Nonsense English exam answers

[mii maker]

The student gave me this exam. It's an English competition exam (as she said). She confused about the correct answers given by her teacher, so she asked me to give her an explanation of the correct answers for each item, why it's correct. The correct answer is circled by a pencil.

The correct answers seem to be nonsense to me sometimes.

Could anyone explain them?

[Slip]

The teacher is clueless. Maddening.

[NCC1701A]

I had a uni girl ask me to help with her test.

 

anyway, this is sort of like the driving test when Thailand first switched to computers four years ago. the correct answer was counted as wrong. you had to memorize the incorrect answers to be able to pass.

[sammieuk1]

How long the bus takes to Chiang Mai would surely depend on if you survive it and looks like a trick question ?

[canuckamuck]

I get stuff like this from my daughter all the time. She is fluent in English but gets questions wrong all the time because they either make no sense, or the right answer is actually wrong. She knows the English class is a joke. Her teacher can't have  even a simple conversation in English but she frequently tells my daughter that my English is wrong, if I helped her with something. What ya gunna do, this is the standard of education here.

We supplement her education with actual learning at home. She gets top marks in most subjects, not English though. The kids who remember stuff by rote have an advantage because they don't know right from wrong.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Am I understanding this right?

 

The answers with the pencil written "X" over the number are the student's chosen answers. And then the answer numbers circled in pencil are the teacher telling the student the supposed correct answer.

 

If that's correct, then the teacher involved not only has no clue of the English language, but isn't very good at basic number values either.

 

If that's the case, the student would be better ignoring anything this teacher has to say, or avoiding their entire class, entirely.

[mii maker]

31 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Am I understanding this right?

 

The answers with the pencil written "X" over the number are the student's chosen answers. And then the answer numbers circled in pencil are the teacher telling the student the supposed correct answer.

 

If that's correct, then the teacher involved not only has no clue of the English language, but isn't very good at basic number values either.

 

If that's the case, the student would be better ignoring anything this teacher has to say, or avoiding their entire class, entirely.

 

 

 

4

4

4

Yes, the numbers circled in pencil are the answer told by her teacher, the "X" written with the pen are her answers.

She also told me that there was only one person whose score is 100/100 in the qualification. Student who has the highest score will be chosen to the competition outside her school, and that exam given to her is The English competition past paper exam.

[chickenslegs]

1 hour ago, mii maker said:

The correct answers seem to be nonsense to me sometimes.

Could anyone explain them?

All of the circled answers are incorrect.

 

Either, your student is having a joke with you, or the teacher does not have a clue.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

My bet would be.... either the teacher doesn't have a clue...

 

And/or...

 

the teacher doesn't have a clue AND used the wrong answer key sheet to grade the students' submissions.

 

[mii maker]

Here's a complete paper of the exam.

English exam.pdf

[suaychat]

So you want us, to go through 100 questions of fuzzy type and tell you which ones , are accurately graded "wrong" ?

 

How about you pick 1 or 2  that you think qualify na kp

[suaychat]

example: #1  with the  X  is correct  the  O  is wrong,  because of next sentence A) is the context of what the question was ....

 

#2 X is correct again  O is wrong   etc

[mii maker]

the pdf file doesn't seem to be accessible for unregistered members, here are pictures.

[jenny2017]

On 8/18/2018 at 9:01 AM, mii maker said:

the pdf file doesn't seem to be accessible for unregistered members, here are pictures.

Please visit the school and have a chat with the director. Your daughter is most of the time right, and her teacher is so wrong that it already hurts. The teacher has absolutely no idea about the English language at all. Let the girl know that she did well, no matter what grade the teacher will give her. 

 

Please be aware that the judges of speech competitions are often corrupt and let the best paying parents' kid win. I've seen it with my own eyes, no hearsay. 

[DavisH]

The teacher is incompetent and shouldn't be teaching English. Find another school - preferably and EP with competent English teachers, for your child. 

[Chrisdoc]

I guess the teacher is from the Phillipines. It must be pretty easy to get a degree there which makes the requirement for a degree to teach in Thailand a joke. My niece's teacher at an expensive international school is from the Phillipines and after half a year she can't even have a "Hello, How are you conversation?". I guess the new teacher is better than the Thai one at the government school. After 4 years of English she knows nothing.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[jenny2017]

47 minutes ago, DavisH said:

The teacher is incompetent and shouldn't be teaching English. Find another school - preferably and EP with competent English teachers, for your child. 

