So if you have reached this page you are now panicking. :) Typical Malaysian students who wait for the 11th hour before sweating profusely. So let's get straight to it.
What do you need to know to ace the writing paper. I have heard a million complaints by now that those scoring B5s for the first 3 papers are let down with a B3 or B4 for Writing. Why is this happening? My best guess is the rigid marking system. Don't get me started. Suffice to say that the validity is affected if the marking system is compromised.
Right.. so for Task 1.. what do you need to know? The MOST IMPORTANT TIP is to:
Respond to EVERY LINE IN the email/letter.
I have taught my students to highlight sections of the question itself before starting. Aim for 10 sections. You can easily see it through these sample pictures.
So... what's the moral of the story? You need to make sure that the context is always accurate and that you have responded to the first few sentences BEFORE addressing the notes. Teachers and students, this is a CRUCIAL TIP ok.. if you don't do this, you cannot score good marks for what is seemingly such an easy question. Also, don't worry about wordcount (exceed is fine but don't exceed too much or you will waste your time and make more errors), write clearly, don't get the names wrong, always offer 2 reasons/choices/explanations (with precise quality vocab) and make sure the sender's and receiver's names are CORRECT. Remember to use LINKERS/Sequence Connectors..Bah.. good luck.
Next tip, you need to make cuecards like my students. They have prepped cuecards for most themes. In the cuecards, they prep important information to help with vocab (expressions/colloquialisms etc), content (especially the budget), proverbs etc. Here are some awesome samples from this year's batch.
If they have taken my advice n memorised all, they they would have the content at the tip of their fingers no matter what theme appears in both writing Tasks 1 & 2.
Moving along, students learnt to identify the 2 parts in each academic essay question. They have also learnt that they cannot merely list down reasons/examples/ways etc unless they link Part A of the question with Part B. Their job is to PROVE the statement and not just to give an explanation. Basically the hardest thing to teach students IS TO PROVE THE LINK between A & B.
Right so in this example.. they need to prove that Modernisation has indeed robbed us of our moral values (give 3 points for agree) or that it is not modernisation that has robbed us of our moral values but
Disagree Version 1(some consider this in danger of being off tangent/out of topic so becareful how you word it):
Offer 3 other concepts that have robbed us of our moral values (eg. dependence on technology, poor parental guidance, peer infuence, social media influence etc.)
or
Disagree Version 2 (higher critical thinking skills):
Modernisation has robbed us of 3 other things but NOT our moral values, in fact, modernisation has helped to enhance our moral values (eg. many role models online and offline, modernisation has given us a more comfortable life so we can focus more on good values like be grateful for parents etc)
So you can see from above, agreeing 100% is easier than disagreeing because when you go against the topic, you are burdened to choose how to argue the case without merely listing new points without proving that there ISNT A LINK between A & B.
For more ambitious writers, you can write a discursive essay to explore a 'partially agree' stand where you can write both the pros and the cons, benefits and drawbacks etc to show both sides of the coin. Just make sure your THESIS STATEMENT is very clear and how you develop the essay should be as outlined in this thesis statement.
Anyway, I got my students to brainstorm points for and against, concrete examples, proverbs and recommendations for past year questions. While the points may or may not be in the actual marking scheme, I did not want to be too strict with my students in case they feel pressured to find the 'right' points. Writing an essay of 'possible points' is FARRRRR better than submitting a BLANK piece of paper or and incomplete essay. Just a ball park figure, I always tell my students if you RUN OUT OF TIME, just write 1 intro, 2 points and 1 short conclusion (4 paragraph format, remember to edit your thesis statement) and you can get Band 3. ALL INCOMPLETE ESSAYS I MARK DOWN AS
BAND 2.5 and below.
Bah, here are some samples that my students did so that they can brainstorm faster during the real exam. TRAIN YOUR BRAIN to think faster!
And finally, students review their essays which I have painstakingly marked using coded marking (they edit their own mistakes) and I add info/sentences to help them round off each paragraph and to have a better 'wow factor' conclusion. Here are the two essay topics we have worked on recently.
Right, so these are all the last minute tips for MUET Writing 800/4. Remember not to worry about wordcount and that good essays are usually 500 words or more that have pristine grammar, demonstrates fluency and a flair for the language and shows critical thinking skills.
In my personal estimation, be joyous if you attain B4 or B4.5 as that is above average, be glad if you got B3 or B3.5, be very resilient if you got B2.5 and below and challenge yourself to retake MUET. B5 and B5+ is Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez standard, so if you hit native speaker ability, you should be uber proud of yourself!
Love these tips? Drop a comment below! Good luck to my students and all taking the exam this 15th July 2023. May the force, and Queendrey, be with you!
