(DISCLAIMER: I do not represent MPM, all opinions are my personal commentary and are not influenced by any person specifically, I have included documents from MPM's official new test specs and official sample questions available from their own website (links given below) and have taken screenshots/pics and uploaded here because most teachers from rural areas have approached me and told me that they find it hard to download or access info online due to various existing issues including lack of accessibility to highspeed data. All my thoughts and notes here are meant to help both teachers and students so they may face the MUET examination both current and future to their best potential. Kindly save me a good word, or none at all if you have nothing sweet to offer. Have a pleasant day!)
Ah... and now we have reached the core of my distress. Ok, I'm just being overly melodramatic. Right, so I am actually in favour with the change as I have come to detest the report question over the years as honestly, it has morphed into some kind of monstrosity that was crippling both the weak ones as well as the good ones. Basically, over the years, to make marking more standardised and streamlined for every marker, rigid marking schemes were introduced which shaped the format of the report. The concept of successful and attempted analysis or synthesis became extra technical and even the most proficient B6 student would not achieve B6 if he or she was unaware of the format outlined by the team of examiners every test. Right... so out it goes and rightfully so. However, I was initially aghast with the introduction of such an elementary question compared to the current one in the form of answering a letter or an email, WITH notes on how to answer on the right hand side, which was indeed a nosedive in terms of quality and 'academic-ness' if there is such a term. I now accept that the Cambridge committee was right in throwing it out because it was pitched too high (C1) when actually the first task should be at an entrance level which would allow the lower bands to be able to respond appropriately rather then scare them off at first glance. I still feel that the content in the sample was overly simplistic and does not suit the content of entering tertiary education (English Camp? Living in a tent? Hmmmm.. questionable!)
FYI: Documents can be downloaded here.
The New Test Specs : http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/3fd4da51-7768-4be2-ace5-5021ed73d9ad
The Sample Questions: http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/8fbcb4bc-8f7a-4670-8b3a-f47781839974
Overall the paper has been reduced to 25% and time reduced to 75 minutes.
Task 1: Guided Writing
The task it itself looks rather easy and what makes it a little different from your conventional essay is that there are notes to be followed on the side which will determine how you should respond to the info. The language in the question itself must not exceed the B1 level. The presenter said that the task is pitched at a specific level but the response of the candidate to the task will determine the proficiency level of the student. I do agree that if the task is pitched too high, it will not be able to gauge the level of the lower bands accurately because they would not be able to respond to the question not because they don't know the language, but because they don't understand the question (as in the case of the current mutated Report Question with the rigid secret format/answering formula). Apparently in the new test, there will be no exact and specific format because the focus is more on the writing content as opposed to a rigid adherence to specific formats. Students are just required to respond to what is required, and do avoid prescribing templates so do be very careful of this. The running advice is to teach them informal writing where apt or switch to a more formal piece, conversational if necessary, definitely descriptive writing including the use of adjectives and a sound command of grammar with a flair for fluency. Easier said than done.
One of the issues already highlighted is that the instructions on the right hand side is not entirely consistent as some notes are the language required itself (Great! Yes,../No,..) but some were language functions (Describe./ Tell him/her!) Apparently, MPM has taken note of this and will further tweak future questions to be more consistent. It should be at least 100 words, and as mentioned, there will be no penalty for writing more if we are to take this phrase at face value. No news on marking scheme, so we will have to wait n see what will be revealed about marking in future.
Task 2: Extended Writing
2nd task is at least 250 words long and revolves around a commentary based on the featured statement. Safe to highlight that conventional academic essays with thesis statements, topic sentences, elaboration, exemplification and effective conclusions will help the students score better. I am going to assume that writing more is not an issue so some of my worksheets for this can still be salvaged, I presume but don't take my word on this.
The question is set at B2, so that it is not pitched too high but again the students' response can surpass this and easily go into the C1 or C2 range.
At this point, we are still unclear about the marking scheme, so we do not know how the marking criteria will be developed. If you are familiar with the PT3 writing marking scheme, we can sort of expect the same but again, I am not at liberty to draw far-fetched conclusions for fear of misleading readers. Anyway, we shall sit pretty and play the waiting game with utmost patience.