I'd make her/him lose so much face that they would have to replace the teacher. All new teachers who started this year, even PE teachers, have to pass a TOEIC examination within a year. This particular "English teacher" doesn't have a clue about English at all. Usually, the directors do not know how bad some of his employees really are. I'd correct all the mistakes and show the result to the director. 

[from the home of CC]

I encountered this 12 yrs ago when I lived in a rural village.  I was asked to volunteer teaching English at a small private school. The learning material was rife with error obviously not written by a native English speaker. The tests mirrored the learning material. I suggested to the owner that the study should focus on conversational exercises rather than learning from grammatically incorrect text and I was told 'this is how we all learn'. Needless to say I walked away for I couldn't justify teaching substandard material to young children. I know I couldn't do this to make a living, it would be far too frustrating.    

[mii maker]

11 hours ago, Chrisdoc said:

I guess the teacher is from the Phillipines.
Sent from my SM-G900I using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

1

She said the teacher who teaches her English was thai.

[chopin2]

On 8/17/2018 at 9:18 PM, mii maker said:

Yes, the numbers circled in pencil are the answer told by her teacher, the "X" written with the pen are her answers.

She also told me that there was only one person whose score is 100/100 in the qualification. Student who has the highest score will be chosen to the competition outside her school, and that exam given to her is The English competition past paper exam.

0/100 would impress me more.

[ozmeldo]

Id read two questions and stopped. That is tragic.

 

I've been lucky enough to have taught in schools and with teachers that are operating way above this level, but I have seen similar. What really difficult is when students challenge the Thai teacher via you. It puts you between a rock and a hard place. It's a huge load of face I'd imagine, when it shouldn't be unless the inconsistencies are endemic.

 

Most tragic for us is that here we sit on borrowed time with waivers, most of us will never be allowed to obtain a license. This is presumably a licensed, tenured, government employee.

 

 

[berrec]

OMG your only showing us the exam paper, if it reflects in anyway the level of inferior instruction by the teacher the kids are all screwed.

 

Come on, out the school so at least based on this teacher’s inability to comprehend English others reading this blog can advise friends to give the school a wide berth.

 

Just the location and first letter of the school’s name will do.

[scorecard]

On 8/17/2018 at 8:45 PM, canuckamuck said:

I get stuff like this from my daughter all the time. She is fluent in English but gets questions wrong all the time because they either make no sense, or the right answer is actually wrong. She knows the English class is a joke. Her teacher can't have  even a simple conversation in English but she frequently tells my daughter that my English is wrong, if I helped her with something. What ya gunna do, this is the standard of education here.

We supplement her education with actual learning at home. She gets top marks in most subjects, not English though. The kids who remember stuff by rote have an advantage because they don't know right from wrong.

My 13 yo Thai granddaughter speaks close to native speaker English. In P5 and 6 she had excellent well qual. and experienced British English teachers, first lesson every morning. A Thai English teacher sat in the back of the room and took notes and was supposed to repeat the same lesson last period every day.

 

The Thai teacher spent most of the lesson criticizing the farang English teacher including rewriting the morning sentences on the whiteboard then writing the sentence again 'correctly'. Granddaughter often copied all this down and brought it home. The sentences written by the Thai English teacher were always wrong to very wrong.

 

Additionally the Thai teacher couldn't converse at all in English. 

 

Granddaughter repeatedly shared that the students were lost and confused, and frightened of the Thai teacher. 

[xylophone]

7 minutes ago, berrec said:

OMG your only showing us the exam paper, if it reflects in anyway the level of inferior instruction by the teacher the kids are all screwed.

 

Come on, out the school so at least based on this teacher’s inability to comprehend English others reading this blog can advise friends to give the school a wide berth.

 

Just the location and first letter of the school’s name will do.

From what I understand from other farangs this is pretty par for course and I encountered the same at my daughter's school. Not only that a printed and coloured exercise book from which they worked was also full of mistakes.

 

Sadly, not much we can do about it!!

[Colabamumbai]

Thank God the schools always let me write and mark the tests and exams for my students.

[atyclb]

On 8/17/2018 at 8:45 PM, canuckamuck said:

I get stuff like this from my daughter all the time. She is fluent in English but gets questions wrong all the time because they either make no sense, or the right answer is actually wrong. She knows the English class is a joke. Her teacher can't have  even a simple conversation in English but she frequently tells my daughter that my English is wrong, if I helped her with something. What ya gunna do, this is the standard of education here.

