning is the same in this context.
Harvest = the crops which are cut and collected.
the grain/potato/grape harvest
We had a good harvest this year
- In Q 4: The word "concerning" is not mentioned in any of the 3 books (TB, SB or W – There are "concern" and "concerned" though. So, many students used "concerned" as in "As far as I`m concerned". By the way "concerning" here just means "about" and in that case it is a preposition. Sentences 2 and 4 could have more than one answer, which is for the students` benefit.
- In Q 5: The passage is fabricated and shows the examiner`s gross INefficiency in writing, as if there weren`t any authentic English texts to use instead.
- In the first sentence we have both: "quickly" and "nowadays".
- In the second sentence we have a misuse of an idiom: "get acquainted with". Then, what does "this unimaginative and unlimited area" refer to? Is it "the web"? How come?
- In the third sentence, we have a misuse of the future perfect tense: The sentence should go like this: BY 2013, one out of every seven people on the planet will have HAD a Facebook account. Also, Facebook was not capitalized in the passage.
- In Q 6: Nothing to mention.
- In Q 7: We got used that students lose half a mark if a quotation out of nowhere comes in the exam. However, some students got it right.
- In Q 8: I guess every student has been trained to write a friendly letter.
- In Q 9: Some words may not be answered correctly by the students such as: Birth place (مهد) and self-sufficiency. "cradle" should have been used instead of birthplace (one word – not two words).

- Exams do not "harm the brilliant one" as some people say. There must always be differentiating questions in any exam. These questions show who is clever and who is not, who studies English as a language and who memorises only and thinks that any prediction by his teacher is a law the examiner has to follow, or that whatever comes in the teacher`s sheets will surely appear in the exam. We follow the set books and the evaluation book as well as the Longman website exercises plus the samples provided by the ministry. Students should deal with these first, then they can do other sheets for more practice. Again, Vocabulary is not TABLES and BOXES – vocabulary is context, and so is grammar.
- Our students need to study English as a language. What`s the use of all the resources of teaching English on the Internet? I think that learning English is much easier now for our students than ever before. Students need to READ and READ and READ genuine texts. Moreover, our students need to think well before deciding on the answers. They need to learn techniques of answering exams.

Best Regards

[sayyed.com]

السلام عليكم يا مستر
هو فعلا تمديد الاقامة من السفارة؟

[مستر محمد أيمن]

Thanks a lot Mr. Essam for this precise ****ysis

[مستر محمد أيمن]

Thanks a lot M. Essam for your precise ****ysis of the exam

[Sara Essam nour]

المكان التاني ينفع يبقي airport
هي هتبقى concernedولاconcerned

[kukluxcclan]

thanks Mr.Essam for this elaboration , but if you give me chance to comment

1- yield is the right answer for sure because harvest means the process of gathering but yield refers to the process of increase or decrease.

2-i agree with you about 'concerning' you are completely right.

3- as for the translation i think all related answers are acceptable / cradle/ birth i think he chose it to make it easier for students, but i don't think it is wrong.

4- generally speaking, the exam should be difficult not easy to expect to show the skills student have learned for 15 years , you know we learn and teach English for the sake of exam only , this is the problem , we should learn language not a mere subject

[Essam ABDOU]

المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة kukluxcclan

thanks Mr.Essam for this elaboration , but if you give me chance to comment

1- yield is the right answer for sure because harvest means the process of gathering but yield refers to the process of increase or decrease.

2-i agree with you about 'concerning' you are completely right.

3- as for the translation i think all related answers are acceptable / cradle/ birth i think he chose it to make it easier for students, but i don't think it is wrong.

4- generally speaking, the exam should be difficult not easy to expect to show the skills student have learned for 15 years , you know we learn and teach English for the sake of exam only , this is the problem , we should learn language not a mere subject

Sir, imagine that you have these two sentences:

Egypt`s grain yield has increased since 2001
Egypt`s grain harvest has increased since 2001

Can we say that Sentence 2 is WRONG? I don`t think so.

I agree that "yield" has a different connotation from harvest, but in my humble opinion using 'harvest' is not wrong. The example I gave from the dictionary was "a good harvest" which also shows there could be increase or decrease, just like a low or a high yield.

Best Regards

[Essam ABDOU]

المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة مستر محمد أيمن

Thanks a lot Mr. Essam for this precise ****ysis

My pleasure.

[Essam ABDOU]

المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة sayyed.com

السلام عليكم يا مستر
هو فعلا تمديد الاقامة من السفارة؟

Yes.
Please wait for the official answer. The teachers who started correction will give you feedback on all the questions.

Best Wishes

[Essam ABDOU]

المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة Sara Essam nour

المكان التاني ينفع يبقي airport
هي هتبقى concernedولاconcerned

No. It is not an airport. Nothing refers to an airport in the mini-dialogue
taxi - street - road are all possible answers

Comcerning is the easy and straightforward answer

Best Regards

[victor222]

Thanks a lot

[Essam ABDOU]

المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة victor222

Thanks a lot

My pleasure

[الاسوانى محمد حسين]

تحياتى لك استاذى الكريم:
اريد ان اعرف بالتحديد فى اى صفحة اتتalien's departmentفى الصف الثانى
وايضا اريد ان اعرف drop someone off اين ذكرت
ذكرت هذة الكلمات فى منهج excel in english وكما يعرف كل مدرسى اللغة الانجليزية انه تم تغير هذا الكتاب بـ helloثم بالكتاب الجديد
ومن المفروض فى هذا السؤال يستخدم الطالب اللغه فى مواقف تشبه المواقف الحياتيه اليومية لا ان يخمن معنى جديد
هناك اسئلة اخرى هدفها التخمين.
ثانيا
السؤال الرابع اوجد الخطا حاص بـgrammar and structure يعنى لا يخرج عن ما ذكره مؤلف الكتاب فى كل وحدة لا ان ياتى باشياء خارج المنهح مثل concerningاو ياتى باشيائ ذكرت فى المنهج بين السطور ولم تكن من ضمن key vocabulary & structure مثل a three year contract
عموما دعنا ننظر للواقع كم عدد الطلاب الممتازة الذين اخفقوا فى اكثر من جملة نسبة النجاح ستكون مرتفعة لان اغلب الامتحان سهل اما الطلاب الفائقين فقد تلاعب بهم.
ثم عزيزى الاستاذ كل ما نريد ان تثبت سياسة واضعى الامتحان ولا يكون على حسب اهواء واراء ومعتقدات واضعه . نريد سياسة واضحة وثابته.
وفى النهاية تقبل تحياتى

[kukluxcclan]

يااخوانى والله المشكلة ان العملية التعليمية ماشية غلط والمدرسين
للاسف بيساعدوا على استمرار هذا الخطأ ، بمعنى ان الطالب بيدرس اللغة
للامتحان ومش قادر يفهم ان اللغة كيان مبنى على بعضه ولازم اطلاع خارجى
وعلى المدرسين اعطاء معلومات زيادة للطلبة فى المراحل الابتدائية والاعدادية
قبل الثانوى ونعرف الطالب انه ممكن يقرأ معلومة لا قبل للمدرس بها ولا تقلل من
اهمية واحترام المدرس ، لكن للاسف اللغة عندنا جامدة 1 + 1 = 2

[Michael Jackson Lover]

يعنى حضرتك نبقى اجانب عشان نجاوب الامتحان نحفظ كلمات اللغة كلها عشان الامتحان و يمكن كمان ميجيش من الكلمات اللى اتحفظت ايه اسلوب التعليم ده يا ناس هنفضل كده لحد امتى