----- Original Message ----- From: Ariella Kopels <mckopels@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: etni Digest V7 #273 Dear All, I also want to applaud Sharon for her efforts. I have seen the number of students who get "tapes" grow by leaps and bounds since I first started teaching. I am very worried about the students who need this dispensation. We have approached our school's "computer guy" to try to transfer our old tapes from former Bagrut exams to computer files. He is working on it, but his time is limited and there is no guarantee that we will succeed. I am also concerned about what will happen on the day of the Bagrut. This past summer our school only received 1 tape for the E exam, even though the test envelope listed that it was one of two, the other (containing 14 tapes) never arrived. Another local high school had the same problem. The post office was very helpful, but apparentlyֲ the two missing envelopes never got to them. They even called the closest post office to see if it had been transferred by mistake. I know this isn't much help for our immediate problem, but I have a suggestion for the future. Maybe we can organize a session with Judy and a representative from the testing department at one of the ETAI conferences.From the gist of Sharon's letter, I understand that there are sympathetic people in the testing department, who simply weren't familiar with the difficulties in the field. The listening isn't our only problem. The students who sit for the English Bagrut don't have the option of a neutral tester, who canֲ write their answers for them. These poor kids have to read their answers into a tape - again a technology problem. If they do have a tape they often get their directions all mixed up. I've had kids erase their answers by mistake, and then they are too tired or frustrated to redo the tape. I just want our students to have the same testing conditions available in their other subjects. Best, Ariella Kopels ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------