Focus!

I've been going through my assessments as we have mid-term reports to write and go out for next week and looking at them globally allows me to see things in a slightly different light. The writing assessments have been poor, spelling and poor hand writing letting my guys down especially. I am thinking of my FCE guys, though my CAE guys are almost equally culpable. By now, my students at FCE level should not be spelling 'writting' instead of writing, or 'oppening', oh you get the idea. None of these errors are because of lack of knowledge but are for lack of attention. You know how to do this stuff. Just focus, get it right and you'll be fine. Remember, the writing is one fifth, that's 20%, of the exam grade.

Ambition will be rewarded

I was at a training session yesterday discussing the Cambridge exams and some interesting points came up. The emphasis of the meeting was the speaking exam and we had a look at some of Cambridge's most recent releases to try and judge the 'correct' score given. After some reflection I feel that I personally haven't been paying enough attention to cohesive markers and perhaps been playing it a little too safe with my KISS strategy (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). Sure, by keeping things simple and answering the question and having a few fixed phrases at the ready you can pass the speaking exam (attain a level 3 or so), but if you are (or have a student) expecting an 'A' grade then you're going to need to do more. At FCE we need to hear linking devices, such as 'Firstly', 'on the other hand', oh, you get the idea.
Also, we are going to need to hear more advanced grammar to get that 'A' grade. Let's have some decent conditional sentences, they are not so hard really, and so interesting adjectives (good, bad and nice are just not enough!).
So, get the basics right, then reach for the stars and have a bit of ambition.
Exams in May and June for my guys.... get studying.

Exams Loom

Travel Chaos reigns across Europe, but as it's no one's fault really, no one complains too much. My Dad was due to come and visit next week, but we'll see. My cousin was on his honeymoon in Rome and was complaining that he was stuck there and couldn't get back to work. My heart bleeds!
My exam guys are due to have solid exam prep until the exams in June, and because of the Portuguese national exams some of them are unlucky enough to have to do a May exam! It's late in the day to worry too much, but top of my list of things you should revise are phrasal verbs. Set/Take/Get/Make for the moment (you'll see these pop up in class in the next two weeks or so) but keep an eye on these.
I am also concerned STILL about silly spelling mistakes. Is it just my students who hate writting (sic) practise.

Easter Break

Sorry I haven't been posting recently. We've been away on our holidays for the Easter break. But now we face the summer term, the time when most of my guys will take their exams. So, all that homework that you have been putting off, all that grammar you neglected to learn... the clock is ticking (an idiom meaning that time is running out) and my classes are going to find themselves doing almost continuous solid exam prep. There's no avoiding it. I am particularly concerned about the timings of exam answers (either my guys rush through them with a million and one spelling and grammar errors or they dawdle and don't finish the paper) and also concerned about writing paper length. In your practice papers count the words of your answers so you get to know what looks like the right length. Trust me, after three or four tries you can guestimate the number of words in your own writing to within ten or so words. It's a handy skill to have. Soon then it's nose to the grindstone (another idiom meaning just hard work).

Simple Stuff

A busy day examining yesterday - FCE and CAE students in a city near here. The students were good, and well prepared. But there were some simple errors which I really should not be hearing at this level. One girl, perhaps over-reacting to the Portuguese tendency to overuse articles, used none! Another student decided that there were only two prepositions in English (for and in)although might have been saved a fail by excellent vocabulary (which we suspected had been learned from computer games). The thought for today therefore is: cut out the simple mistakes. Much easier to say than do, but by focusing on the simple tasks, and with good exam technique, a really low level student can pass these exams.