We supplement her education with actual learning at home. She gets top marks in most subjects, not English though. The kids who remember stuff by rote have an advantage because they don't know right from wrong.

 

 

i know a gal that graduated uni as a nurse no less but often i have to let her nonsense enter one ear and exit the other and turn my brain off. the lack of reason and logic

[BritManToo]

On 8/17/2018 at 8:45 PM, canuckamuck said:

I get stuff like this from my daughter all the time. She is fluent in English but gets questions wrong all the time because they either make no sense, or the right answer is actually wrong. She knows the English class is a joke. Her teacher can't have  even a simple conversation in English but she frequently tells my daughter that my English is wrong, if I helped her with something. What ya gunna do, this is the standard of education here.

We supplement her education with actual learning at home. She gets top marks in most subjects, not English though. The kids who remember stuff by rote have an advantage because they don't know right from wrong.

You have two choices, agree with the teacher who can't understand/speak English or fail the course.

[wwest5829]

On 8/17/2018 at 8:45 PM, canuckamuck said:

I get stuff like this from my daughter all the time. She is fluent in English but gets questions wrong all the time because they either make no sense, or the right answer is actually wrong. She knows the English class is a joke. Her teacher can't have  even a simple conversation in English but she frequently tells my daughter that my English is wrong, if I helped her with something. What ya gunna do, this is the standard of education here.

We supplement her education with actual learning at home. She gets top marks in most subjects, not English though. The kids who remember stuff by rote have an advantage because they don't know right from wrong.

I am a bit concerned about helping my Step-Daughter with her English lesson answers. I can easily help find the correct answer (native English speaker with above the M.A. education). Trying to explain the reasoning as to why this is the correct answer sometimes gets lost due to my limited understanding of the Thai language and my Daughters limited understanding of English (9th Grade). If challenged I would need to go to school and offer to help with the English privately or as a guest speaker. 555 Daughter might react with pride or embarrassment. Rather enjoy being a Professor Emeritus and not working....

[BritManToo]

23 hours ago, jenny2017 said:

I'd make her/him lose so much face that they would have to replace the teacher. All new teachers who started this year, even PE teachers, have to pass a TOEIC examination within a year. This particular "English teacher" doesn't have a clue about English at all. Usually, the directors do not know how bad some of his employees really are. I'd correct all the mistakes and show the result to the director. 

You are misunderstanding the Thai education system,

Quite a lot of English teachers are Thai floosies of important government officials, parked there to draw a wage while banging the 'influential person'. Which is essentially why they can't teach English. Pointing out their failings to the director will probably result in bad results for your pupil.

 

I have a close association with two native English speaking Thai children, one aged 20 is classed as 2nd best English speaking pupil in Chiang Mai, failed her year in High school because she spoke better English than the 'pretty' who was her teacher. Another aged 7, fully bilingual, classed as 'slow' by his class teacher who can't speak one word of English, and 'poor' by his elderly untrained American English teacher who bores him so much that he doesn't participate in the class.

[Krataiboy]

My daughter is fluent in English and Thai, but after winning a couple of English speaking competitions for her school was banned from further competition. She was told that this was because she is luk kreung and therefore ineligible to compete.  This despite the fact that her mother is Thai national (I am English) and  my daughter has a Thai passport.

 

I was tempted to confront the school head about what seems to me a racist policy, but my wife (rightly, I'm sure) pointed out that this would probably backfire and make our daughter a target for further discrimination.

 

In raising four children here, I have come across endless examples in her English homework of teachers marking incorrectly (particularly English exercises). One English teacher referred in a letter to me about two of our boys as "your childs" instead of "your children" - which speaks volumes for her grasp of the language.

 

I am reliably informed that in Thailand teachers frequently correct mistakes in their students' homework before recording their marks, in order to make it appear as if they are doing a better job than they really are.

 

Many of the "English" teaching books produced in Thailand are so full of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes that in desperation I actually emailed one producer, volunteering to pre-edit their publications before they could be inflicted on students and their frazzled parents.

 

Needless to say, my offer solicited no reply.

 

The sad truth is that our children are victims of one of the most generously-funded and monstrously unfit-for-purpose  school systems on the planet. Those youngsters who succeed do so in spite of, not because of, their years of grinding boredom and crushed creativity in the state educational sausage machine.

 

If you have the means, better to send your child to a reputable international school or, assuming you have the time and skills, homeschool them.