Friday, June 15, 2007

New Malaysian University English Test (MUET) Format

Malaysian Examinations Council (Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia) has decided to change Malaysian University English Test (MUET) format earlier this year. This new format will be applied from October/November 2008 MUET onwards. This means that October/November 2007 test and April/May 2008 test will still be applying the old format.

New MUET Format Applied from from October/November 2008 MUET Tests Onwards
Test Components and Scores

Paper Code

Test

Duration (Minutes

Aggregated
Score
(Total: 300)

Weight

800/1

Listening

30

45

15%

800/2

Speaking

30

45

15%

800/3

Reading

90

120

40%

800/4

Writing

90

90

30%


Compared to the old format, the new format sees an increase weight in writing component whereas a decrease in reading component. Meanwhile, the importance of listening component and speaking component remains the same.

Old MUET Format Applied until April/May MUET 2008
Test Components and Scores

Paper Code

Test

Duration (Minutes)

Aggregated
Score
(Total: 300)

Weight

800/1

Listening

30

45

15%

800/2

Speaking

30

45

15%

800/3

Reading

120

135

45%

800/4

Writing

90

75

25%


Good English Essays reader, gohchengfai commented that summary will be abolished.
Good news for lower sixer this year- New MUET specifications: For the listening component, the new specifications will see an increase in texts and questions. There is also more variety in question type. For the reading component, cloze passage has been removed. For the writing component, summary writing has also been taken out.

The summary question has always been regarded as one of the tougher components in MUET. Even though I am appalled at the removal of the Summary question, I have to agree that it looks more like a reading rather than a writing question, as candidates spend a lot of time reading the text. However, I still think that the skill of summarizing is an important skill in life.
However, due to limited resources, I am not able to confirm this. If you are familiar with the latest format, feel free to comment to share it with us.

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MUET Band Description
MUET Speaking Past Years' Questions
MUET November 2006 Essay Question

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