How to Score MUET (Malaysian University English Test) | Malaysia ... - Blog MUET

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How to Score <b>MUET</b> (<b>Malaysian University English Test</b>) | <b>Malaysia</b> <b>...</b> - Blog MUET


How to Score <b>MUET</b> (<b>Malaysian University English Test</b>) | <b>Malaysia</b> <b>...</b>

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 02:16 AM PST

Ranking: 5 Students

Written by Suzanne Ong
Panduan MUET Guide Tips
Panduan MUET
Before I get to the point of this article, you should know that Malaysian University English Test (MUET) is basically an English proficiency test which means you have to work on being good at the language altogether to actually get good results. In my own experience, I've come to realize that usually English speakers—as in those who speak English at home or with friends—are the ones who obtain a Band 4 or Band 5. MUET Band 6 is near impossible to obtain and the rest fall under Band 3 or less. Circumstances may vary according to the questions given, but note that having a good hold of the language should be your main focus, the questions come in later.

The first thing you need to know about English is that it's not a memorizing subject, rather it's more of a skill that you acquire through lots of practice. It's like learning Math or taking up a new instrument, you cannot be good at it right away; you need to practice before getting it right, unless if you're naturally gifted which I think most of us aren't.

1. MUET Writing
If you're the type of person who thinks that reading the dictionary could help hone your English, then that's where you've got it wrong. Read these 2 sentences:

  • I am not mind you nitpicking of my grammar mistakes.
  • I wouldn't mind if you nitpicked on my grammar mistakes. 

See, even if you understand a bombastic word and fairly know how to use it, it still doesn't equate into having a good grasp of English if your grammar is all over the place. Grammar always comes first and once you've mastered that, then you could go ahead and memorize all those fancy schmancy words to make yourself look smarter. Simple grammar rules like tenses and when to put an S after a word and when not to, all those require practice. I suggest you pick up an exercise workbook on grammar and practice on it, but don't stop there. You will also need to start reading more English materials, any English materials really, as long as they're grammatically correct. The main thing is to read how the article is written as opposed to what it is written. The more you take notice on how they write, you'll slowly get used to the grammar being used.

You cannot just read without writing though, because like I said, English is a skill and you need to practice. Therefore, you should always write and have someone with better English to have a look at it and tell you where you went wrong. Only then you could really improve on your Writing. It takes time, so be patient.

2. MUET Speaking
When you converse in English, sometimes it's different from written English, because written form could be a little formal sometimes. To improve on Speaking, you have to watch more English shows, be it dramas or movies, it really doesn't matter as long as it captures your attention. Having subtitles in your preferred language would be good as it gives you a better understanding as to what the show is talking about. Similar to what I've mentioned earlier, you should notice the words people use when they speak, more so than what they're actually saying. After a while, you would notice a similar pattern from the way they talk and it's totally different from the way we speak our "rojak" English here in Malaysia. Obviously you shouldn't use words like lah, mah, wah, ah, etc in your Speaking.

If you don't usually speak English with your friends, pick out one friend that is good at English and ask him to speak the language with you. It would be awkward at first for the both of you, but if you're determined and if your friend is really willing to help, you will get through the awkwardness and after a while you could really see the improvement. My friend did that and at first she couldn't really speak a proper sentence, but she wasn't embarrassed to ask and learn even if she might've embarrassed herself through the process. She worked hard and after a few months, she really did improve compared to the first time she started speaking English.

3. MUET Reading
Even though it is a multiple choice paper, Reading is tough regardless. If you've tried out questions from exercise books and past year MUET papers, then you would have noticed the difference between the two. For Reading, I suggest you try out lots of different exercises—the tougher the better—and try to learn from your mistakes. See where you've analyzed wrongly and learn from that.

For the first ever Reading paper I did, I think I got less than half correct because I was looking at the questions the wrong way. After learning my mistake, I've improved to getting more than half correct almost every time. Of course you need to read more to familiarize yourself with the type of formal writing (from my experience, they mostly give data questions so most of them are written formally) as it is different from informal or narrative writing, which I find easier to understand.

4. MUET Listening
Listening to me, I find to be the easiest among all 4 papers, though I think those who aren't familiar with English would find it to be a challenge. Watching movies or TV shows could help in Listening too (and not just for Speaking), so does listening to the radio or watching videos online that is English. You need to train your ear to differentiate certain words that might sound similar to the other, like soap and soup, hard work and hardwood. You have to pay close attention to the whole sentence rather than just that word that you think might be the answer. I think the only way to differentiate words is to know what the person is talking about and if it makes sense.

The audio can be a jerk sometimes (which happened to me during my actual exams) so you really have to train yourself to listen carefully. They play the audio twice so what I normally do is to write down the answer with a pencil first, sometimes I even write down 2 or 3 answers when I'm not sure, then when they play it the second time, I write it down with my pen.

Another thing I think you should know about MUET is that the questions sometimes test your general knowledge. Not like what is currently happening in the news, more like stuff about One Malaysia, One Sport, the education blueprint, things like that. So getting a high band sometimes depends on luck too.

I guess that's about it. Remember it takes a lot of time, patience and hard work to get it right. People who speak English at home have an advantage because they read, watch and listen to English stuff all the time, so if you're not one of them then you'll have to put in extra work compared to them. Even after your MUET exams are over, don't stop improving your English, it would give you a better chance of getting a job in the future. Oh and if you're interested in reading about my MUET experience, you can check out my blog. There's stuff about my form 6 life there too if you are interested in reading :)

Alright, all the best!

