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Highway to Success with Charles Due
I have been inundated by requests from many students for assistance on what they can do to pass the English Language examination at O-level. For example, one said: “I have written English three times getting a D, what’s the reason? Eish, it’s boring.” I will add on and say such a situation is discouraging as the student might eventually give up on re-sitting the examination. Since it is impossible for me to know his areas of strengths and weakness, my advice to this student and many others is to make sure they balance up all the parts of the examination.
Following are suggestions what the concerned student and others facing the same predicament could do. Students should aim at doing well in all the parts of the examination. They should do well in both the free and guided or situational compositions.
Through constant practice students should know which free composition topics they are strong at. Remember we have a number of composition types namely: narrative, descriptive, short story writing, discussions, letter writing — friendly and business letters as well as explanatory types.
It is not wise to plunge into unfamiliar territory by writing on something new. Personal writing and even a short story should relate a situation which is familiar. Students will then be able to expand on the topic without difficulty. Use of correct grammar is emphasised. Mistakes in spellings, punctuation and grammar may be penalised. Grammar involves a lot of items including correct use of tenses and different parts of speech.
Thorough knowledge on various types of situational compositions helps students do well in this section. Coming to the examinations students should have had enough practice on reports based on notes, reports based on statistical data, reports based on pictures and maps. On this section they should be able to arrange and expand given notes to make their accounts detailed and interesting. The advantage of reading newspapers comes in handy on report writing.
In preparation for the English Language examinations like many others, students should have done a lot of reading. Reading does not only refer to class texts but other sources that might provide more information on various subjects. For example, newspapers have been cited as other useful learning tools. Above all, students should have read many novels from primary school. Wise students take note of unfamiliar words when they read such that when they come to O-level they have acquired a lot of vocabulary.
The acquired vocabulary when applied appropriately produces a top class answer, the trend nowadays is that the examination board is bringing very long passages in the comprehension paper. Slow readers are at a disadvantage from the beginning. To do well in comprehension you need to fully understand it. When you struggle you will take time trying to understand a long passage and the result is obvious. You cannot answer questions well when you have not fully understood the passage.
Having understood the passage well, then questions can be answered. On answering questions instructions should be strictly followed. In a situation where own words should be used that should be so. The same applies to questions which specify that the answer should be one word. However, the key on answering comprehension is to understand the question requirements and tackle that only. Take note of words written in bold letters on questions and address them as they would be emphasising points required in the answer.
Following instructions is paramount even when it comes to the order of answering questions as well as numbering them.
Examiners do not want jumbled up answers, that is the reason why the English examination paper has an instruction which advises students to answer questions in the order set. Do not take such instructions for granted as you do so at your own risk.
The comprehension paper is made friendly by indicating paragraphs where hints on answers can be found. I used the word hints because at times it is not a case of simply extracting the answer from the passage. Some answers are inferred and students have to deduce answers from there. This is not to suggest that no answer can be directly extracted from the passage.
The parameters of the summary are usually clear. The question makes clear where the material to answer the question is found and where it ends. Follow all the instructions including using words showing how the summary begins. The concerned words give the direction of the summary. Normally, from the 10 words given you get the subject or main character of the summary as well as the tense of the subject. Never exceed word limit as doing so you will have failed the gist of the matter — that is writing a summary.
It is no secret that some students struggle in the registers section. The major reason is that of failing to follow instructions.
Some students are in the habit of giving single word answers where they do not work. The answers in this section are not always single word answers. Students need to think before writing answers. How much word power or vocabulary the student has, comes into play here as only appropriate language is acceptable.
But, this does not necessarily mean that only one answer is accepted at a time. There are many more options but should be used where they apply. I hope the information provided here helps the bored student and many others as they ready themselves for the examinations.
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