128682381 a complete guide

MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343

In this COMPLIMENTARY CD toMUET A COMPLETE GUIDE,

you will find these helpful sections:

A. What is MUET?

B. Specific Objectives of MUET

C. Test Format

D. Brainstorming Activities (Paper 2)

i. Activity 1: Re-angling Your Thoughts!

ii. Activity 2: Looking at the Big Picture

iii. Activity 3: Improvising!

E. Speed Reading (Paper 3 & 4)

i. Activity 1: How Fast Do You Read?

ii. Activity 2: Speed Reading

F. Short Forms for Note-Taking

i. Activity 1: Creating Short Forms

ii. Activity 2: Using Short Forms

G. Links to Interactive English Language Games

PEARSON MALAYSIA SDN. BHD. 2006 - 1 -


A. What is MUET?

MUET is the Malaysian University English Test, an English

competency test administered by the Malaysian

Examinations Council.

MUET is open to Sixth Formers who wish to enter university

as well as to pre-university students.

The MUET syllabus aims to equip students preparing for

tertiary education with the appropriate level of proficiency

in English. It also seeks to develop critical thinking skills.

Students level of proficiency is measured based on an

aggregated score of zero to three hundred. Candidates are

placed on an aggregated score range, which is based on six

levels of proficiency, i.e. Levels One to Six, where Level Six

signifies a Very Good User while Level One denotes an

Extremely Limited User.

MUET tests the four main language skills of Listening,

Speaking, Reading and Writing.

Below are the time allocated for and weightage of the four

components of the test.

PAPER CODE

PAPER TIME WEIGHTAGE (%)

800/1 Listening hour 15

800/2 Speaking hour 15

800/3Reading

Comprehension2 hours 45



800/4 Writing 1 hours 25

B. Specific Objectives of MUET

These are:

Listening and Speaking

o To improve students listening, speaking and note-taking skills

o To enable students to interact proficiently and efficiently in English in a variety of formal and

informal situations

o To develop students ability to respond critically to information heard

Reading Comprehension

o To enable students to understand texts beyond the literal level

o To enable students to understand the interconnectivity of text content from a variety of

genres

o To develop students ability to respond critically to various texts

Writing

o To write accurately and appropriately for a particular purpose and audience

o To organise materials logically, coherently and cohesively

o To develop writing skills specific to academic genres such as formal essays, term papers, reports and

summaries



C. Test Format

Paper 1: Listening

Candidates listen to recorded texts and answer questions

based on these texts.

A total of 15 multiple-choice questions are given.

Paper 2: Speaking

Candidates perform two tasks: individual presentation and

group discussion.

Candidates give their opinion on a given topic, justify or

defend their point of view, agree and disagree with ideas

presented and draw their own conclusions from the facts

presented.

Paper 3: Reading Comprehension

Candidates answer 50 multiple-choice questions based on a

cloze passage and texts which may be in the form of

journals, reports, articles and reference from books.

Questions may involve information transfer from linear and

non-linear forms, and vice versa.

Paper 4: Writing

Candidates are given two writing tasks. One is to write a

summary and the other is a piece of extended writing. The


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 stimulus may be in the form of linear and/or non-linear

texts.

D. Brainstorming Activities (Paper 2)(Adapted from Management for the Rest of Us at www.mftrou.com)

Getting lots of speaking practice is the norm in preparing for Paper 2

(Speaking) of the MUET. This is of course the right way to go you will

need ample practice in thinking on your feet and coming up with ideas

in just a few short minutes. But instead of the usual mock discussions

with classmates and friends, why not try a different method of

preparation?

Care to know what this different

method could be?

Well, it is simply a method that helps you learn to think out of the box,

so that you will eventually be able to generate fresh ideas quickly.

The following are three activities that challenge conventional and

routine ways of thinking. There are many, many brain-galvanising

exercises out there -- look them up on the Internet.


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 May these activities help you churn out fresh ideas for

your presentations!

