MY ANSWERS FOR MUET READING PAPER MID-YEAR 2011

View 2011 Mid Year MUET paper here.
SPECIAL THANKS TO SINGER YOON FOR SCANNING & EMAILING THE READING PAPER TO ME. MUCH APPRECIATED.

Right, so here are the much awaited answers that I've done on my own, so I don't guarantee it will be exactly the same as MPM's answers. To me, there are only two ambiguous questions but I will not mention which ones. If the comments I recieve touch on those then maybe I will change my answers. Compared to last year's answers, this paper is more straightforward. :P Good luck you all... and if you want to know a 'predictive' band, just multiply your mark by 300 and divide by 45. This will give you an estimated 'band'. Band 1 = 0 - 99, B2 = 100 - 139, B3 = 140 - 179, B4 = 180 - 219, B5 = 220 - 259 & B6 = 260 - 300

1. B (new answer thanks to Adrian Lee)
2. A
3. B
4. C
5. B
6. B
7. C
8. B
9. A
10. A
11. A
12. C
13. C
14. A
15. C
16. A
17. B
18. C
19. A
20. C
21. B
22. B
23. A
24. C
25. A
26. A
27. B
28. C
29. B
30. B
31. D
32. B
33. C
34. B
35. D
36. A
37. B
38. D
39. A
40. A
41. D
42. A
43. D
44. B
45. B


Well? What is your estimated band based on my answers? Hope it's good news!

NEED READING PAPER!

Hey all.. I can't seem to access the paper on scribd. So someone needs to scan the exam paper and email to me asap!!! argggh.. so frustrating.

Anyway, please take a look at my two sample answers for the report in a previous post.

Anyone wants to attempt the friendship question again and let me mark and publish it? :P Cheers ya'all!

MUET REPORT WRITING 2011

Here are my sample answers.

BAND 3 - 4:

Profile of Professionals & Main Goals

The stimuli present a table on the profile of professionals and another on their main goals. In general, the two groups have very different profiles and goals where the younger group aims to make more money while the other focuses more on health.

According to the first table, most professionals aged 18 to 27 are junior executives and earn an average of RM3000 with 5 years of work experience. Only 40% of young professionals are married while almost all senior professionals are married (95%). Senior managers aged between 46 to 55 have an average of 20 years work experience. They earn more than triple the salary of a junior executive.

Based on the second table, both groups have very different goals for the year ahead. The younger group ranks making more money as top priority followed by improving technology and communication skills. Meanwhile, the older group focuses more on health, saving money and prioritising family time while goals related to money, improving skills and new friends are not as important to them.

In conclusion, priorities change depending on age group where the younger generation focuses on making money while the older generation cares more about their health and saving money.

(200 words)


BAND 5 - 6:

Profile of Professionals & Main Goals for the Year Ahead by Age Group

The stimuli present a table on profiles of professionals and another on their main goals for the year ahead. In general, the youngsters focus on accumulating wealth while the more affluent older group can afford to concentrate on health.

Based on the information provided, the profile of a professional from the 18 to 27 years age group are mainly junior executives who have worked an average of 5 years and 40% are married. They only earn RM3000 so and their main goal is to make more money. Also top on their list is to improve their technology and communication skills rather than saving money or spending time with family.

The profile of an older professional is completely opposite as these 46 to 55 year olds hold the position of senior manager with 20 years experience and earn more than triple a junior executive’s salary. 95% are married therefore their priorities have changed to focus on being more healthy, saving money and spending family time rather than on new friendships.

In conclusion, the two groups have very different goals for the year ahead as the juniors prioritise money and skills while the mostly married seniors concentrate on health, savings and family.

(200 words)

So this round is finally over. :P Had fun?

Well today seems to be a momentous day... for MUET candidates and Sarawakians & all and sundry. We will just have to wait for the results patiently. Anyway, I have no access to the reading paper as my students are only sitting for the exam at the end of the year. Can someone give me a link or upload their exam paper to www.scribd.com or google documents? I also want to see the questions for the report and academic essay, preferably verbatim. So anyone who can post the question with exact phrasing, could you do so immediately. Looking forward to analysing the reading paper.. :P Cheers you all... time for some R&R. xxx Audrey xxx

Using the MUET SPEAKING questions to develop your academic essays.

