MUET WRITING 800/4 QUESTION2 essay from a BAND 5 student

 Sharing one of my matriculation students' essay. She scored BAND 5 for her MUET.

 Alhamdulillah & congratulations dear Najla for your success!!!

 Thank you very much for your contribution...

MID YEAR 2010: MUET WRITING 800/4 QUESTION 2
The world today is turning more to electronic communications such as the e-mail, Facebook and Short Message System (SMS). What is your opinion of this growing trend? Discuss. You should write at least 350 words. [60 marks]

As time goes by, the world is changing rapidly; so are its people and the technology itself. Technology brings about a lot of amendments in people’s life. It is getting more advanced from day to day especially when it comes to Information Technology or in this case; electronic communications. Back then, mailing was seemingly to be one of the most vital ways of communication especially for the world communication. In contrast, nowadays people are more prone to communicate the easier ways; by staring on their electronic accounts on their computers or through their iPods and sending short messages from their iPhones or Blackberries. Why is it so?In my slight opinion, this growing trend gives a lot of dominances in today’s life, which are helping people to save their time and money, create borderless communication and make it easy for people to gain prominent information.

How To Write Better (Essay)

 part of my final year law & syariah students at USIM
discussing their topic during a workshop (March 2011)

Touching simple words that reflect deep meaning

Sharing a small part of my module for a  presentation on how to write better academic essay, hope it helps...

Academic essay is written with the aim to respond to a question in order to inform/ explain/persuade etc readers of an idea based on fact/evidences/views. The types of essay can be factual. persuasive, argumentative, discussion or reflective and the format can be for speech, article or even reports.

MUET WRITING 800/4 past year questions for practice

MID YEAR 2009: MUET WRITING 800/4 QUESTION 2
Information and communications technology (ICT) is the cause of today's many social ills. What is your opinion? Support your answers with examples. You should write at least 350 words. [60 marks]

YEAR END 2009: MUET WRITING 800/4 QUESTION 2
People commit crime for selfish reasons. Discuss. You should write at least 350 words. [60 marks]

Vocabulary and Reading Quest

Vocabulary Quest

§  synonym using Oxford Thesaurus &

§  meaning using Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary

Reading Quest   Based on HOTS (higher order thinking skills):

o   analysis(review, dissection, scrutinize, distinguishing between facts and inferences),

o   synthesis (creatively builds a structure from diverse elements or ideas; put parts together to form a whole with emphasis on creating  a unique and new meaning.),

o   evaluation (use criteria to make and justify judgments about something) and

o   affective (respond with a statement of feeling, emotion, attitude and opinion without a standard appraisal; expressing feeling, emotion, opinion or attitude)

Verb tense [The continuous (progressive)]

Verbs are words that express action (run) or a state of being (love). The action can also be
abstract rather than visible, such as the words think and decide.
Verb tense tells when an action occurred on a time line. There are three tense-
present, past, and future.
Aspect indicates whether an action is complete or not.
The simple aspect indicates that an action occurred, without an indication of when it occurred.
The continuous (progressive) aspect indicates that the action is ongoing.
These two concepts are combined to give the twelve verb 12 different verb tenses. These are:
The simple tenses- present, past, and future
The continuous tenses- present, past, and future
The perfect tenses- present, past, and future
The perfect continuous- present past, and future.

Simple Past Tense

We use Simple Past Tense:

1). to describe actions and situations that happened in the past. These actions and situations were started and finished in the past at a definite time.
 The sentence often contains an adverb or adverb phrase of time, such as yesterday, the other day, last night, last week, three days ago, a few minutes ago, in (year), from (year) to (year), etc.

Subject Verb Agreement

Basic Principle: Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs.

My brother is a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians.

1)The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore, require singular verbs. Examples:

Everyone has done his or her homework.

Somebody has left her purse.

None of you claims responsibility for this incident?

*None of the students have done their homework. (In this last example, the word their precludes the   use of the singular verb.

2). Prepositional phrases that come between the subject and the verb do not change the number of the subject. Some examples : as well as, in addition to, together with, along with, Examples:

 The teacher, as well as the students, was working on the problem.

The mother, together with her children, is waiting.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions allow a writer to show which idea is more and which is less important. The idea in the main clause is the more important, while the idea in the subordinate clause (made subordinate by the subordinating conjunction) is less important.

Complex sentences with dependent adverb clauses:

Adverb clauses provide the following kind of information: when, where, why, for what purpose, and so on.

