Monday, June 29, 2009

Examples of MUET Speaking Questions

How a fresh graduate can succeed in workplace besides good academics?

  • Good communication skills
  • Ability to cooperate with others
  • Computer skills
  • Self-discipline
How to encourage the students to read more?
  • Set up a reading corner around the college
  • Equip the library with more interesting materials
  • Second hand book store
  • Reward those who read more
What would make a good life partner?
  • Religious
  • Wealthy
  • Good-looking
  • Fun to be with
How to promote tourism in Malaysia?
  • Build more tourist spots
  • Build more affordable hotels
  • Using Information Technology (IT)
  • More facilities
How to attract customers?
  • Reasonable price
  • Extend business hours
  • Fresh goods
  • Helpful and courteous staffs
What challenge would be faced by youth in 21st century?
  • Knowledgeable skills
  • Resources
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
  • Good in studies and active in co-curriculum activities

How to improve your English reading skills?

Make Reading your Habit
Reading for many people is fun and enjoyable. You can improve your English reading skills by reading as much as possible. Reading articles on topics of your interest is always an enjoyable and pleasure experience. To make reading your habit, you may begin by reading shorter texts and after a week progress to the longer texts. Train yourself to read daily.

Read a Variety of Materials
Newspapers, magazines, novels, encyclopaedia, etc are some typical reading materials to start with. In addition, reading English ebooks and weblogs or blogs helps too. Magazines such as Readers’ Digest are suitable for your general knowledge, English grammar and vocabulary.

Read Articles form Different Disciplines
Do not limit your reading materials to your favourite topics. Instead, you should read articles and scholarly journals from various disciplines. For instance, health, technology, education, science, environment, you name it.

Learn Skimming and Scanning Skills
Skimming is a skill to read something quickly to find the main facts or ideas in it while scanning is to read something word by word quickly for a better understanding of the text. Skimming and scanning skills come in handy in your MUET reading test since you have to answer 50 multiple-choice questions (MCQ) based on several texts given.

How to improve your English essay writing skills?

Write Grammatically Correct Essay
The English grammar level presented in the essay decides whether it is a well-written or low-graded essay. A grammatically incorrect essay distracts the readers’ attention from the content written by the writer. So, you should read the Important English Grammar Notes for Essay Writing posted on this blog previously. In addition to that, you should always avoid doing minor errors like first-draft slips and gross errors like tense and subject-verb agreement.

Use Thesaurus to Increase Vocabulary
Thesaurus comes in handy to increase your vocabulary. You should try to replace the general words with the more specific ones. For instance, replace the word ‘important’ with the word ‘vital’ when you want to say something that is very important and necessary, and if not done correctly there could be serious problems. Besides that, you are suggested to reference the thesaurus to expand your vocabulary. Try to replace some adjectives with others which are similar in meaning like replacing the word ‘boring’ with ‘mundane’ or ‘tedious’. However, using bombastic words in your writing with the only purpose is to impress the examiners in order to score well is not recommended.

Write Journal or Blog in English
Since MUET Writing Test tests your English writing skills, you should be able to write your essay in English. So, writing journal or diary or blogging in English can brush up your English writing skills. Try to write in grammatically correct sentences instead of using broken or casual English in your journal or blog. You should also train yourself to plan or outline and organize your essay before writing it. Writing spontaneously may keep the flow but the essay written may be a mess. So, it is a good habit to organize your essay before it is written.

Read Well-written Essays or Articles
Last but not least, read a variety of materials to improve your general knowledge. Reading the well-written essays or articles may inspire you to write better by learning the writing styles. Reading newspaper and magazine is the recommended way to brush up your writing skills.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

KALENDAR MUET 2009

PERKARA

MUET

Pertengahan Tahun

Akhir Tahun

Pendaftaran Dibuka

12 Januari 2009

18 Mei 2009

Pendaftaran Ditutup

29 Januari 2009

(Semua Jenis Calon)

17 Jun 2009

(Semua Jenis Calon)

29 Januari 2009

(Calon yang ingin memperbaiki keputusan MUET Akhir Tahun 2008)

23 Julai 2009

(Calon yang ingin memperbaiki keputusan MUET Pertengahan Tahun 2009)

· Calon dikehendaki

mengemukakan slip keputusan MUET Pertengahan Tahun 2009 sebagai bukti.