Activity 1: Re-angling Your Thoughts! Make a list of common words, e.g.

fast, strong, big

Then, for each word, list the words of opposite meaning that

immediately come to mind, e.g.

slow, weak, small

This will help you omit the words that do not fit your context, or

words that are used too often.

Next, challenge yourself to come up with at least three more

words that mean the opposite for each given word:

E.g. fast - slow, dull, inefficient, time-consuming,

etc.

strong- weak, sickly, fragile, lethargic, etc.

big - small, little, petite, puny, pint-sized,

etc.

Dont worry if you find words with similar meanings creeping into

your list. Keep going, as these can generate more words that


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 mean the opposite. Bear in mind that ideas breed ideas and this

helps to keep critical and analytical thinking going.

Limit the time spent on this activity to 10 to 15 minutes in order to

keep it fresh and focused.

Key in your words here:

Common

wordsOpposite words

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Activity 2: Looking at the Big Picture

Look at these shapes and write down what you see.



Key in your answer here:


Your answer might have been:

three coloured shapes OR

a green circle with a diagonal line OR

a red hexagon and a yellow thought bubble OR

something else. You may have made a small leap in creativity and seen

the top-left figure as a green forbidden road sign. You may also have

made a bigger leap and deciphered the combination of shapes as a

winking bearded face or an imminent solar eclipse on a cloudy day!

It doesnt matter if you could or could not see more in these shapes

there are no right or wrong answers. The main purpose of this activity is

to guide you to look at things from a different perspective. When you do,

you will trigger off an exciting new train of thoughts which will give you a

multitude of ideas. Just sift through them to see which you can work with

and which you cant.

Now you know the essence of effective

brainstorming!

Look at the shapes again and see if you can come up with new

descriptions the second time round. Have fun!


Activity 3: Improvising!


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 Collect any five items e.g. a belt, paper clip, toy dog, post-it notes,

anything. Put them on your table and challenge yourself to come

up with different uses for each, e.g. use the belt as a Japanese

warriors headband or the paper clips as ear rings.

Similar to the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the

principle of this activity is simple improvisation!

Now that your creative muscles have been warmed up, try coming

up with some fresh ideas for these topics:

Q1. If you were the Prime Minister of Malaysia, what would you do

to improve

a) The education system?


b) National integration?


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 Key in your answer here:

c) The civil service?


d) The mindset of Malaysians? (i.e. road ethics, civic consciousness, work ethics, etc)



MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 Q2. What would you do if you had a million dollars?

Donate to charity


Go jet-setting around the world




c) Learn a new skill


Invest, invest and invest!




Q3. If you are a person of high authority who could have done

something to:

prevent the terrorist attacks on the World Trade

Centre in New York on September 11, 2001;

contain the SARS outbreak in Asia in 2003 more

effectively;

deploy aid to the countries that were hit hard by the

Tsunami disaster in December 2004 more efficiently;

prevent the massive flood that hit Taman Tun Dr.

Ismail Jaya in Shah Alam in February 2006;

what would you have done?

a) September 11 attacks


SARS outbreak

Key in your answers here:



Tsunami disaster


d) Shah Alam floods




Q4. In February 2006, Malaysians faced an overnight hike in fuel

prices after the government decided to reduce petrol and

diesel price subsidies. As a Malaysian who is affected by this

move, how would you deal with this situation?

a) Optimise the use of public transportation


b) Inculcate good spending habits




c) Car-pool


d) Plan your route before travelling




E. Speed Reading (Paper 3 & 4)(Adapted from - www.learning-tech.co.uk)

Many students do not allocate ample time for editing and rewriting

their summaries because they spend too much time on reading

and rereading the passage and then writing out the summary.

What does this mean? Only that they lose precious marks for

careless mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation.

To solve this problem, why not cut down on the time spent reading

and understanding the text? Want to know how? Well, it is a little

secret that isnt really a secret to people who have to read a lot of

text in a very short time, and it is called yes, you guessed it:

SPEED READING!