The quality of the speaking questions this year indicates the level of questions that might be asked in the other 3 papers on the 16th. As an exercise, you can use the speaking questions to write academic essays to show your linguistic and critical thinking skills. My readers hve contributed the latest speaking topics.. so you can try writing using any 3 of the points given. For example: Write 350 words on what can be done to produce more world class sportsmen and sportswomen in Malaysia. Use 3 of the 4 points given: parents, public, school or ministry of youth and sports. or Write 350 words on your suggestions for new compulsory subjects for form 6 students in malaysia. choose 3 of the 4 points given: sex education, financial management, personal health or religious education. There are more speaking topics in my previous blog post= http://http://muetmyway.blogspot.com/2011/04/muet-speaking-april-2011.html#comments So if you have tried to write one, I will post it here... but WITHOUT CORRECTIONS as I dont think i hve the time to check it.. but I can give you an estimated Band so you can know your standard. Email to queendrey@gmail.com Happy penning everyone!

Responding to Erin's email

hi dear Teacher Audrey Wiles: my name is Erin. i come from China and study in ukm. i read ur blog http://muetmyway.blogspot.com/ ,it is really good and helps me a lot. my muet will be on 16 Apr. this is 1st time i paticipate in muet. i got ilets 6.0 last year n very worried about whether i can get band 3 of muet. now i m working on it. may i ask you some questions plz? 1. i ve finish my speaking part on 11st Apr. my topci is that when we should seek advice from parents? a.to find a life partener; b.to live by your own; c.to go abroad; d. to by a car. i got c. in group discussion part our group ran out of time n didnt make a decision.may i ask is this situation bad? are we going to be cut a lot of marks? There is nothing wrong with not coming to a decision. The examiners will not mark down because even in real life conversation sometimes we end a discussion without coming to any real decisions. 2. i bought 2 books 'effective text for muet by koh soo ling' n 'muet model tests by koh soo ling'. i ve almost finish these two books about the listening n reading part. but i dont know how to count marks for the model tests so i still dont know which band im in now. there are 20 questions in listening but totally 45 marks. n there are 45 questions but totally 120 marks in reading part. so could u tell me how to count points for each question plz? Check out my older posts, I have already blogged about the calculations twice. I've also included the slides with all the tips. Those who asked for the slides, I will not email, just hv a look here. If you can't see it it is probably because of your firewall settings so please adjust them, 3. about the listening process: in the cds that given by two books. every passage is speaking for just once. so i m not sure the exactly timing for each question n how long time do i get to look at the questions before the speaker starts. The commercial books don't waste money recording twice so you have to physically press playback in order to hear the passage again. beside,how long time do i get to copy all answers from scratch paper to exam paper plz? (is it 5 min?) There is no exam paper or answer paper. You are required to write all your answers and circle the objective answers on the question paper itself. There is no OMR to fill in. After you listen to each passage you will have 1 min to choose/check your answers. is the whole listening process like this: 1min to read all questions. speak reads 1st passage. 1 min to answer question 1-8. speaker reads 1st passage again. 1 min to answer n check question 1-8. speaker reads 2nd passage. 1 min to answer question 9-14. speaker reads 2nd passage again. 1 min to answer n check question 9-14. speaker reads 3rd passage. 1 min to answer question 15-16. speaker reads 4th passage. 1 min to answer question 17-18. speaker reads 5th passage. 1 min to answer question 19-20. speaker reads 3rd passage again. 1 min to answer n check question 15-16. speaker reads 4th passage again. 1 min to answer n check question 17-18. speaker reads 5th passage again. 1 min to answer n check question 19-20. listening test ends. YUP 4. about listening part III: when i do the book of 'muet model tests', it is much easier in this part because there are original sentences in the listening passage. eg.1. corrective maintenace is usually done to restore the____________________. in the listening passage,the speaker says,"corrective maintenance,on the other hand, refers to maintenance done to correct a problem when something has failed, or is failing. this is usually done to restore the facility to an acceptable standard, for example,..." the answer is "the facility to an acceptable". but in book "effective text for muet",model test 1 part III, there are 3 out of 6 answers cannot originally found from the passage but the answer should be summerised by the meaning of text as a whole. eg.2. looking great on the outside is simple. on the contrary,_______________. the answer is "it is difficult to achieve". but the whole passage in cd script doesnt show any sentence contains the words"it is difficult to achieve". my question is:does this kind of questions will accour in muet?because when the answer is by summarising, there going to be plenty of different correct answers. besides, the two books are both model test which means more or less same like real muet paper?but questions from these two books are quite different,so im confused. The answers in model tests books vary in quality because they are commercial. I have researched the actual exam papers and found that for section III, quite often the students have to PARAPHRASE meaning to say, they have to listen for the answers, understand the gist then write a maximum of FIVE words in their own 'phrasing' in order to get it right. There are no half marks allocated, so this section is the hardest to score in because any error (grammatical, logical, punctuation etc) is considered wrong. This section is designed to be super difficult in order to discern the band 5s from the band 6s. So don't be surprised if you cannot answer directly from the passage. 5. is there any previous muet paper from 2008 to 2010 plz? where can i find it? i m thinking maybe i can test myself for identifying which band i m in. The papers are online in www.scribd.com I think.. but I'm not sure. Oxford publishers are the official printers for the collection of actual MUET exam papers and the new format starts from end of 2008 till now. the collection includes mid 2009 and end of 2009 so there are 3 sets. dear teacher, im very nervers about this muet.because lots of my seniors say it is very difficult, some of them even attend it for 4 times.may also because we are from china, english to us is like foreign language,but here it is as 2nd langage to local students. so could u plz give me some advice plz? thank you sooooooooooooooo much for your time!!!!! My final bit of advice is that you research my blog thoroughly.. read all the samples and memorise any nice phrases that you can use in your writing. Good luck! & thanks for writing in, I'm sure our sharing will be useful to everyone out there... 16th April.. haha bet it's like doomsday to most MUET candidates. The good news (is it?) is that you can take the exam 3 times starting next year (March, May and Oct) LOL... but I hope you guys won't need to cos you'll pass with flying colours with my help. :P