In future, I will endeavour to write sample responses to the writing tasks as we have been advised that the samples shown to us by MPM should not be reproduced and distributed. (Read: which is a shame because the whole idea is to share the knowledge and cascade it down to all teachers who are the frontliners so that at the end of the day the stakeholders stand to benefit in one way or another).
Bah, happy teaching!
Ah... and now we have reached the core of my distress. Ok, I'm just being overly melodramatic. Right, so I am actually in favour with the change as I have come to detest the report question over the years as honestly, it has morphed into some kind of monstrosity that was crippling both the weak ones as well as the good ones. Basically, over the years, to make marking more standardised and streamlined for every marker, rigid marking schemes were introduced which shaped the format of the report. The concept of successful and attempted analysis or synthesis became extra technical and even the most proficient B6 student would not achieve B6 if he or she was unaware of the format outlined by the team of examiners every test. Right... so out it goes and rightfully so. However, I was initially aghast with the introduction of such an elementary question compared to the current one in the form of answering a letter or an email, WITH notes on how to answer on the right hand side, which was indeed a nosedive in terms of quality and 'academic-ness' if there is such a term. I now accept that the Cambridge committee was right in throwing it out because it was pitched too high (C1) when actually the first task should be at an entrance level which would allow the lower bands to be able to respond appropriately rather then scare them off at first glance. I still feel that the content in the sample was overly simplistic and does not suit the content of entering tertiary education (English Camp? Living in a tent? Hmmmm.. questionable!)
FYI: Documents can be downloaded here.
The New Test Specs : http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/3fd4da51-7768-4be2-ace5-5021ed73d9ad
The Sample Questions: http://portal.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/8fbcb4bc-8f7a-4670-8b3a-f47781839974
Overall the paper has been reduced to 25% and time reduced to 75 minutes.
Task 1: Guided Writing
The task it itself looks rather easy and what makes it a little different from your conventional essay is that there are notes to be followed on the side which will determine how you should respond to the info. The language in the question itself must not exceed the B1 level. The presenter said that the task is pitched at a specific level but the response of the candidate to the task will determine the proficiency level of the student. I do agree that if the task is pitched too high, it will not be able to gauge the level of the lower bands accurately because they would not be able to respond to the question not because they don't know the language, but because they don't understand the question (as in the case of the current mutated Report Question with the rigid secret format/answering formula). Apparently in the new test, there will be no exact and specific format because the focus is more on the writing content as opposed to a rigid adherence to specific formats. Students are just required to respond to what is required, and do avoid prescribing templates so do be very careful of this. The running advice is to teach them informal writing where apt or switch to a more formal piece, conversational if necessary, definitely descriptive writing including the use of adjectives and a sound command of grammar with a flair for fluency. Easier said than done.
One of the issues already highlighted is that the instructions on the right hand side is not entirely consistent as some notes are the language required itself (Great! Yes,../No,..) but some were language functions (Describe./ Tell him/her!) Apparently, MPM has taken note of this and will further tweak future questions to be more consistent. It should be at least 100 words, and as mentioned, there will be no penalty for writing more if we are to take this phrase at face value. No news on marking scheme, so we will have to wait n see what will be revealed about marking in future.
Task 2: Extended Writing
2nd task is at least 250 words long and revolves around a commentary based on the featured statement. Safe to highlight that conventional academic essays with thesis statements, topic sentences, elaboration, exemplification and effective conclusions will help the students score better. I am going to assume that writing more is not an issue so some of my worksheets for this can still be salvaged, I presume but don't take my word on this.
The question is set at B2, so that it is not pitched too high but again the students' response can surpass this and easily go into the C1 or C2 range.
At this point, we are still unclear about the marking scheme, so we do not know how the marking criteria will be developed. If you are familiar with the PT3 writing marking scheme, we can sort of expect the same but again, I am not at liberty to draw far-fetched conclusions for fear of misleading readers. Anyway, we shall sit pretty and play the waiting game with utmost patience.
In future, I will endeavour to write sample responses to the writing tasks as we have been advised that the samples shown to us by MPM should not be reproduced and distributed. (Read: which is a shame because the whole idea is to share the knowledge and cascade it down to all teachers who are the frontliners so that at the end of the day the stakeholders stand to benefit in one way or another).
Bah, happy teaching!
