Saturday, July 29, 2006

Malaysian University English Test Components

There are four components in Malaysian University English Test (MUET).

Listening Test
Paper 1 (800/1)
Listen to three recorded texts and answer 15 multiple-choice questions (MCQ).
Weightage: 15%
Duration: half an hour
Read MUET listening tips.

Speaking Test
Paper 2 (800/2)
2 minutes for individual presentation and 10 minutes for group discussion.
Weightage: 15%
Duration: half an hour
Read MUET speaking tips.

Reading Test
Paper 3 (800/3)
50 questions based on different types of passages including cloze passage, information transfer, interpretation of diagrams, tables and graphs and comprehension passage.
Weightage: 45%
Duration: two hours
Read MUET reading tips.

Writing Test
Paper 4 (800/4)
One summary writing and one composition.
Weightage: 25%
Duration: one and a half hour
Read MUET writing tips.

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Important English Grammar Notes for Essay Writing

1. Modals (Present form / Past form)
Can / Could
Will / Would
Shall / Should
May / Might
Do / Did
To
The words (verbs) after these modals must always be in root form which is the basic part of a verb without adding ‘-ing’ or ‘-ed’.

2. Words (Verbs) after ‘has’, ‘have’ or ‘had’ must be in past participle form.
Example 1: has written (‘written’ is the past participle form of the verb ‘write’)
Example 2: has held (‘held’ is the past participle form of the verb ‘hold’)

3. In a sentence where there are two verbs the first* verb must have the word ‘had’ in front of it.
Example: Eric told his father about what had happened to him.
*The first activity done / happened.

4. After these words the verb must be added ‘-ing’.
after, before, while, as, when, for, by
Examples:
Before eating
After trekking
By writing

5. Use articles ‘a’, ‘and’, ‘the’ before nouns.
Examples:
The grammar notes
A writing guide
An essay

6. Use auxiliaries or auxiliary verbs (is, are, am, was, were) before adjective.
The essay writing guide is useful.
Good Essays website is essential to everyone who wants to write a better essay.

7. During examinations, you should not use contractions such as didn’t, can’t… Use did not or cannot instead.