Written by Suzanne Ong, an aspiring writer who had just finished STPM and is in the midst of pursuing her dream of becoming an author. She blogs about random daily things that people don't voice out at http://xsuzannex.wordpress.com and writes fiction at http://www.wattpad.com/user/raind33r.

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Blog <b>Muet</b> - Blogger

Posted: 23 May 2014 10:22 PM PDT


Malaysian University English Test (MUET)

Yes, I have sat for the exam and scored band 3. Do you think I am qualified to give out some tips?

Well, actually I'm not going to share the tricks for answering MUET papers, but more on sharing my past experience when sitting for MUET. I think this post is very suitable to be read by UIA students especially. If you feel like reading this post is wasting your time and this post isn't helpful, then you are free to leave. Hehe.

For UIA students, err, I'm telling you that MUET isn't that useful in UIA. Although if you scored band 6 either, once you enrolled to UIA, you will need to sit for special English test named English Placement Test (EPT). No automatic exemption for you. For CFS students, you have nothing to worry about if you have been exempted from the test. 

For other public + private institutions, MUET is a MUST for you.

I took my MUET exam last year, final year session, at UIA PJ.

Speaking

My speaking assessment was held earlier than writing and the rest. During speaking test, I was given a topic on how to curb disciplinary problems in school. When presenting my point of view, I was stammering throughout the section A and freely the examiners deducted my marks. So sad.

For speaking test, it consists of two tasks. A and B. (or 1 and 2? forgot already).

  • Task A : You are required to present your point of view based on the topic discussed with your given position. 
  • Task B : Group discussion. You are required to discuss in your group about choosing the best method/suggestion within stipulated time. You may use others' point and argue nicely with correctly used terms e.g. (Sorry for interrupting, but....). Google for more commonly used terms in speaking test! For UIA students who have sat for EPT (English Placement Test), this part is just similar to our speaking test. Just follow the rule! 
Some useful tips:
 
  1. Please! DO NOT CONQUER the whole conversation. The test is for 4 candidates, not for you only. Don't you feel annoyed if someone dominates the talk without giving any chance for you to talk? 
  2. Prioritize your fluency first, then grammar. Although grammar is very important, but don't let it affect your fluency and eloquence. 
  3. If possible, be the one who leads the conversation, this may give you more marks.
  4. The more you counter others' view, the more marks you may get. Make sure your points are logic to counter others' points.
  5. Make sure you do understand the question so that you won't blabber too much with unnecessary points. A girl in my group, she asked the instructors about the topic in which she didn't understand after presenting her point. The instructors gave face gesture among themselves and asked the girl to perform in the next task. Pity on her. 
  6. You can watch some demos on MUET Speaking test at [here].

Writing

For writing, you will need to write two essays.

  • First essay : Analysis essay. You need to study the given stimuli (usually a graph and a table). Then summarize and write about them, in X words (forgot already). If you exceeded the limit, the rest of the points will be left unread. For this essay, you should include the specific way of writing and correct techniques. If you don't follow the techniques, your marks will be deducted despite having good grammar and wide vocabulary. *The most detested part in MUET*
  • Second essay : Opinion-based essay. Writing about argumentative essay. My topic last time was about arranged marriage. Do you agree? lol. Many friends smiled while writing the essay. Huh.

I have no idea about the correct techniques that must be used. Go and find some other resources to know about writing format.

It is good if you read a lot. By reading, you can enrich your general knowledge. This may be useful to relate your essay with additional quotes and facts that you know.

Do more practice on grammar also. Grammar is the backbone of English. 

Reading

Reading part, the part that will make you drowsy. I advise you to bring some drinking water into the examination hall so that you won't have your beauty sleep during the exam.

How to answer reading questions? Simple! You need more exercises. The more exercises you do, the easier for you to tackle the question. Bring some highlighters, and highlight for any hints that you found.

My skill on answering reading paper: I didn't read the whole text, but simply jumped into the questions straight away to avoid reading those that-so-called bed time story, and looked for the answers on the text by using skimming and scanning skill (very important reading skill). Google it!

Listening

The only things that you need are a pencil/pen and an eraser. If possible, you may dig your ear and clean the earwax that blocks/limits your hearing capability because you need your ear and brain to work together.

During the exam, make sure you focus 100% on the radio and let your brain think faster. The radio will read out any conversations, advertisements, podcast, etc. The information that you need to fill up may differ but same meaning, so you need to think very fast. If you missed, don't panic! Just go ahead. The radio will read out twice, so no worry. Use your common sense for the missing parts, don't leave them empty!

*********************************************************************************

These tips perhaps aren't that good and helpful as what you expected them to be, because I'm not a teacher/lecturer/examiner who teaches and marks MUET papers. I'm sharing this based on my previous experience when I was taking MUET. I didn't really put my interest during the exam because it is not really important for UIA students. For us, as long as you have sat for the exam, then you're free to get through your study in UIA. No required bands for us, except for some critical courses: Medical, Dentistry, Pharmacy (minimum band 3). 

For better tips, just google for International English test (IELTS/TOEFL) to see some useful tricks that could be used in MUET.

Good luck anyway! :D

p/s: very bad writing, I know...

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