Ms. Mai Huong said that the new exam format (according to the 2018 General Education Program) has many changes compared to previous years. “The exam aims to assess English proficiency through real-life situations. The question types are more diverse and practical (signs, announcements, advertisements, etc.), students need flexible test-taking strategies instead of just mechanically memorizing 'keywords' or identifying signs. Therefore, students need to practice reading comprehension skills, analytical thinking, and at the same time review the 'pillars' of grammar and vocabulary to be able to apply them most flexibly in the lesson,” Ms. Mai Huong advised.

According to Ms. Huong, in the "sprint" stage, students can review in a few ways to increase efficiency:

- Classify review by lesson type:

Instead of spreading out the practice of “general tests” continuously, students should spend time reviewing by type of question. This is an opportunity to review the types of questions more deeply and allocate more time to find ways to solve the types of questions that often lose points.

For example: spend 2 consecutive sessions reviewing only one type of Reading - gap-fill; the next 2 sessions only review rewriting sentences. Intersperse the review sessions with 1-2 sessions of doing complete test questions.

- Make a detailed review progress:

Divide your review time by week, list your goals each week.

For example: Week 1 review pronunciation, week 2 review key grammar; week 3 review sentence rewriting exercises, etc.

- Apply “Spaced Repetition” to vocabulary:

According to Ms. Huong, with the new exam format, students need to apply both skills and thinking. Vocabulary plays an important role in reading comprehension. Students do not need to learn all the vocabulary at once, but should review regularly, 5-10 vocabulary words per lesson each day to remember more effectively.

- Create study groups/study in pairs to "cross-grade" and correct each other's work:

Studying with friends can create mutual encouragement and motivation. Besides, cross-checking knowledge and explaining mistakes to friends also helps you understand more deeply and remember longer.

- Review the summary with limited time:

You should spend the last few sessions doing the comprehensive exam, setting a 60-minute countdown timer like a real exam. This is the most effective way to practice reflexes and test-taking skills, while also helping students consolidate comprehensive knowledge to be ready to enter the exam with the best mindset.

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Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Huong (teacher at Nguyen Tri Phuong Secondary School, Hanoi) with her former students.

Errors or types of exercises that easily lose points

Ms. Mai Huong also notes mistakes or types of exercises that can easily cause students to lose points.

About phonetics:

The rules for pronouncing the ending "s" or the ending "ed" are basic knowledge that often appear, but students tend to be subjective and refuse to remember.

Besides, English has many silent sounds, students should try to remember those sounds as soon as they learn new words, or grasp how to identify some common silent sounds below:

+ Silent “K”: usually appears at the beginning of the word, before the letter “n” (Example: know, knife, knee, knock,…).

+ Silent “W”: usually appears before the letter “r”, or some specific words (For example: write, wrong, answer,…).

+ Silent “T”: usually stands between “s” and “en/le” (Examples: listen, fasten, castle,…).

+ Silent “L”: usually comes after “a”, “o”, “u” (Examples: talk, walk, , calf,…).

+ Silent “Gh”: usually at the end of the word, after a vowel (Example: through, night, height,…).

+ Silent “B”: usually stands after “m”, or before “t” (Example: climb, doubt,…).

+ Silent “P”: usually when standing before “n”, “s”, “t” (Examples: psychology, pneumonia,…).

+ Silent “H”: usually at the beginning of a word (Example: honour, honest, vehicle,…).

About the gap-fill reading:

A common mistake students make is reading ramblingly and not being able to identify the information they need to fill in.

Ms. Huong recommends skimming to understand the main topic, then determining the type of word needed to fill in (noun/adjective/adverb/verb, etc.), finding keywords in the sentence to determine the word needed to fill in based on grammar and semantics.

About arranging sentences to form a complete paragraph:

Common mistakes students make are making wrong logical inferences and not paying attention to the connections between sentences (firstly, however, although,…)

Ms. Huong recommends focusing on chronological logic and finding linking words.

About finding a suitable concluding sentence for the paragraph:

A common mistake students make is reading only the last sentence without grasping the main idea of ​​the whole paragraph.

The teacher advised to note:

+ The concluding sentence often contains conjunctions, or concluding signs such as “In short”, “In conclusion”…

+ The concluding sentence is not a small idea that appears in the paragraph, it must cover the entire main idea of ​​the paragraph.

+ The concluding sentence does not lead to a completely new idea.

+ The concluding sentence does not contain information that contradicts the idea in the paragraph.

About reading signs, short notices:

A common mistake students make is focusing only on the image, not paying attention to the words on the sign; hastily choosing the answer that is closest to the image.

Ms. Huong advised students to read the whole sentence and carefully observe the content of the sign or notice to understand the purpose of prohibiting or encouraging the action. In addition, signs often use modal verbs such as “must”, “should”…

In addition, students need to be familiar with different types of signs (circles with slashes are prohibition signs; inverted triangles are warning signs, etc.).

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nhung-loi-sai-va-dang-bai-de-mat-diem-khi-lam-bai-thi-lop-10-mon-tieng-anh-2389498.html