Ujian 800/2 Speaking

5,6, 7 Mei 2009 dan

11,12, 13 Mei 2009

6,7,8 Oktober 2009 dan 20,21,22 Oktober 2009

Ujian Bertulis

800/1 Listening

800/3 Reading

800/4 Writing

25 April 2009

7 November 2009

MUET

MUET consists of four components: listening, speaking, reading and writing. New test specifications have been introduced officially and will apply from MUET October/November 2008 onwards while old test specifications will still apply for MUET October/November 2007 and April/May 2008. The table below shows the detailed comparison between new and old format of MUET.

TestOld Test SpecificationsNew Test SpecificationsPossible Genres
Listening (800/1)
Duration:
Weighting:
Number of texts:
Number of questions:
Question type:
45 marks

30 minutes
15%
3

15

Four-option multiple-choice
45 marks

30 minutes
15%
5

20

- Information transfer
- Short answer
- Four-option multiple-choice
- Three-option multiple choice
Lecture, briefing, talk, discussion, interview, telephone conversation, announcement, instructions, advertisement, news, meeting, documentary
Speaking (800/2)
Duration:
Weighting:
Number of tasks:
Task format:
45 marks

30 minutes
15%
2

A: Individual presentation
B: Group interaction
45 marks

30 minutes
15%
2

A: Individual presentation
B: Group interaction
Contemporary issues
Reading (800/3)
Duration:
Weighting:
Number of texts:

Number of questions:
Question type:
135 marks

120 minutes
45%
4


50

- Cloze
- Information transfer
- Four-option multiple-choice
120 marks

90 minutes
40%
6 shorter texts (at least one text with graphics)
50

- Three-option multiple-choice
- Four-option multiple-choice
Articles from journals, newspapers and magazines, academic texts, electronic texts
Writing (800/4)
Duration:
Weighting:
Number of questions:
Question type:
75 marks

90 minutes
25%
2

Task 1: Summary of not more than 100 words
Task 2: Extended writing not fewer than 250 words
90 marks

90 minutes
30%
2

Task 1: Interpretation of information based on specific stimuli provided (no less than 150 words)
Task 2: Extended writing based on a given topic (no less than 350 words)
Report, article, letter, essay

Candidates are rated into six bands – band one being the lowest and band six being the highest -- according to their test scores. The total score is 300 and the table below shows MUET band description.
BandAggregated ScoreDescription
6260 - 300Very good user - Very good command of the language. Highly expressive, fluent, accurate and appropriate language: hardly any inaccuracies. Very good understanding of language and contexts. Functions extremely well in the language.
5220 - 259Good user - Good command of the language. Expressive, fluent, accurate and appropriate language but with minor inaccuracies. Good understanding of language and contexts. Functions well in the language.
4180 - 219Competent user - Satisfactory command of the language. Satisfactory expressive and fluent, appropriate language but with occasional inaccuracies. Satisfactory understanding of language and contexts. Functions satisfactorily in the language.
3140 - 179Modest user - Modest command of the language. Modestly expressive and fluent, appropriate language but with noticeable inaccuracies. Modest understanding of language and contexts. Able to function modestly in the language.
2100 - 139Limited user - Limited command of the language. Lacks expressiveness, fluency and appropriacy: inaccurate use of the language resulting in breakdown in communication. Limited understanding of language and contexts. Limited ability to function in the language.
1Below 100Extremely limited user - Poor command of the language. Unable to use language to express ideas: inaccurate use of the language resulting in frequent breakdowns in communication. Little or poor understanding of language and contexts. Hardly able to function in the language.

Saturday, June 20, 2009