Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I'm just wondering, for those of you who make or help make mid-term exams, what kind of of questions do you put on them? What would you consider to be easy, medium, and difficult level questions? Do you aim to do the traditional 30-50-20 ratio of easy-medium-difficult questions?

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who helps make exams from anywhere from grade six elementary to third-year high school. Thanks.

[spliff]

Difficult.

[Easter Clark]

The most difficult question:

9. Choose the best conversation:

1. A: What is this class like? Is it lazy?
B: Yes, they are.
2. A: What is your classmates like? Are they hard-working?
B: Yes, they are.
3. A: What is your teacher like? Is she strict?
B: No, she isn�t.
4. A: What are your neighbor like? Is he shy?
B: No, they�re not.
5. A: What is your best friends like? Are they smart?
B: No, he isn�t.

The easiest question:

5. Choose the best answer to the question: Can you speak English?

A. No, I can.
B. Yes, I can.
C. Yes, I do.
D. No, I don�t.
E. Yes, it is.


Middle-of-the-Road Question:

7. Choose the correct question:

A. What are your best friend like?
B. What is they like?
C. What are your friends like?
D. What is your neighbors like?
E. What are your teacher like?


I hate having to make multiple choice tests with 5 possible answers!

This is for my 1st year high school students. I make 12 questions to go on the 1st grade exam and 12 for the 2nd grade for both mid-terms and finals.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[mrsquirrel]

My questions are piss easy.

KT's questions can be quite difficult with tricky to spot grammar answers.

[Easter Clark]

YBS--

Yes, I'm at a vocational HS.
I actually try to focus more on vocabulary (in this case, personality)in class than sentence structure. However, my KTs want their grammar tested on the exam. Supposedly, they learned all of this stuff in middle school, but fully 80% of my students had trouble with it. Since their speaking is miles below their reading, I have to go back to basics with them. I try to recycle vocab as often as I can and will teach the same focus (is/are) over a couple of weeks. I see my grade 1s twice a week and my grade 2s once a week.

With my second years I can focus more on different tenses and expanded dialogues (getting them to answer the question "Why" more often) and possessives--a few questions for my level 2 students:

3. Which is correct?
A. I�m not really crazy about horror movies because they�re exciting.
B. I enjoy comedies movies because they�re funny.
C. I like sci-fi movies because they�re fun to watch.
D. I like westerns because they�re boring.
E. I don�t like actions because they�re not real.



6. Choose the correct sentences.
A. We�re Jewelry fans. Jewelry is we favorite band.
B. His a great writer. His book is really good.
C. My favorite TV show is �Friends.� What�s your favorite TV show?
D. Easter is we teacher. He�s really good-looking.
E. I�m a Norah Jones fan. She�s music is awesome.


9. Last weekend, I ______ a DVD and _______ dinner. I _____ online with my friend Jay. He ______ in Italy. Hey! Why ____ call me on Sunday? I _____ to see you!

A. watched / invited / chatied / is / can�t / wanting
B. watched / cook / chatted / lived / did / wanted
C. watched / cooked / chat / lives / didn�t /wants
D. watch / cook / chatied / lived / don�t / wanting to
E. watched / cooked / chatted / lives / didn�t / wanted

What kind of things do you focus on with your tech students?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I only have two first-year vocational classes. To be honest, I focus more on fun activities, pop songs, word games, and ppt games with them since (a) most of them have little aptitude and interest, (b) this is the last year they'll take English, and (c) few of them will ever use English for much. I usually keep what I'd call 'serious teaching' down to 20 minutes of a 50-minute lesson. I guess it would be technically very illegal to post upcoming mid-term questions on the Internet even though the odds of any students seeing them are zilch. Here's a practice quiz I'm doing (in a kind of white board / Golden Bell style) this week. If I were reworking such questions for a mulitiple-choice exam I'd really have to dumb them down and / or include some Korean instructions on how to answer. This is despite the fact that all the vocab and grammatical structures come straight from their textbooks or handouts I've given.


Make a sentence:
1. ? / does / live / she / where
2. a / develop / deal / great / Technology / will
3. escaped / Bomba / zoo / from / the
4. doesn�t / guards / more / need / zoo / The
5. away / be / right / there / We�ll

What is it?
1. 604-856-9447
2. [email protected]
3. 2850 Main Street
4. (picture of wallet)
5. (picture of backpack)

Verbs:

1. He is an animal handler and they ______ guards.
2. In the future things ______ be different.
3. Bomba is a monkey. He _________ a gorilla.
4. They weren�t on the table. They ________ on the tray.
5. The monkey was eating bananas but the elephants ______ ___________ nothing.

Trivia:

1. What planet is between Earth and Jupiter?
2. What is a nick-name for someone who wears glasses?
3. What sickness gives you a high temperature?
4. What kind of monkey is Bomba?
5. What do you call a book that tells you the definitions of words?

Make three compound words: star / butter / tooth / hair / fly / paste / brush / fish
Write out the year in English words: 2008
1988
Make three contractions: was / are / were / not

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Oh and in terms of overall 'focus' it would be what little from their textbooks they might be able to understand, a little bit of basic grammar, and then all survival English. I do a few simple dialougues, too.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

So are we the only two teachers here who write test questions? Perhaps assessment is another one of those major components of teaching that's irrelevant to the majority of FTs in Korea.

[Easter Clark]

Yeah, imagine having to be held accountable for what you teach! I've even given test questions based on our pop song lessons.

Even these questions:

[Yu_Bum_suk]