Oral Presentation

Your presentation material should be concise, precise and to the point. In addition to the obvious things like content and visual aids, the following are just as important as the audience will be subconsciously taking them in:

Your voice - how you say it is as important as what you say, so be expressive

Body language - your body movements express what your attitudes and thoughts really are.

Appearance - first impressions influence the audience's attitudes to you. Dress appropriately for the occasion.

Active And Passive Voice

Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:

active		passive
The hunter killed the lion.	>>	The lion was killed by the hunter.
Someone has cleaned the windows	>>	The windows have been cleaned

The passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:

	be	past participle
English	is	spoken	all over the world
The windows	have been	cleaned
Lunch	was being	served
The work	will be	finished	soon
They	might have been	invited	to the party

We sometimes use the verb get to form the passive:

Be careful with the glass. It might get broken.
Peter got hurt in a crash.

If we want to show the person or thing doing the action we use by:

She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
The money was stolen by her husband.

The Simple Past Tense And The Present Perfect Tense

The present perfect is used when the time period has NOT finished:

I have seen three movies this week.
(This week has not finished yet.)

The simple past is used when the time period HAS finished:

I saw three movies last week.
(Last week has finished.)

MUET SPEAKING~Practice Makes Perfect

As you keep on practicing, ask God to open your heart to the hidden knowledge, in that way each time when you read the same thing, He will grant  His blessings of wisdom to gain more understanding. Use your higher order thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation and affective )when speaking  in order to reflect  mature, wise and sensible ideas.

Be prepared mentally, physically and spiritually in order to lower  your anxiety level.  Think positively to overcome worries, nervousness and uneasy moments. Smile to gain confidence, speak clearly to show your enthusiasm, express well to reveal your passion. Just be prepared for any topics/themes but please don’t depend on them too much as they might be in different colours!

MUET SPEAKING- PAST YEAR QUESTIONS

MUET JULY 2012 SPEAKING 1st Booklet

Your collage is organising a youth seminar. You are invited to submit some
relevant topics for the seminar.

Discuss which of the following is the most relevant topic for the youth seminar

i. 'Graduating with a degree can help one's future'
ii. 'Young people should serve their community'
iii. 'The importance of teamwork'
iv. 'Being optimistic'

MUET JULY 2012 SPEAKING 2nd Booklet

Discuss which of the following is the most important factor which contributes to
good performance in examinations.

i. Self- discipline
ii. Parental support
iii. Experienced teachers
iv. Peer influence

The seed of success

The seed of success will only sprout through inspiring hearts, empowering minds and aspiring souls. Success is not for those who have low self esteem who keep losing hope but success is for those who have strong self esteem who keep on trying and moving on with passion and patience. Scoring good grades for English Language examination, speaking fluently, the ability to write effectively will not be a reality for those who do not practice the language. In order to be competence in a language, we cannot  just study to gain knowledge, but we must practice and apply whatever we have learned. The process must be ongoing and constant. The process of improving our listening, speaking, reading and writing skills must be done constantly and not periodically. Success is not an overnight effort, as the seed of success will only grow through time, effort, passion and patience, making us taste the sweetness of success as the seed sprouts, by God's will. 

with my inspiring former Form 4 Amanah/batch 2010 students

 at SMK SAAS, Kajang, Selangor

Refreshing Guide for Speaking ~ MUET SPEAKING 800/2

My dear students, let us begin with a smile as it is the most effective ice breaker and will open the door into positive aura. Our gestures, posture, level of confidence while speaking play a very important role in effective expression and lowering our level of anxiety. The lower our anxiety level, the higher our performance. Everything we think and do creates energy, so developing positive self talk consistently can create positive energy, eventually reducing the level of anxiety and increasing the level of self confidence.

 

Marks given for MUET (Malaysian University English Test) speaking are based on the 3 criteria:

       I.          Task Fulfillment ~understand and focus on the task (present relevant ideas), generate & organize your ideas, (providing relevant ideas),showing a mature treatment of topic ~use HOTS (higher order thinking skills: analysis, synthesis, evaluation, affective)

Writing dramatic narration for SPM English Paper 1, section B:

When we plan to write a narrative essay for SPM English Paper 1, section B: Continuous Writing, we have to bear in mind of making our essay exciting and impressive. The first thing  to do is study the question carefully, understand the scope of the question, then draw a rough plot from the beginning , rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. 

Then we should decide the theme, moral values, characters and scenes of events. The theme of the story is the central message and the moral values are the lessons that we have learned from the story. In order to make our story alive, name the settings/places of our story, then describe the scenes of the places.