The following are some handy tips on speed reading, a very useful

technique you can use for Paper 3 (Reading) and Paper 4 (Writing).

First though, try assessing your current reading speed by reading

the following passage at your normal pace. Of course, youll need

a stopwatch to time yourself.



Activity 1: How Fast Do You Read?

Time yourself as you read this passage.

Patients suffering from liver, heart and lung failure often die because they are unable to procure organs for transplantation. According to the National Transplant Resource Centre in Kuala Lumpur, there is a demand for some 500 hearts, 600 kidneys, 350 livers and 700 corneas annually in Malaysia.

What is Transplantation?

It is an operation that involves the replacement of diseased and defective organs and tissues with healthy ones from donors. This treatment often saves lives.

What are the organs and tissues that are commonly donated?

The commonly transplanted organs are kidneys, liver, heart, lungs and pancreas while transplantable tissues are eyes, bone, bone marrow, skin and heart valves. Thus a single donor can save the lives of a number of people.

What is an organ?

An organ is defined as

that part of a human body consisting of a structured arrangement of tissues which, if wholly removed, cannot be replicated by the body

This means that blood, semen, bone marrow and hair are examples of regenerative parts of the body and are therefore not considered as organs.


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 On the other hand, the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas and lungs are examples of non-generative parts of the body and can be regarded as organs.

The liver, for example, straddles both aspects. The whole of a liver can be considered an organ as the removal of it in its entirety will not allow the body to regenerate another one. A segment, on the other hand, would constitute tissue since the liver has the power of spontaneously regenerating itself.

What are the sources of donation?

Organs may be obtained from two sources: live donors and cadavers (corpses).

Organs from live donors may be used for kidney transplantation and transplantation of a part of the liver. The live donor is usually the spouse or a living relative of the patient. Sometimes a stranger who is not genetically related to the person who needs the organ or tissue selflessly comes forward to donate. This was the case with Wan Hafizan Wan Ismail who donated part of his liver to Mohd. Afiq Muhammad Zaini in 1999.

Generally, live donors are discouraged for various reasons: the fear of coercion to donate; the fear of long-term complications for the live donor; and the scarce availability of donors who are truly physically fit individuals.

Cadaveric donations are more common as this involves the donation of an organ of an individual after his death. Organs from cadavers include not only kidney and liver but also the heart, lung, cornea and pancreas. Generally, organs from cadavers are preferred as the problems that crop up with live donors do not surface with cadaveric transplants.

Current practice


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 The lack of organs for transplantation has led many Malaysians to purchase organs abroad. At the end of 1995, it was reported that some 6000 Malaysians had been to India and China to purchase kidneys for transplantation. As at December 31 1995, the National Renal Registry of Malaysia (confined to kidney transplants only) registered 56 cases of commercial procurement of cadaveric kidneys (55 from China, one from Russia). In addition, it was reported that there was a further 526 recipients of commercial transplants (not necessarily kidneys) mainly from India.

The organs procured for transplantation in these countries were often extracted from persons who had been executed or who were the victims of extreme poverty.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has produced a set of guiding principles on human organ transplantation. It is clearly stated that consent must be obtained before transplantation is carried out (Guiding Principle 1). Guiding Principle 5 states that the human body and its parts cannot be the subject of commercial transactions and that the giving or receiving of payment is prohibited.

What is required?

Before organs are recovered or harvested from cadavers, the law requires that the consent of the donor has to be obtained before his death. The donor has to state in writing or orally to two witnesses that he is willing to donate his body or any specified part of his body for transplantation purposes.

The donor also has to be pronounced dead before any body part is removed. Traditionally, a person was considered dead when he or she had no pulse or was not breathing. Today, however, death can also occur when there is a loss of brainstem function (the brainstem is the last part of the brain to die). The brainstem is necessary for awareness (the upper brainstem) and for spontaneous reflexes such as respiratory (lower brainstem). This concept of death is also known as brainstem death or simply brain death.

To ensure there is no abuse, the potential donor, who may be in his last hours of life, receives care from a health care team that is


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 separate from the team that has been charged with the duty of extracting organs after the patient dies.

