Super O Level English Exam Tips to prepare for the O Levels

Tution Centre Singapore shares with you essential O Level English Exam tips everyone can use.

O Level English Oral Exam Cheat Sheet Free pdf Download

 

Set up a study routine that has you studying English for a minimum of one hour a day. If you are serious about taking the exam you should:

A) Boost your confidence
B) Improve all aspects of your English (Listening, reading, writing and speaking).
C) Learn the best way to approach the exam.

A) Boost your confidence. The last thing you want is to enter an exam feeling poorly about your English. If you walk into the examination room feeling insecure then you are not going to do as well as you could. I would suggest some positive thinking in regards to your English. Whenever you start to criticize or feel bad about your English. Stop yourself and ask "Is that really true?"

For example if you catch yourself saying,

"My English is horrible, no one can understand me EVER".

STOP and ask yourself if it is true and you would have to realize that your English is not horrible. It is improving more and more every day and people do understand you. (I understood your post on Yahoo Answers perfectly so you have to be doing something right!).

Once you start training yourself to stop thinking negatively about your English and replace those thoughts with positive ones, you will begin to feel better and better about your English.

You can even start and end your day with a mantra

Morning:
Today I am going to learn something new. My English is good and getting better every day.

Evening:
Today I learned something new. My English is good and getting better every day.

It sounds silly but I swear it works.

Another way to go about it is to FAKE IT until it's TRUE. Be an actor and act as if your English is perfect. Tell yourself that your English is great and you improving so much until your English is perfect.

B) Improve all aspects of your English. (Listening, speaking, reading and writing). This is where the studying comes into your plan. Now with a new positive perspective you can incorporate hours of studying and USING English. Here are my suggestions:

*Get an intercambio or language exchange. Find someone who wants to speak a language that you know and English so that you can help them learn your language and they can help you learn English. For example Spanish/English. It can be a fun way to meet people and chat over a drink. http://www.meetup.com is a great way to find groups of people who have the same interests. There is an intercambio group in Madrid Spain that I used to go to and it was great!

*Listen to English every day for a minimum of 15-30 minutes. Listen to the radio while you clean the house, drive to work or cook dinner.

You don't actually have to concentrate while you listen, just have the English sounds in the background so that you can train your Ear for English. Check out my article on this topic at http://www.helping-you-learn-english.com...

*Learn something new, IN ENGLISH. Read a book about Spanish cuisine in ENGLISH, learn about Irish Castles IN ENGLISH, take a painting course IN ENGLISH...do something new and interesting but IN ENGLISH. This way you are USING English like it is meant to be used and you will learn much faster than sitting at home with a grammar book.

*Use http://www.wordchamp.com to read articles, newspapers and websites online. This amazing FREE tool helps you read real articles online by creating a instant dictionary for each page of the site you are on. If you are reading something from the BBC and you don't understand the word "stable" you put your mouse over the word and a definition in your native language, sound file and translation pop up in a little window. It is AMAZING.

C) Learn how to approach the exam. Here are my tips for writing to taking exams (just a general idea).

* Relax. Try to do some breathing techniques or listen to relaxing or upbeat music before you write the exam. Relax and distract yourself. Stress lowers your ability to recall things and makes writing exams much more difficult. So take some deep breaths and think positively

Multiple Choice Questions

*Always try to think of the answer BEFORE you look at the answer choices below. That way you are more likely to choose the right answer without being distracted by the other choices.

*If you do not know the answer right away use a process of elimination to get rid of the incorrect answers and increase your chances of getting the question correct.

*Only change your answer if you are 100% sure. Usually your first answer is correct so don't change it if you are 60% sure.

Written Response/Long Answer Questions

*Try to be as direct as possible. More is not always better in this case. Someone will know when you are trying to make something out of nothing. Use short direct sentences and keep it simple.

*Remember to leave time at the end of the exam to go back and review your spelling and grammar.

Oral exam

*Keep it simple

*Don't keep talking when you don't have anything to say. Say what you want to say and then stop. You can use a sentence like, "and thats what I think about....." to show that you are finished or you can just change the tone of your voice to show that you are finished. A downward sound of intonation usually signals that you are finished.

* Ask for explanations when you need them. You are asking for help BUT when you ask for help correctly it shows that you can USE English.

* Remember to use full sentences. Yes and no are not enough. Elaborate and give more details.

* When you are thinking or need time, talk so that there are not long periods of silence. You can say things like..."well let me see", "Give me a minute while I think" or you could even repeat the question in a way to show that you are thinking about the question.

This article was written by Diana Tower, owner and creator of http://www.helping-you-learn-english.com.