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Weekender
Exam time
Jackie: Hello, I'm Jackie Dalton. For many people this time of the year gets a bit
stressful. For those who want some kind of qualification or certificate to prove
how good their English is, this means exams. This programme is about revision
and how to prepare for exams. Even if you don't have any kind of tests to do
much of the advice in here could be useful to you because it's important to look
back over everything you have learnt regularly – as if you were preparing for
an exam, so that it stays in your memory.
An important part of revision is planning. Experience English teacher,
Diarmuid, is going to share three top tips on how to go about revision. What
are they?
Diarmuid: Make a sensible revision plan, include times for breaks and meals. Your
concentration lapses after a couple of hours, so take regular breaks.
Know your strong and weak subjects and mix them up on your timetable, don't
do all the difficult topics at once.
Write a list of targets that you know you can reach and tick them off as you
accomplish them.
Jackie: Did you get those three pieces of advice? Make a revision plan and make sure
you include breaks so you don't lose concentration. Don't try to do all the
things you find most difficult at once – mix them up with easier things. And
make a list of things to do and put a tick next to each thing once you've done it.
Now we're going to hear advice from Rachel, another experienced English
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teacher, who was at this year's IATEFL conference, an international meeting
for English teaching experts. What's her tip?
Rachel: My top tip for revising for exams is using small pieces of card, write the words
or sentences or phrases that you're trying to learn on one side of the card and
write either a translation or a sentence using the word or the phrase in English
on the other side and practise turning over the cards, trying to memorise the
English word, phrase or sentence
Jackie: An excellent tip there from Rachel – use small pieces of card to write words or
phrases on one side, and their translation – or examples of their use - on the
other.
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Now we're going to hear from Diarmuid again.
Diarmuid: Make your own revision notes. You'll learn as you write and, once you've got
them, you're halfway there.
Check the syllabus or ask a teacher to make sure you've got the key areas
covered.
If you can, look at past exam papers and see how questions could be asked.
Jackie: It may seem obvious, but it's important to make your own revision notes. Even
though you may not realise it, you learn a lot just by writing them. Don't just
read things – write! Check the syllabus, in other words the topics covered in
the course. Make sure you know what areas will be tested so you don't miss
anything out. And it always helps if you can look at previous exam papers.
What about preparing for speaking exams? Here's some more advice from an
English teaching expert. How does she think you can become better at
speaking English?
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Elona: Hello, I'm Elona Mandes and I'm from the Netherlands and for anyone
preparing for a speaking test my advice would be just speak to yourself, which
sounds silly, but today with mobile phones, and car kits and everything, it's not
so strange or embarrassing to be talking to yourself...in the car, imagine
someone sitting next to you and just tell this person - in English of course -
what you see, what you're going to do, what you did today and so on. I think
that's a very good fluency practise activity.
Jackie: Well, Elona says talk to yourself – and don't worry about feeling silly, getting
good at speaking is more important! Finally, we're going to hear from another
English teacher – Manon. What two bits of advice does she give?
Manon: My name is Manon Reiber, I'm from the Netherlands and my advice for when
you have to do a test is to start thinking like the teacher. Really ask yourself
what kinds of questions you would ask if you were the teacher and prepare for
those. Try and relax before taking the exam, so do not spend the night studying,
but really relax.
Jackie: Did you get that? The first bit of advice is to ask yourself what kinds of
questions you would ask in the exam if you were the teacher. And secondly
relax and get some rest. All your hard work preparing will be wasted if you
stay up all night before and come into the exam too tired to think. If you're
someone who tends to worry a lot, try to put your exams into perspective, they
are only one aspect of life and they're not the most important thing in the world!
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