Guidelines to assist Students in preparing for Tests and Examinations

1. Guidelines to assist Students in preparing for Tests and Examinations

2. Homework is designed as a consolidation and reinforcement of school work. • Revision should cover the following: • General English exercise books • Textbook (as set out in the syllabus) • Workbook exercises • Supplementary worksheets • Comprehension worksheets • Grammar worksheets • Revision papers

3. Ability to apply or use the language in context is more useful than reproducing the contents of the textbook. • Students’ ability to think, analyze, deduce and make conclusions on the basis of available information is encouraged. • Supplementary exercises are more useful as exam preparation than mechanical drilling. • Doing revision papers gives important practice in efficient time allocation.

4. Sample Test / Exam Syllabus St. Stephen’s Girls’ Primary School 2007 – 08 Primary 5 English (1st Term Test) Syllabus: MPaH! Textbook 5A (p.20 – 37), Workbook 5A (p.18, 19, 22 – 25), G.E., Supplementary Ex., Comprehension Ex., Grammar (Simple Past Tense, Future Tense, connectives ‘and’ ‘as’ ‘but’) Section I: Language forms and usage (50 marks) Section II: Reading and Listening Comprehension (30 marks) Section III: Guided Writing (20 marks)

5. Section I: Language forms and usage (50 marks) • related to the textbook • ability to use the vocabulary, language forms, verb forms and sentence structures is important.

6. Section II: Reading and Listening Comprehension (30 marks) • Reading Comprehension (approx. 20 marks) • Skills for tackling reading comprehension questions: • Read the passage carefully, paying special attention to any dates, times, places, people and incidents • Pay attention to the sequence of major events and the main ideas/themes of the passage

7. Read the questions carefully, noting any difficult, non-literal questions. Allocate more time to these • Once finished, quickly read each question again, together with your answer, and see if you have answered it sensibly and fully • For critical thinking questions, ensure you justify your ideas with a sensible argument. Unusual opinions, well justified, get the best marks.

8. Listening Comprehension (approx. 10 marks) • Skills for tackling listening comprehension questions: • Study the listening part to know exactly what you are required to do • By reading the questions, try to guess what the tape will say • When the teacher plays the recording again, tick off each of your answers as you hear those facts mentioned

9. Section III: Guided Writing (20 marks) • Skills for tackling guided writing: • Study the pictures and guidelines carefully • Study how the given words / phrases relate to the pictures • Build up the story with the words / phrases given • Pay attention to text type / grammar items / sentence structures • Add in adjectives, e.g. cunning, happy, sad, beautiful,etc. to describe the characters and scenes

10. Use connectives, e.g. and, but, then, however, therefore, after, next, etc. to improve the flow of the writing • Use your imagination to make the writing more interesting, especially when you are asked to give an ending • Re-read quickly, looking only for correct syntax • Re-read quickly, looking only for any missed or incorrect prepositions

11. Guidelines to help Children improve English

12. Parent involvement is most important. • Try to create an English learning environment in your home by: • Listening to native speakers via radio, TV, videos, songs and story tapes • Communicating in English, e.g. family members use English on one day • Make English fun to learn by introducing nursery rhymes/poems/verses/games/cartoon strips. • Learn every day English through the media, e.g. notices and signs on public transport, sign posts and posters in the streets and TV commercials. • Reading aloud will help improve oral English.

13. Extensive reading of books, magazines, journals and newspapers is the best way to improve reading skills • Articles related to the themes in the textbook may be read to increase interest in, and awareness of the topic. • The use of a dictionary to improve students’ study skills should be encouraged. • Keeping a diary, writing letters, journals and travel reports, collecting reports and articles from newspapers and books, and project work will help improve students’ writing skills. • Keep a note book for language items and vocabulary learnt during lessons. Try to write sentences using the newly-introduced sentence structures and vocabulary.