Unicert IV Part 2

How the course works

1

Office hours

• Wednesday from 1300-1500 in G40C-253. • Website: • www.ovgu.de/evansAll the information you need about this course is here.

2

Attendance

• Attendance at all lessons is compulsory. Absence for genuine reasons such as illness, a Blockseminar or urgent family matters is permissible on two occasions, but a copy of, for example, the relevant doctor’s certificate will be required, unless you attend a parallel lesson in the same week. Please consult with me in advance if at all possible.

3

Communication

• I will normally inform you of the material we will be using in class by e-mail.

• You should consult my website every weekend before the next class as I shall post reading texts, tasks or provide information for the following week then.

• Link: class readings• Please print the texts we will be studying and bring

them to the lesson. Working from memory is neither convincing nor useful.

4

Exams

• There are 3 separate exams plus one presentation• Listening Comprehension (2 parts, 45-60 min)• Reading Comprehension + Summary (2hrs 15 mins)• Writing / Academic Essay (2hrs)• Presentation (minimum 30 mins speaking time +

10/15 mins discussion)

5

Reading/Writing Exam

• The reading/ writing exams will be in June/July. • Dates and rooms will be announced closer to the

time.

6

Listening Exam

The listening exam will take place in June. Times and dates and rooms will be announced. Most probably the listening exam will take place in

your class time and in your class room.

7

Weekly timetable

• There will be 9-10 weeks of lessons, starting in the 2nd week of the semester and finishing mid-June

• In June-July you will have the presentation examinations and the reading/writing/listening examinations

• You will do your own presentation and you will attend 8 other presentations during the exam period.

8

Practice essays

• There will be 1 timed practice essay in the lesson time.

• Week 6 – exact date will be announced.• Please allow a full 100-110 minutes for this practice

and bring a dictionary. Paper will be provided.

9

Essay tutorials

• After the practice essay in the following week class will be replaced by individual tutorials so that we can look at your essays and discuss any issues related to your presentations.

• Tutorials will be in our teaching room unless announced otherwise.

10

Presentation dates

Presentations will run in June/July (dates to be announced), taking place mainly in the class times (Bateman/Evans/Harper)

11

Exam Administration

You will be informed about completion of the registration to the UNIcert 4 exams.

Once you are registered, you must take the exams. If you miss the exams without good reason, you will be recorded as a “fail”. If, for any reason, you are forced to withdraw from the exams - or any single one of them – in this semester, you must apply for permission to withdraw in writing to the Exam Board of the SPRZ.

Please note that it is possible to retake UniCERT exams twice if you fail at the first attempt. However, a second retake must be applied for officially (and can be refused).

12

Reading Comprehension exam

You are allowed up to 135 minutes for this exam. Comprehension questions have to be answered in English on an unseen text (or texts) of up to 1500 words approx.

Dictionaries, mono- and bilingual, are allowed for this part of the exam.

Question types may include pure comprehension, vocabulary in context, and short summaries.

A summary of approx. 90-100 words must also be tackled.

13

Reading Exam tips

Most answers need to be short. In previous exams, some candidates have read the texts too slowly or in too much detail; others have written overly long answers: answers should be concise and relevant.

14

Writing Exam (1)

You are allowed 2 hours for this exam. You have to write ONE essay of min. 500 words,

quoting, where relevant, from the reading text(s) given you for this task.

Essays shorter than the minimum word count will fail.

At the end of the exam you must count the words written and write the word count at the end of the essay.

15

Writing Exam (2)

There is a choice of titles. You can bring both a bilingual and a monolingual dictionary (e.g. an Advanced Learners‘ Dictionary) to the writing exam.

Electronic dictionaries are now officially not allowed.

16

Listening Exam

• This consists of two parts:

• a) Cambridge Proficiency, sections 2 & 3 of a Cambridge Proficiency test.

• b) Radio news (BBC Radio 4 or BBC World Service). The exam lasts around 50 minutes in all.

17

Academic Papers

For those of you who are waiting for results:I will respond to e-mail enquiries and will inform people

as and when papers are ready to be picked up and discussed. It usually takes a while for all the papers to be corrected.

The Academic Paper counts – as do each of the other exams – for 20% of the final mark for UC4.

