Latest on MUET Marking

Heya... allow me to congratulate MPM on the great job of adjusting the marking for Speaking AND Writing.

Why am I happy with this?
For Speaking, simply because MPM has recognised that speaking is an essential component that students really lack prowess in. Presumably, the emphasis on speaking is because many of our graduates today have very poor command of spoken English and are unable to be competitive candidates for positions especially in international companies. This is a recurrent testimony from many friends in the industry and first hand knowledge from working pro-bono with Petronas for the past few years. The resounding alarm is that our graduates lose the competitive edge because they cannot speak well in English.

There is another level of complexity to this issue because the division of marks is no longer as straightforward as in the previous calculations. Now there is a bigger range of 6 marks for Band 1 (0-6), only 3 marks range for Bands 2-5 and  ONLY 2 MARKS FOR BAND 6 (19-20).

Speaking:

Task Fulfilment (20) + Language & Organisation (20) + Communicative Ability (20) = 60 marks

For each band:
B1: 0-6
B2: 7-9
B3: 10-12
B4: 13-15
B5: 16-18
B6: 19-20



What are the implications?
1. Students will find it much harder to achieve the Band 3 minimum target because of a bigger B1 & B2 range. (Need to get at least 10/20 marks)
2. Students will find it even harder to get a Band 4 as the minimum is 13/20. This will affect all the science optionists, TESL students and subjects like International Relations in universities.
3. Band 6 will be the epitome of excellence as the mark range is just two, 19 and 20. This will definitely differentiate the the good and average from the distinctions.
4. The long term impact is that the command of spoken English is likely to improve, we may get more fluent graduates and the quality of Malaysian graduates will improve as a whole.
5. The long term repercussions is that more people will likely NOT achieve band 3 and consequently will not graduate until a point where they pass MUET (and for some people, they have taken this exam up to 7 or 8 times before managing to pass it). Therefore, prepare more than RM101.00, maybe even RM505.00 unless you actively start improving your English skills NOW!!


As for writing...

The marks have also been adjusted accordingly. This is actually a good move because it better reflects the banding system because if you pay close attention Band 1 has a huge range (0-99) compared to the other bands (range of 40 marks per band).

Writing:

Report Writing:

Task Fulfilment (20) + Language & Organisation (20) = 40 marks

For each band:
B1: 0-6
B2: 7-9
B3: 10-12
B4: 13-15
B5: 16-18
B6: 19-20

Academic Essay:

Task Fulfilment (30) + Language & Organisation (30) = 60 marks

For each component:
B1: 0-10
B2: 11-14
B3: 15-18
B4: 19-22
B5: 23-26
B6: 27-30

Logically speaking, it should be easier to achieve Bands 3 & 4 now because as long as you have completed your essay with at least 5 paragraphs with understandable English and relatively good ideas and justification, you should get 15/30 per category. Perhaps this will make the quantity of Band 3s increase and overall results may improve with this new grading system. I hope at the end of the day, students will benefit from these changes particularly if they will strive harder to improve their English language proficiency in the process.

Ok, once again, let me re-emphasise that I'm just blogging on my own, no insider information from MPM and I have no say in the overall proceedings. These are just my opinions, do not take it as concrete facts set in stone. DO make up your own mind based on the latest exam and let's all pray that it will benefit our future generation if not the immediate one. Happy teaching!!