Uni. Entrance Exam For M-6 Students

[Boatabike]

Once a year my school likes to send all the teachers to Chang Mai on a long weekend, this weekend as it happens. Personally, I declined; spending just 2 days that far away does not grab my fancy. So holiday at home for me then... not!

I am required to get our M-6 students ready for their University entrance exams. I have been given just 2 days notice in which to prepare for this little gem. For this, I would like a genuine exam sheet from a previous year, something that is relevant to what they are actually going to have to sit.

Does anyone have access to an old exam sheet that can be scanned and sent to me by tomorrow January Tuesday 9th 2007? I would greatly appreciate the help, as my school has nothing available that is in the slightest bit relevant. I am not happy about this being dumped in my lap with no notice.

I feel it is important for the kids to have some idea of what they are not ready for, and as I am not teaching M-6 this term I am not up to date on what they are in fact learning (if anything). Funny thing is I lost my M-6 classes this term as they needed the extra grammar lessons from their Thai teachers, and now push comes to shove the Thai teachers all go on holiday and leave it in my lap, amazing Thailand indeed.

I am sure you are all familiar with this sort of thing happening and so I feel quite confident that someone out there can aid me in this short notice request.

Many thanks.

Edited January 8, 2007 by Boatabike

[DragonQuest]

thats why you get paid goodluck mate and on all honesty Im sure you can manage:)

p.s this is the first post I seen about helping with teaching material lol

lets see how this thread turns out if any peeps decide to help, and im not being sarcastic, push goes to shove and there might be a shining light at the end

[Boatabike]

thats why you get paid goodluck mate and on all honesty Im sure you can manage:)

p.s this is the first post I seen about helping with teaching material lol

lets see how this thread turns out if any peeps decide to help, and im not being sarcastic, push goes to shove and there might be a shining light at the end

In all honesty, I will manage, but I would rather have a genuine entrance exam than something I can throw together in (now 1 day). I have never seen a Thai University entrance exam so putting one together in a day is not likely. Putting something together that will make the Teachers and students happy is no prob. However, I would rather it be of use to the little darlings. I can down load an exam from many sources or make one up, but it may be nothing like a local entrance exam. I am sure someone out there must have access to something that is relevant to Gov. School M-6 students entering university.

This is not a request for teaching material it is a request for a specific type of exam, to which I have no access. I was informed about this only 10 hours ago, hence my trying here for a helpful soul that may have what I need, to be able to help the students I do not teach, whom have been abandoned by their Thai teachers in a crucial part of their pre Uni. education.

[Ijustwannateach]

There are books and books of them. You say "uni entrance exam," as though it were one thing- but until recently there were many individual subject exams, and there still are different subject exams under the new O-net, A-net system. The problem is that the new system is so new that the books for them haven't really been published yet. I've seen only 3-4 poorly translated (and one incorrectly answered) questions for my subject for the new tests.

From what I'm aware most cram schools are still using the old books, which are still more or less on sale- they're quite thick. Get someone from your school to go with you to a Thai bookstore and pick one of them up as appropriate for your subject and the task at hand- you really need a Thai teacher to pick out the right sort of book if this is an unfamiliar area for you. Be warned: they are all in Thai.

Since you have been given an impossible task, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

"Steven"

[Boatabike]

There are books and books of them. You say "uni entrance exam," as though it were one thing- but until recently there were many individual subject exams, and there still are different subject exams under the new O-net, A-net system. The problem is that the new system is so new that the books for them haven't really been published yet. I've seen only 3-4 poorly translated (and one incorrectly answered) questions for my subject for the new tests.

From what I'm aware most cram schools are still using the old books, which are still more or less on sale- they're quite thick. Get someone from your school to go with you to a Thai bookstore and pick one of them up as appropriate for your subject and the task at hand- you really need a Thai teacher to pick out the right sort of book if this is an unfamiliar area for you. Be warned: they are all in Thai.

Since you have been given an impossible task, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

"Steven"

I was under the impression that there was a standard English entrance exam for all schools. As for getting a Thai teacher to go to a bookshop with me, nice idea but we don't have time i have to do this for Thursday and Friday and all the Thai teachers are off on holiday.

In the sticks useful book shops are not so common as you may think. My school, in fact, has no books at all for a foreign teacher to use. Oh well it was worth a try. Thanks for the info, i will just have to do the best i can with what is available.