18

Presentations

o You are required to attend 8 presentations in all (plus your own).

o You will be given a card at your first presentation visit. Keep this card and bring it to every presentation you attend. You will receive a stamp on the card for each presentation attended.

o If you do not have 8 stamps at the end of the examination period, this will have consequences for your final result.

19

Presentationso Please dress appropriately for your presentation

exam.o Despite variations in opinion regarding what

“appropriate” might ultimately mean, we rely on you to exercise your own judgement in this and not come looking as if you have just come off the shelf or out of bed, as if you were getting married or slumming.

o This simply means that the presentation is a special occasion, though not comparable to getting married or a funeral, of course.

20

Presentations

• The total time of your presentation should be 45 minutes, consisting of 30 minutes of you talking and 10-15 minutes of questions and discussion.

• You must organise the discussion to make sure that it goes well. It can partly take place during the main presentation, though you are advised to keep such phases of discussion very much under control. The main discussion will take place at the end of your talk.

21

Presentations

• An astonishing proportion of the candidates in past semesters were simply not in control of their talks.

• They were mostly unable to adjust their talk to the situation.

• As a result, their talks were not what they were planned or expected to be.

22

Presentations

o If you exceed 45 minutes, we will stop you and you will probably lose marks for poor structure, tempo, lack of discussion etc.

o If you speak for anything at all less than 25 minutes, you will automatically be given a fail. More than 25 and less than 30 you will receive a lower mark than if you had gone the time.

23

Presentationso It must be stressed that a weak point of all

presentations is the almost total failure to reflect critically on the material being presented.

o The idea of the presentation is to come as close as is reasonably possible at this stage in your studies and life to the "academic talk".

o This means: critical preparation, critical presentation and critical understanding of the material.

o Consider what „critical“ means.

24

Presentations

o It goes without saying that the norm for presentations is the use of powerpoint or some similar presentation format. All rooms have a white or blackboard and an OHP. We will provide a projector where it is not already a fixture, but normally you should use your own laptop.

o Since this is an oral examination, you are permitted a maximum of 10 slides (or overhead transparencies). Do not use excessive text or notes on slides.

25

Presentations

o Video clips should be used sparingly, unless there is a very specific need for them (e.g. a presentation about TV commercials). Please always discuss this in advance with your teachers.

o It is worth noting that they often do not work on the day. You risk being "thrown" by your own technology right from the start if you rely too much on this kind of effect.

26

Presentations

o You must produce a handout which should consist of one sheet of A4. Please do not simply replicate your powerpoint slides on the handout. Your handout should include some sources, a summary, perhaps some tables or definitions of key words. See also below.

o Semester info, personal info, title of talk, abstract (90 words), outline of talk (aligned with the structure of ppt), brief bibliography (major sources)

27

Presentations

o Natural speech is the ideal. Notes should be kept to a minimum (e.g. prompt cards). Lengthy notes, especially if read, will result in a reduction of marks and possibly a fail. Learning by heart is also easy to spot and can lead to severe problems for the presenter.

o If the worst comes to the worst, you should be able to do your talk without media and notes. This is the ultimate test …

28

Presentations

o Content. The presentation should deal with an academic topic, usually from the fields of economics, business, current affairs or international relations. Please discuss this with your teachers. In a way, the presentation should be like a less formal, oral academic paper, carefully structured with logical arguments, an introduction and conclusion. Sources should also be given in the handout and should be usefully referred to in the course of the talk.

29

Presentations

o Originality. Please do not simply recycle presentations, academic papers or lecture notes from previous Unicert exams or other university courses (e.g. block seminars). We will check if we have reason to be suspicious.

30

Presentations

o To help you with the development of your presentation, you should consult regularly with your teachers. John Bateman will practise the technical aspects of giving a presentation, but please talk to RE about the basic title/topic or if you are looking for sources.

31

Presentations

o Please send your provisional topic/title with a short outline (10-15 points) to me for inclusion in the list of presentations online. I will discuss this with you in the tutorial in May.

o I will ask you to send me your handout by e-mail at least a week before the presentation exam.

o I will willingly look at your ppt to advise you on layout, language, etc.

32

finis

If you have any questions, mail or ask.

33