1. English in a Changing World Test-taking Techniques
By Wu Ligao
BeiwaiOnline

2. Contents Structure and Strategies (各部分应试策略)
Advices from fellow students (以往同学应考经验)
Essay questions and their exam techniques (问答题以及答题要领)

3. Exam Structure & Strategies

4. Strategies for Listening （听力策略）
Read the listening questions to get a picture of what you will listen.
Grab general ideas in the first listening, and more details in the second.
Listen for key words.
Don’t waste time thinking about one or two words you missed.
Associate what you learn from the textbook (与课本学到的知识联系起来）
Decide the choice in the first listening and check it for the second listening.

5. Advices from fellow students (以往同学经验）
The listening materials are taken from the textbook or if taken from outside, the difficulty level is similar and the theme is similar, we should read our textbook carefully. As for listening, those conversations in the textbook are important.
We need to be familiar with the directions so that we find it easy to allocate time and energy (熟悉听力考试指令，合理分配时间和精力）.

6. Strategies for Section II（课本知识题的应对策略）
First scan and pick up easy ones to do first.
When you have difficult ones, don’t panic but think.
Try to reason with the knowledge you have learned.
If you still don’t know, just make a choice or if it is a short answer question, just leave it. We don’t expect to be one hundred percent right, do we?

7. Advices from fellow students (以往同学经验）
This section is relatively easy. So be careful and try to get a good score.
When we read a multiple choice question, we have to read all the choices and compare them. Then we can make the best choice.
If it is a short answer question, we don’t have to write a complete sentence, a phrase or sometimes even a word will do.

8. Strategies for Reading （阅读策略）
Read the passages first and then do the questions.
2. For the first passage, you need to decide if the statements are true or false. The difficult point is to decide is to tell the difference between NM (not mentioned) and F. F is that the information is mentioned in the passage but is contradictory to the statement. NM is that the information you can’t find in the passage.
3. For the second passage, you need to fill in blanks. Remember the words you fill in will be the same words you can find in the reading passage or synonyms.

9. Strategies for Reading （阅读策略）
4. For the third passage, there are five short answer questions. You can’t just copy the exact sentences from the reading passage. You don’t have to answer every question with a complete sentence. Just answer the questions with short answers. It can be a short sentence, a phrase or one or two words.

10. Advices from fellow students (以往同学经验）
The reading section is not difficult, but it requires attention and carefulness.
For answers you have done, you should refer to the reading passages again to check.
If the questions for the reading are multiple choice questions, read all the choices carefully before you make the decision.

11. Essay Questions (问答题答题要领总结)
Step One: Choosing a question
Step Two: Brainstorming
Step Three: Writing

12. Strategies for essay questions
For choosing a question, you may think about which question is more familiar to you.
If you decide one, you may brainstorm. Think from different perspectives, and try to include all the possible points for the question. At this stage you don’t hesitate. Be determined.
When you write, write clearly and neatly. You know any teacher is happier with good-looking answers.

13. Advices from fellow students (以往同学经验）
Essay question is difficult because we have to write long.
We have to write in paragraphs. We write in complete sentences, and we can’t just list points.
If we are asked to write our own views, those view should also relate to the points to the textbook.

14. Read the following two samples
In order to show you how to answer essay questions, you are encouraged to read the following two samples so that you get a concrete idea of how to do this type of question.

15. I. What are the main ideas of Braj Kachru’s liberation linguistics?
In his liberation linguistics he argues that the term Standard English should be applied equally to standards used in all places where English is widely used.
He then goes on to argue that local standards should be used in schools and colleges. Most learners of English need English only for use in their own multi-lingual country. They don’t need to try to keep up with changes in native standards.
Moreover, teachers of English are usually not native speakers. They can’t be constantly in touch with changes in native standards only with changes in their own local standards.
Many English learners are more likely to use English locally than internationally.

16. II. What are the advantages and disadvantages of artificial languages?
Artificial languages have been designed in the 19th and 20th centuries in attempts to address the issues of international communication. An artificial language is neither anybody’s mother tongue nor their national language.

17. II. What are the advantages and disadvantages of artificial languages?
No one group of people could be especially disadvantaged in international communication as some are today with the dominance of the English language.
An artificial language would be everyone’s additional language and it would be the only additional language that most people ever need.

18. II. What are the advantages and disadvantages of artificial languages?
The first learners of the language have no already existing literature, no books nor newspapers to read.
The first learners have few people with whom they can communicate and practice their additional language.
Few people will teach the first language.
The ways of speaking the language will vary with each language group.
There is no way to decide on the standard accent that should be chosen.
Most artificial languages have been based on European languages and privilege European speakers.

19. The End
Wish you success!