Appeal for donors

The living need help from the dead. If more people were to pledge their organs after their death, a lot of hope is given to people who are living half a life. A kidney, a liver, a heart, or a cornea will go a long way to ensure that a 10-year-old, an 18-year-old, or a 30-year-old gets another chance at quality life.

Timothy (21 years old) dies in an accident. He has pledged his kidneys and liver for transplantation. His kidneys go to Pragasam and Chan. His liver goes to Azian.




To work out your speed, you need to calculate, in minutes, the

time it took you to finish reading the text.

Divide the number of 'leftover seconds' by 60 and add to the

number of whole minutes (e.g. if it took you 2 minutes and 24

seconds, then you divide 24 by 60 and add to the 2 i.e. 24/60 = 0.4;

0.4 + 2 = 2.4 minutes).

The text contained 901 words, so to calculate the number of

words per minute, divide 901 by the number of minutes (e.g. 901/2.4 =

375 words per minute or wpm).

Remember or jot down your speed for later comparison.

Average readers read texts word for word. Such readers also tend to

skip back (consciously or sub-consciously) while reading and may even

wander off a page.

Speed readers, on the other hand, are able to take in groups of words

with each fixation and are constantly moving forwards while reading.

Hence, in order to improve your reading speed, you should:

have LESS fixations (you should take in words by groups

rather than by the word)

make fixations quicker

stay on the page (don't allow your eyes to wander off)

only go forwards (don't skip back, even if you thought you

missed something)

Now, time yourself again, and this time, apply the four tips above as you

read. Compare your new time against the previous time to check if

there is an increase in speed.

After youve done that, answer the following questions to ensure that

you fully understood what you read.


Activity 2: Speed Reading

Read the passage again, then answer these questions.

1. Based on the information given in the box at the end of the passage, who is the donor?A. Chan B. AzianC. TimothyD. Pragasam


2. What specifically would you term Azian, Chan and Pragasam?

A. DonorsB. PatientsC. SourcesD. Suppliers


3. What is the difference between organ and tissue?A. An organ can be donated while not all tissues can be

donatedB. An organ degenerates while tissue does notC. An organ cannot regrow while tissue canD. An organ can regrow while tissue cannot




4. Which of the following charts is correct?

Human parts donated to people


5. Donations from live donors are accepted for the following reasons unlessA. they are physically fitB. they are not forced to donateC. they are blood relatives of the recipientD. they might have complications after the surgery


6. The meaning of the word procure in the text meansA. obtainB. supplyC. extractD. purchase



A. Organskidneyliverbonelungs

B. Tissuesskincorneabone lungs

C. Tissuesskinkidneybonebone marrow

D. Organskidneyliverheartlungs


7. Two requirements are necessary before a dying patient can give up his/her organs. They are:A. his will and his wishB. his written and oral statementC. his expression and the certainty that he is deadD. his written or oral consent and the certainty that he is

dead


8. Why are there two teams of doctors attending the dying patient who has pledged his organs?A. If the procedure of transplantation takes a long time, the

other team continues the operation.B. One team is to care for the health of the donor and the

other to transplant the organs.C. This is to ensure that maximum care given to the dying

donor remains objective.D. The donor deserves the full attention of the doctors.




F. Short Forms for Note-Taking (Paper 2)

The following is a brief list of short forms you can use for Paper 2

(Speaking), which requires you to take notes. Oh yes, you can use

them to send SMSes too!