MUET SPEAKING APRIL 2011

Hi faithfuls,

I'd like you guys to contribute for a change. Those who already sat for the speaking exam, pls leave a comment about any of the questions you remember. When I get enough responses, I'll show you how you can write essays from the questions. so those of you who sat for session I on the 6th: what was the question about and what were the four choices given? How about all the other questions last week? Can anyone recall?

i know there was something about sex education but i dont know which session. so pls LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS, URGENT! thanking you guys in advance.. cheers!

SPEAKING TIPS & SAMPLE SCRIPTS

UPDATE: Hi! Are you starting to panic? If you reached this blogpost, then I'm sure the exams are around the corner, right? Need a quick-fix to get at least a Band 4 for MUET? You've knocked on the right door! 

I've completed almost all of the webinars! Contact me at muetmyway@gmail.com or here via Telegram to get an exclusive access to all the recording links! There are 2 more live webinars every Tues Night 8.30 - 9.30pm on 26/11/24 and 3/12/24 so hurry up and grab this opportunity! 

1. 1.10.24 - Reading 800/3, 2. 8.10.24 - Writing 800/4 Email, 3. 15.10.24 - Speaking 800/2 Individual Speech , 4. 22.10.24 - Writing 800/4 Academic Essay,5. 29.10.24 - Listening 800/1, 6. 5.11.24 - Speaking 800/2 Group Discussion, 7. 12.11.24 - Writing 800/4 Letter, 8. 19.11.24 - Reading 800/3 Advanced Reading Skills, 9. 23.11.24 - Speaking 800/2 Advanced Speech Skills, 10. 3.12.24 - Writing 800/4 Forecast Questions, Send me a Telegram message at t.me/MdmAudreyKoh for the Google Meet links. 

Speaking... is freaking you out I bet! haha.. Stress is normal.. in fact there are two types: Eustress (the good stuff) and Distress (the one that makes you have a heart attack and die!)

Anyway, I'm re-posting this previous blog of mine so that you can practice speaking on your own. You'll also have a better idea of the speaking discussion involved.

Practice makes perfect, don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Candidate A

Instructions to candidates:

Task A: Individual presentation

* Study the stimulus or topic given.
* You are given two minutes to prepare your responses.
* You are given two minutes to present.
* Listen to the others while they are making their presentations and take down notes for the group discussion in Task B.

Task B: Group discussion

* You are given two minutes to prepare points to support or oppose the other candidates’ views.
* After you have listened to everyone, try to come to a decision as to which of the four suggestions is the best.
* Your group is given ten minutes for the discussion.

Task A and Task B will be carried out consecutively.

Situation

Your brother has been given the opportunity to study in England on a government scholarship. You and your family are very proud of him. Decide on a special gift for him to prepare for his trip abroad.

