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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