[etni] Winter Bagrut

  • From: Ariella Kopels <mckopels@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:45:11 -0800 (PST)

Dear ENTIers,
   
  Well another Bagrut has come and gone. 
   
  Although the exams were, for the most part, fair - (the glaring exception is 
the C exam, which I found to be totally unreasonable in relation to the 
targeted student population)  the point that stands out most for me as a Bagrut 
teacher is the the fact that these exams continue to vary in their level of 
difficulty / predictability from year to year. Why are the exams so 
unpredictable? Why should there be such a difference in difficulty from exam to 
exam in the same module or from module to module when  considering the students 
tested? 
   
  For example, why should a C exam be relatively more difficult than an F? And 
if we are speaking about the F exam I felt that question 6 was very deductive - 
 to the point that many of the students  felt the response was more of a guess 
than an answer interpolated from the context.  It also bothers me that the 
focus of the G exam remains a matter of higher level thinking skills rather 
than of English ability.
   
  I have also followed the discussion about the oral exam with great interest. 
I am a supporter of projects, but do feel that the weight of the project in the 
oral exam is  exam is too heavy. Why aren't the two parts of the exam equally 
weighted? I agree with Adele that the roll play was somewhat  intimidating for 
the less gregarious students, but I think that the main focus  of the exam 
today should be the conversational aspect. After all, in the future our 
students may find themselves in a position to engage in a discussion in English 
about themselves or their lives as they travel around the world ( or around the 
country); but - let's face it they are not going to speak about the rationale 
behind their research project. I also wish there was a better way to run the 
whole thing. Although I have had wonderful experiences as a tester and with the 
 colleagues who have tested my students, the test remains rather subjective. 
There will always be a student who feel that if she
 had been on list A instead of list B her grade would have been better.
   
  I am proud of the fact that English teachers make the effort to improve their 
students' research skills, often before they cover the point in L1; yet I can 
only guess how much better it would be if the student had mastered these skills 
in their mother tongue first.
   
  I hope that everyone can breathe  a sigh of relief and get a good night's 
sleep before we go back into the frey to prepare for the summer exam.
   
  Best,
  Ariella Kopels
  


 
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