Task A: Suggest that they give him cash. Say why.

Task B: Discuss which of the following would be most useful.

i. cash

ii. a computer

iii. some suitable clothing

iv. some Malaysian foodstuff



Candidate A

Task A: Suggest that they give him cash. Say why.

Good morning to the examiners and my fellow friends. I’m very happy that my brother has just received a scholarship to study in England. My relatives and I would like to give him a special gift. We all think that the best gift is money because it will be very useful for him.

The first reason is with cash he can buy the things that he needs when he gets there. There will me a lot of things that he will need like new books, stationery, clothes and food. He will also need to pay for transportation like taking the bus or train to go to the university campus. As we know, it is very expensive in England so any money we give him will be very useful.

Secondly, my brother can use the money to buy a mobile phone when he gets to England. I think this is very important in case of emergencies so we can contact him easily. Furthermore, he can sms us and keep us updated with his progress in his studies there. Hence, if we really miss him we can just give him a call.

Finally, I also think giving him money is the best choice because it is light and doesn’t take up a lot of space. If we were to give him a computer, books or winter clothes it will be very heavy and bulky for him to bring to England. Therefore, I think that it is much easier to bring money and buy those things when he gets there.

In conclusion, these are some of the reasons why I think giving him cash is the best choice. To me, it is the most useful gift we can give him. Thank you.

Candidate B

Task A: You suggest that they give him a computer. Say why.

A very good morning I bid to one and all. My relatives and I are very proud of my brother. He has just received a scholarship to study in England and so we would like to give him a special gift. We believe that the best present for him is a laptop computer.

Firstly, as a university student, my brother will have to do many assignments. If he has a laptop computer he can bring it everywhere and consequently, do his work anytime and anywhere. Thus, he will not have to share the computers at the computer room with other students and he will be able to do his work more quickly and efficiently.

Another point is that when he boards the plane from KLIA to London, he will be able to bring the laptop with him easily because it is compact and light compared to a desktop computer. Hence, it will not be too much trouble to transport it to England.

Last but not least, if he has a laptop he will be able to connect to the internet. This has two main advantages as firstly, he can do a lot of research online. The world wide web is a fountain of information so it will be very useful for him to make full use of this technology. Furthermore, he can keep in touch with friends and family here in Malaysia by e-mail.

In short, a laptop computer will prove to be very useful to my brother. He can do his assignments, research for information and keep in touch with us using it therefore it will make the best gift. Thank you for listening.
Candidate C

Task A: You suggest that they give him some suitable clothing. Say why.

To the examiners and my fellow candidates, a wonderful morning I bid you. My brother was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to study overseas. We want to send him off with a nice gift so we have decided to buy him some suitable clothing.

The main purpose for buying him some suitable clothing is because the weather in England is very different from the weather in our country. There are four seasons there so he will need to have different clothes for different situations. For example, we can buy him some sweaters, cardigans, scarves, snowcaps, thick socks and gloves and many more. These will definitely keep him warm in winter.

The second reason is we think that he should have clothes that reflect our Malaysian identity. This is because he will be a young ambassador for our country so if he has a few sets of traditional clothing like the Baju Melayu or formal Batik shirts, I am sure he will not only look good but promote our culture overseas.

Lastly, neat clothes make a good impression. For instance, if we buy him some everyday clothes like jeans and trousers with nice shirts and matching ties, this will give him a good feeling about himself so he will walk a bit straighter and talk a bit wiser. Moreover, people will look at him and have a good impression about Malaysian students.

To conclude, I think that the best present to give him is some suitable clothing because it will be very useful and will reflect positively on him. Thank you very much.

Candidate D

Task A: You suggest that they give him some Malaysian foodstuff. Say why.

I would like to wish everyone here a very good morning. As we all know, my brother has won a scholarship to study in England. Therefore, some relatives and I have decided to give him some Malaysian foodstuff as a going away present.

First and foremost, one of the main problems Malaysians face when studying overseas is that it is hard to find Halal food. We feel it is a good idea to give him some Malaysian foodstuff because it will take time for him to get used to the place and find out where to buy Halal food. Thus, in the meantime he can enjoy the Malaysian foodstuff that we have given to him.

The next reason is because some of the foodstuff we are used to having here in Malaysia is quite hard to find in UK. Most students studying overseas really enjoy eating Maggi Mee and sambal belacan. For instance, it is also hard to find the right spices for curry and rendang and so on so if we supply him with enough Malaysian foodstuff, he can eat it whenever he misses home.

