SHORTCUT to YOUREXAM SUCCESS

Wayne Rimmer,BKC-IH Moscow

2013

EGE Baseline study showed

• the lack of awareness among many secondary school teachers of the principles underlying the design and development of the Russian State Exam (EGE).

• This lack of awareness may be leading teachers towards inappropriate test preparation activities which run counter to the intentions of the state secondary school curriculum

(PROSET,2011)

CUP questionnaire 2010 showed that teachers are looking for

• ‘comprehensive exam preparation course material that mirrors the organization of the exam and gives balanced exposure and practice in all exam parts ,as well as strategies to do well in each.’

• ‘ a book with interesting texts and tasks and effective approach to teaching different skills, especially writing and speaking. Teachers and students would also prefer a book that effectively teaches and recycles vocabulary and grammar in context.

Meets YOUR needs!

Overview of the book:

I. StructureII. Exam practiceIII. Unique features

The book is organized into five chapters, corresponding to the five papers of the EGE

• Listening• Reading• Use of English• Writing • SPEAKING

Each chapter starts with helpful “exam overviews’, which explain what each paper consists of, recommended timing and marking

Section A –the exercises in this section build up the knowledge and confidence students need for all parts of the exam

Section A ends up with a ‘Suggested approach box’ – an algorithm for tackling each exam question

Section B focuses on exam practice.

Section Bends up with the EGE-type exercise

Each chapter systematically teaches the language and skills needed for success in the different parts of the exam

Listening testing strategies• Prediction • Bottom-up listening• Top-down listening • Paraphrase• Key words

Top-down approach: using background knowledge to understand the meaning of the message / try to predict what you’ll hear)

Before you listen, look at the following words:

Excursion, overbooked, sorry, refund.• In what situation might you hear these words?• Who would you expect to hear using them?

Appendices • Phrasal Verbs• Word families• ……..• False friends:

- ‘Actual’ in Russian …?

- Pеальный, подлинный

- Актуальный?

- Topical

Very Helpful Tips

II. Two EGE-type tests

• The book opens up with the Diagnostic test (the EGE specifications).

(Maria Valeryevna Verbitskaya, Head of the EGE Federal Committee - is the consultant of the book

• Final test at the end of the book will help students and teachers understand what areas require further attention or development.

III. Unique features

a) Corpus –informed ‘Get it Right’

b) Testing strategies development

c) Lots of Samples

d) New types of Speaking tests

e) Free downloadable audio files

f) Russia-specific materials

a)Cambridge Corpus – common mistakes made by Russian students

Cambridge International Corpus

Cambridge International Corpus

Written CorpusWritten Corpus Spoken CorpusSpoken Corpus Learner CorpusLearner Corpus

1 800 000 0001 800 000 000

Learner Corpus

Many different native languages

Exams

b) Reading and testing strategies

Translate the following words:

1 head

2 dislikes

3 hands

Reading strategies

1 Who is going to head the government enquiry? [Eg] verb

2 As a child Tanya had so many dislikes that I never knew what to give her to eat.

3 I love that bit in the film where Kevin hands the teacher a dead rat.

c) Lots of samples

d) New types of Speaking tests

e) Free downloadable audio files

f) Russia-specific materials

‘I wish you success with ‘EXAM SUCCESS’

Maria V. Verbitskaya

Руководитель Федеральной комиссии разработчиков КИМ ЕГЭ по иностранным

языкам

Questions?

•Thank you