1) Linkersa) To show additional information is forthcoming

And - & /n Also - oso Another - anthr Moreover - m/ovr Furthermore - fthrmor Even though - evntho Firstly/secondly/etc - 1stly/2ndly/etc Finally - 5nally

b) To indicate a change of direction in sentence Though - tho However - hwevr Although - although On the other hand - OTOH Nevertheless - nvrdless

c) To further develop an idea by illustrating For example - e.g. That is - i.e. Such as - sch as/sas


Answers: 1. C 2. B 3. C 4. D5. D 6. A 7. D 8. C

MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 d) To show a cause-and-effect relationship

Consequently - cqly Therefore - thr4 As a result - AAR Because - bcz/bcoz

e) Others To - 2 For - 4 Are - r The - d

With - wif Between - btwn Before - b4 After - aftr That - dat/tat Those - thoz This - dis These - thz Was - ws/wuz Were - wr Can - cn Could - cld Will - wil Would - wld/wud Shall - shl Should - shld/shud Each - ech Every - evry Just - js/jz/juz Something - sth/sumthg Anything - anyth/anythg Everything - evryth/evrythg While - whl Whether - whthr Whenever - whnevr Wherever - whrevr Whichever - whcevr


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 By the way - btw/BTW

2) WH questions What - wat Where - whr Which - whc When - wen Why - y How - hw

3) Days in a week Sunday - Sun Monday - Mon Tuesday - Tues

Wednesday - Wed Thursday - Thur Friday - Fri Saturday - Sat Today - 2day Tomorrow - tmr/tomoro Yesterday - yday/ytday

Here is an example:

In writing an essay or a report, it is important to remember the rules

of punctuation. There are about twelve different punctuation marks

that are commonly used in writing. Most of you who have reached a

level of proficiency in the English Language are already familiar with

the more basic punctuation marks such as capital letters, full stops

and question marks. However, there are five punctuation marks

which students are often confused about. They are explained as

follows.



Answer:

In writg an SA or a rport, it is imprt 2 rmbr d rules of punct.

Thr r abt 12 diff punct marks dat r commonly used in writg.

Most of u who hv reached a level of prof in d Eng. Lang. r

alrdy familiar wif d mor basic punct marks such as cap.

lettrs, full stops & Q marks. Hwevr, thr r 5 punct marks whc

stus r oftn confusd abt. They r explained as fllws.

Activity 1: Creating Short Forms

Come up with your own set of short forms for words you use often.


Words I Use All the Time My Own Short Forms



Activity 2: Using Short Forms

Copy this text using the short forms you just learnt.


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 Lets look at five attitudes. First is self-esteem. Thats the way you feel about

yourself. That feeling of your own worth influences every facet of your life.

The second attitude is love, which is your attitude towards others. Love real

love always thinks in terms of what is best for the other person.

The third attitude is faith. Faith is your attitude towards God. It will influence

your attitudes toward your fellowmen and members of your family.

The fourth attitude is hope, which is your attitude towards your future. Alfred

Adler, the psychiatrist, said, Hope is the foundational quality of all change, and

it is the great activator. It gets people moving towards an objective. Hope is the

realistic expectation that something good is going to happen.

The fifth attitude is forgiveness, which deals with your past. Your ability to

forgive others for any wrong-doing will have tremendous bearing on your

future. The person who damaged your past is negatively impacting your

present, and will negatively influence your future unless you forgive him or her.

Forgiveness is the wisest choice.

Maintain these five attitudes in your life, and you will be well on your way to

the top!

(Extracted from You Can Reach The Top by Zig Ziglar)


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 Key in your answer here:


MUET A COMPLETE GUIDE ISBN: 983 7439343 Bored with traditional exercises? Then try out some fun interactive

English Language games from these links to improve your

grammar and vocabulary:

www. english -online.org.uk/ games /gamezone2.htm

www.lapasserelle.com/lm/exercices/ games .page.html

www.manythings.org/

www. english page.com/ games / games .html

www.world- english .org/ games .htm

www.abroad language s.com/al/la/ english .asp

www.onestop english .com/

www. english club.com/

www.eslcafe.com/

www.nonstop english .com/

www.bell english .com/courses/freegame/introduction.asp

www. languagegames .org/la/ english .asp

www.eltweb.com/liason/Games/

owl. english .purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslstudent.html

www.bell english .com/

www.ukstudentlife.com/Ideas/Fun.htm

www.orbislingua.com/ekai.htm

www. english -at-home.com/


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