The final point I have is that he can use the Malaysian foodstuff we give him and cook it for the Westerners there. Sometimes, universities organise events like Malaysian Night and so he and his friends can cook some Malaysian specialities for them to taste a bit of our way of life. Hence, the Malaysian foodstuff will be very useful to promote our culture.

In a nutshell, giving my brother Malaysian foodstuff to take with him to England is a good idea. This is because he will have some familiar food to eat when he misses home and he can also share it with his new friends. Thank you for listening to my opinion.


Task B: Discuss which of the following would be most useful.

i. Cash

ii. A computer

iii. Some suitable clothing

iv. Some Malaysian foodstuff

* Work together in your respective groups and complete the following discussion.

A: Good morning once again to everyone. We are here to focus on the issue at hand which is __________________________________________________________. I would like to invite anyone of you to kickstart this discussion by giving us your point of view.

B: Allow me to begin. First of all, I’m happy that our brother has won the scholarship to study in England. Therefore, we must decide what would be the most useful gift for him. In my opinion, I strongly believe that _______________ _________________________________________________________________. This is because I think he can _________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

For example, ______________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

C: I see your point but how about getting him ______________________________. In this way, he can use it to ___________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

D: I don’t quite agree with you because ____________________________________ _________________________________________________________________. I think it would be more useful if we bought _______________________ for him. Does anyone agree with me?

A: Yes, I agree with you. To add to your point, I feel that ______________________ _________________________________________________________________.

This is so he will ___________________________________________________.

C: I’m afraid I don’t see eye to eye with both of you. Buying that as a present for him is not the most useful gift because __________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

Moreover, ________________________________________________________.

Can you all understand what I’m trying to say?

B: Indeed, I do see your point of view but I still feel that the most useful gift is __________________ because it can ___________________________________. Another reason is ___________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________. For instance, _______________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

D: That’s an interesting perspective and I agree with you that ___________________ _________________________________________________________________. However, I think we should consider other points. We should also think about buying him _______________________________________________________.

If he gets this as a present, he can ______________________________________ and ____________________________________________. Wouldn’t you agree?

A: I’m not sure I understand what you are saying. Can you explain it again, please.

D: What I mean is we should buy him _____________________________________ because it will me more useful for him when he is studying in England. This is because ___________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

A: Aaah… I see. Yes, I think it would be a very useful gift too. This way, he can _________________________________________________________________.

C: That’s a good point, but don’t you think if we gave him _____________________ it will be the most useful for him as a student. I still believe that this is the most useful because _____________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

Remember, we need to think of the best and most useful choice.

B: I agree with you, Candidate C. In addition, he can use this gift to _____________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________. So candidates A & D, what do you guys think?

D: Now that you’ve explained it like that, I also agree that it will be the most useful. In fact, he could also use it to _________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

A: As for me, I feel that it is also the most useful. When he arrives at his university in England, he will be able to ____________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________.

C: That’s right. Well, after listening to all the points on the four choices we have, I think it is time to make a conclusion.

D: Yes, I think so too. Does everyone agree that we should give our brother _______________________________________ as a special going away present?

All: Yes, I agree.

B: In a nutshell, we all agree that _______________________________ is the best choice because firstly, he can _________________________________________, secondly, __________________________________________­­­­­­­______ and finally ____________________________________________________­­_____________.

Thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What to conclude if after 10 minutes of discussion….
A) Agree = 3, Disagree = 1

Conclusion: To conclude, MOST OF US agree that ______________________

is the best choice because ________________________________.

___________________________________________. Thank you.
B) Agree = 2, Disagree = 2

Conclusion: In conclusion, we were unable to make a solid decision because

SOME OF US stongly believe that the best choice is __________ because _______________________________________________ while THE REST OF US think that giving him _______________ is the most useful because _________________

___________________________________________. Thank you.
C) All Disagree

Conclusion: In a nutshell, we were unable to come to an agreement on which of the four options is the best choice. It seems ALL OF US strongly believe in our own points so as we have run out of time, we think that we should each buy him a gift individually. Thank you.

MUET BANDS & SCORING CALCULATIONS

Well it seems that this year's speaking exam is around the corner and the MUET buzz is in the air again. Most of you reading this blog would be curious to know the scoring system and the descriptors for each band. Here's a brief summary. If you don't understand, just ask.

Good luck for the speaking test!