English in Daily Life Test-taking Techniques

1. English in Daily LifeTest-taking Techniques By Feng Xue BeiwaiOnline

2. Contents • Structure and Strategies (各部分应试策略) • Written test • Oral test • Special exam items and their exam techniques (难点题型以及答题要领) • Marking criteria (评分标准, 得分点)

3. Exam Structure & Strategies

4. Structure & Strategies(各部分应试策略)– Written Session （笔试听力） Written Test+ Oral Test

5. Strategies for Listening （听力策略） • Pre-read to predict the main content. • Grab general ideas in the first listen, and more details in the second. • Listen for key words. • Don’t waste time thinking about one or two words you missed. • Be aware of paraphrase (换一种说法). • For example, “11am” can be paraphrased as “late in the morning” . • Write beginning letters instead of whole word when hearing long words. Add letters during pauses. • Be alert to tense, capitalization and parts of speech (时态、大小写和词性).

6. Structure & Strategies (各部分应试策略)– Written Session （笔试阅读） Written Test+ Oral Test

7. Strategies for Listening （阅读策略） • First scan – for main idea; then skim – for answers. • Don’t be put off by new words. They are always there. • Try to guess the meaning of some new words, and ignore the rest. • It is useless to worry about the words you think you missed when the tape is running. • Recognize paraphrase.

8. Structure & Strategies (各部分应试策略)– Written Session （笔试写作） Written Test+ Oral Test

9. DO’s Plan your time wisely. Plan your structure nicely. Read the instruction and underline key words. Keep your role and your reader in mind when setting off to write. Write according to English conventions. Proofread after writing. DON’Ts Don’t spend too much time or too many words on opening, leaving no space for body and end. Don’t write on your own will. Don’t write to nobody or to the examiner only. Don’t transfer Chinese punctuations in English writing. Don’t let simple errors affect your score. Strategies for Listening （听力策略）

10. Structure & Strategies (各部分应试策略)– Oral Session （会话口试） Written Test +Oral Test

11. Profile of a Good Speaker （口试要求） • 95: Demonstrates an extremely high level of oral English fluency rarely achieved by others. Excellent conversational skills, sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary. Able to argue and make points very clearly with only rare errors. Excellent pronunciation.

12. No reading from the test paper or your notes Appropriate body language (gesture, eye contact, facial expressions) No silent waiting. If you can’t quite understand your partner, ask your partner to repeat or rephrase. If your partner gets stuck, say something to keep the conversation going or to invite your partner’s responses. Don’t overdo your role, leaving no chance to your partner. No enquiry about your performance. Strategies for Oral Test(口试注意事项)

13. End of Exam Structure and Strategies

14. Special Items and Their Techniques(特殊题型及其答题要领) • Blank-filling • Short answer questions

15. All the following details are decisive for a point to be given or reduced: spelling word form word number capitalization (大小写) Special Items and Their Techniques –1 Blank-filling

16. “As foot specialists will tell you, shoes can be dangerous to your feet. The thinner and higher the heel, the greater the risk of foot and back problems. Standing in high heels inevitably hurts after an hour on foot. This results in aches and pains.” Special Items and Their Techniques (1) Short answer questions: Question 49. What are the harms high heels can do to people? You find the following sentences relevant in the text:

17. “As foot specialists will tell you, shoes can be dangerous to your feet. The thinner and higher the heel, the greater the risk of foot and back problems. Standing in high heels inevitably hurts after an hour on foot. This results in aches and pains.” Special Items and Their Techniques (1) Short answer questions: You should have found the underlined words useful: As they are all about foot problems, you can summarise them as: -- foot and back problems / It hurts. / foot aches and pains

18. Special Items and Their Techniques (1) • Let’s look at another example --

19. Special Items and Their Techniques Short answer questions: Question 50. Name at least two reasons why women wear high heels? You should notice that “at least two reasons” are required in your answer, so look out for a group of reasons in the text.

20. Special Items and Their Techniques Short answer questions: Question 50. Name at least two reasons why women wear high heels? With the above clue, you may easily find the following sentences relevant in the text: • “… So why do we do it? The traditional criticism is that women are slaves to male ideas. • “… Almost everyone is trying on the new higher heels. … • “… Feet look smaller in high heels. … And it is not just feet. High heels make a woman’s leg look longer, and everyone looks better with longer legs. … • “… It is what they do to your head, not your feet. That is what makes women walk differently and look differently in high heels. …“

21. Special Items and Their Techniques Short answer questions: Question 50. Name at least two reasons why women wear high heels? Then let’s find the key words in these ideas: • So why do we do it? The traditional criticism is that women are slaves to male ideas. • Almost everyone is trying on the new higher heels. • Feet look smaller in high heels. … And it is not just feet. High heels make a woman’s leg look longer, and everyone looks better with longer legs. • It is what they do to your head, not your feet. That is what makes women walk differently and look differently in high heels.

22. slaves to male ideas / influence of men’s ideas; intention to please men; social trend / fashion; looking better – smaller feet, longer legs; make women think differently, so they walk differently and look differently Special Items and Their Techniques Short answer questions: Now you can paraphrase the words as (any two of the following): So why do we do it? The traditional criticism is that women are slaves to male ideas. Almost everyone is trying on the new higher heels. Feet look smaller in high heels. … And it is not just feet. High heels make a woman’s leg look longer, and everyone looks better with longer legs. It is what they do to your head, not your feet. That is what makes women walk differently and look differently in high heels.

23. Summary of Short Answer Questions (简答题答题要领总结) • Step One: Identifying key words • Step Two: Check Understanding • Step Three: Paraphrasing & summarising

24. End of Special Item Analysis

25. Writing and Speaking Criteria写作及口语评分标准

26. Writing Criteria(写作评分标准) 规定使用的词汇少于8个每个扣0.5分；规定词汇使用错误每个扣0.5分。

27. 95: Demonstrates an extremely high level of Oral English fluency rarely achieved by others. Excellent conversational skills, sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary. Able to argue and make points very clearly with only rare errors. Excellent pronunciation. 85: Demonstrates a quite high level of Oral English skills. Fairly good sentence structure, very small grammar and vocabulary problems. Adequate conversation skills, no requirement for partner to repeat questions or ask student for explanation, but a few pronunciation errors cause the listener to concentrate. … 20: Has almost no oral English skills at all and uses Chinese constantly. Little vocabulary. Very poor pronunciation. Speaking Criteria(口语评分标准)

28. To get a high score • you need to aim high • You need to pay attention to the highlighted points above.

29. The End Wish you success!