New format new format new format!

Yes Months ago KPM released the new format and everyone is asking me. HOW?

In this post, we try to answer all your questions. hopefully it helps make teaching easier for you parents and teachers out there.

DISCLAIMER:

SINCE THERE’S NO OFFICIAL GUIDELINE FROM THE KPM YET, WHAT I SHARE IS BASED ON WHAT I HAVE READ AND WHAT I LEARNED. IT MIGHT NOT BE 100% ACCURATE BUT IT CAN SERVE AS A REFERENCE IF YOU WISH.

Old Writing Paper VS New Writing Paper

PART 1

SIMILARITIES

OLD FORMAT	NEW FORMAT
Choose one and give reasons	Choose one and give reasons/advice
Short text (50 words)	Short text (80 words)

DIFFERENCES

OLD FORMAT	NEW FORMAT
Text for reference (allow you to lift text)	No text for reference (you think of your own content)
Have several formats (Post card/email/note)	Seem to only ask for simple note
10 marks	20 marks

PART 2

SIMILARITIES

OLD FORMAT	NEW FORMAT
1 topic	1 general topic
Longer text (More than 150 words)	Longer text (about 120 words)

DIFFERENCE

OLD FORMAT	NEW FORMAT
Formatted writing (letter, report, article, speech etc)	Simple essay (no format)
More than 150 words	About 120 words
Specific	general
30 marks	20 marks

HOW TO ANSWER THE NEW WRITING PAPERS?????

RULE OF THUMB 1: Understand What is CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) Approach

If you are a teacher, you might just need a little bit of flashback , then you will know the idea of it. I am not going to go into how the famous linguists started all this, but if you’re interested, you can go ahead and read more about it. THE NEW FORMATS BASE A LOT ON THE IDEA OF CLT. (please correct me if I’m wrong)

But, if you’re a parent, I’ll give you a simple idea about this approach and how you can help guide your children in their learning.

One word,

‘NATURAL’

Every answer should reflect ‘natural English’. This is a very vague idea because what is considered natural and what is not can be subjective. Especially when the situation now is that we still do not have a written guide.

I’ll give you more examples as you read on…

RULE OF THUMB 2: It’s Okay to Have Some Slips

One thing teachers have to get used to is that, we should be okay with little slips here and there. Not that we want to encourage students to do them, but we should remind ourselves to focus on the ‘communication’

“Did the student successfully convey the message?”

if yes, why punish so bad?

And because I do not want students think it’s okay to make certain mistakes, I shall not give any examples here. Rule of thumb is, give the best form of English you know.

HOW TO ANSWER PART 1

1. Go Sraight To The Point

Previously, many teachers, even I am guilty of this.

We ask students to start with greetings.

“Hi, how are you? I hope you are fine. I am fine here.”

That is considered BAD in the new format. Why? Because it’s NOT NATURAL. Think about this,

A: “What are you going to do this weekends?”

B: “Hey, how are you? Im good. By the way, I am planning to go to the library this Saturday.”

A: “What are you going to do this weekends?”

B: “I am thinking to go to the library this Saturday.”

Which is more natural in your daily life? There you go. Remember, natural language wins.

So in the new format we want to take away all the not so natural greetings and go straight to the point.

 "Hi, how have you been Alex. I hope you are doing fine. I have read your message and I want to give you some advice. I think you should choose cooking. ..."

That’s how we all should respond to part 1.

2. Explain All the Good Things and Some of the Bad Things

One way to help students elaborate is to get them to think about the good things about their choice and the bad things about what they have rejected.

For example, from the question, lets choose cooking.

"I think you should choose cooking. If you know how to cook, you can always make yourself some food. It is also cheaper to cook at home. You do not have to go out and eat at the cafe and restaurants all the time. Plus, when you have time, you can cook for your family. Oh, and you can cook for me!" [62 words]

You already have 62 words – only by listing down all the good things about your choice of hobby.

What if the students don’t have so many ideas?

Then, write some negative things about the others

"I think you should choose cooking. If you know how to cook, you can always make yourself some food. It is also cheaper to cook at home. You do not have to go out and eat at the cafe and restaurants all the time. I think cycling is expensive, because you need to buy a bicycle. And if you start painting, you also need to buy brushes and paint. " [69 words]

3. A Short and Sweet Ending

Again, write as natural as you can.

"I think you should choose cooking. If you know how to cook, you can always make yourself some food. It is also cheaper to cook at home. You do not have to go out and eat at the cafe and restaurants all the time. I think cycling is expensive, because you need to buy a bicycle. And if you start painting, you also need to buy brushes and paint. So I think cooking is the best for you. Hope this helps.  " [82 words]

Shop

HOW TO ANSWER PART 2

1. No more format (Maybe?)

This looks like the new direction but again I can’t tell for sure. Most likely, no format.

2. Use the guide questions. (WH-questions)

This sounds like a cliche, but if you learn to build sentences around WH-questions, you should be able to build a solid form 3 level essay. Just imagine building 3 sentences for each question, how many words can you get from there?

3. A freer topic means more room to focus on the language.

The new question seems to be giving more room for students’ own idea, you can use the opportunity to focus on things that your students can relate to, and get them to write. For example, you no longer ask them to write about Hari Raya, get them to write about the celebration that they celebrate i.e: Christmas, Chinese New Year, Kaamatan, Deepavali, etc. This way, students with all kinds of background can relate and can spend more time on building the language and fixing them.

4. Keep thing Short and Simple

I don’t see why you need to write so looooooongggg, thinking you can get more marks from longer text. If the question asks for about 120 words, I think getting to 150 words is great already.

Always, for weaker students, keep sentences short and simples, but one thing for sure for the A students to the struggling students. Everyone should aim for one thing

Have MEANING in what you write:

You’re telling something in response to the questions,
Readers get something from the answers

That’s about it. Comment and let me know what you think about the new format! Don’t forget to check out our latest E-package. We write everything based on the latest format. Hit us up on FB if you have more questions!