This week the ‘Thinking in English’ Community is talking about passing exams!
Everyone, at some point, will come face to face with an exam. Around the world, as part of a basic education, children will study for and sit exams in the hope of passing them.
But are exams worth the stress? Do the accurately represent our abilities? What alternatives are there to exams, and is there anyone who actually likes exams?
Here are 10 conversation questions to get you talking about passing exams!
The Thinking in English Conversation Club takes place every TUESDAY at 12pm, 6pm, and 9pm, and THURSDAY at 12pm and 6pm UK time!
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Conversation Questions: How to Pass Exams!
- 1. What was the last exam you took? How did the exam go?
- 2. When you were younger, how did you feel about exams?
- 3. What advice would you give someone who has an upcoming exam?
- 4. Do children take too many exams?
- 5. What do you think are the hardest exams to pass in the world?
- 6. Are exams a good way to test knowledge, understanding, and ability?
- 7. What exam would you like to pass in the future? How will you prepare for it?
- 8. Is it possible to be ‘good at exams’? If it is, how can we get better at exams?
- 9. What would be the best alternative to exams?
- 10. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein. What do you think of this quote?
Vocabulary
- Advice
- an opinion that someone offers you about what you should do or how you should act in a particular situation
- Upcoming
- happening soon
- Knowledge
- understanding of or information about a subject that you get by experience or study, either known by one person or by people generally
- Understanding
- knowledge about a subject, situation, etc. or about how something works
- Ability
- the physical or mental power or skill needed to do something
- Prepare
- to make or get something or someone ready for something that will happen in the future
- Alternative
- something that is different from something else, especially from what is usual, and offering the possibility of choice
- Genius
- very great and rare natural ability or skill, especially in a particular area such as science or art, or a person who has this
- Stupid
- silly or unwise; showing poor judgment or little intelligence
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Photo from Armin Rimoldi on Pexels.com
Model Answers & Vocabulary
To help you prepare for the Thinking in English conversation club this week, the wonderful English tutor Thomas Brock has created vocabulary lists and some model answers.
The model answers are split into intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advanced level responses. Hopefully this will give you an idea on the differences in quality between intermediate and advanced response, and perhaps inspire your own answers to these questions!
B1 (Intermediate)
Vocabulary
Model Answers
B2 (Upper Intermediate)
Vocabulary
Model Answers
C1 (Advanced Level)
Vocabulary
Model Answers
See you all at this week’s conversation club!
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Further Questions?