[jjspitz]

Boatabike,

I have the latest O-Net Exam, but it's about 20 pages long and I'm not going to scan and upload that for you. As someone mentioned, most bookshops will have the big ONet exercise books, mine was about 300 baht. Anyway, as you are in a hurry, I've got a pdf file of the actual exam from 2548. A couple years old but the new exam really isn't all that different. It's about 15 pages long so you'll have to somehow get it copied and collated in a day. good luck. Let me know if this attachment works as I've never done that here before.

48_Exam.pdf

[PeaceBlondie]

One more suggestion. First, though - I've seen the English entrance exam used for admission to CMU, and it was a fairly good, fairly difficult test. All the other English exams I've seen in Thailand (written entirely by Thais) were crap - bad questions, bad answers.

Boatabike, I've got another idea. TEACH THEM HOW TO TAKE EXAMS. Chances are, your M6 students don't know how. They go lockstep, starting with questions #1, 2, 3, to the end (and run out of time), and don't know to skip the impossible questions. They don't know the basic things about test taking that you learned by age 17 or 13. They know how to look at the other students' answers.

Teach them to look at the 4 multiple choice answers (it's always four, always mult. choice) and eliminate the least likely answers first. Figure out a way to explain the process of elimination. Teach them to read for extreme words such as always or never. Teach them to understand the question before guessing the answer. Teach them to go back and see if they answered all questions, only once per answer.

If you succeed in teaching them how to take exams, they can use it over and over again.

[Sporting Dog]

PB's suggestion is spot-on. It seems so obvious but so many students have no idea about exam technique.

I'm now at a western uni and am astounded at the fundamental errors many students make in DOING the exam - and these are 3rd yr undergrads. Bad time allocation, illegible or unclear writing, no names on papers, not putting in an answer for some MCQ's, not answering the question that had been asked because they haven't read the question properly.

When I taught Thai students they were the same - theamount of times they left MCQ's or T/F questions blank because they didn't know (couldn't copy) the answer. AAAAARGH!!

[Boatabike]

One more suggestion. First, though - I've seen the English entrance exam used for admission to CMU, and it was a fairly good, fairly difficult test. All the other English exams I've seen in Thailand (written entirely by Thais) were crap - bad questions, bad answers.

Boatabike, I've got another idea. TEACH THEM HOW TO TAKE EXAMS. Chances are, your M6 students don't know how. They go lockstep, starting with questions #1, 2, 3, to the end (and run out of time), and don't know to skip the impossible questions. They don't know the basic things about test taking that you learned by age 17 or 13. They know how to look at the other students' answers.

Teach them to look at the 4 multiple choice answers (it's always four, always mult. choice) and eliminate the least likely answers first. Figure out a way to explain the process of elimination. Teach them to read for extreme words such as always or never. Teach them to understand the question before guessing the answer. Teach them to go back and see if they answered all questions, only once per answer.

If you succeed in teaching them how to take exams, they can use it over and over again.

PeaceBlondie this is a great suggestion, and something I do for all my classes at mid term and end of term exam time.

Thanks to all your great ideas and for just taking the time to reply. I actually visited my local Rajapat (spelling) Uni. in the hope they might help out, only to find that you don't need an exam to get in there, ha ha. My Thai teachers confirmed this after I did the 50k round trip on their confirmation that going there in the first place was a great idea.

The head of the English department at the Uni. did confirm that what you are all saying about buying a book in a shop, Tesco has them it would seem.

After rushing back, to take an afternoon class I find that the whole thing has been canceled for now.

I will get my holiday after all. I hope you all find this as amusing as I now do! When it gets this stupid, I actually find myself loving Thailand again lol! It's when it is only half-stupid that it bugs me.

Edited January 9, 2007 by Boatabike

[Boatabike]

Boatabike,

I have the latest O-Net Exam, but it's about 20 pages long and I'm not going to scan and upload that for you. As someone mentioned, most bookshops will have the big ONet exercise books, mine was about 300 baht. Anyway, as you are in a hurry, I've got a pdf file of the actual exam from 2548. A couple years old but the new exam really isn't all that different. It's about 15 pages long so you'll have to somehow get it copied and collated in a day. good luck. Let me know if this attachment works as I've never done that here before.

The link works fine. Thank you very much for the effort I am sure it will be of some use in the near future.

Many thanks one and all.