Many Singaporean children have difficulty with Chinese subjects in school. You are not alone if you are experiencing the same issue. Sometimes, no matter how hard you study, it feels like you can’t get the swing of it. This can drive you to panic, which in turn, makes you forget everything you’ve just learnt.
If you’re struggling to prepare yet want to ace your forthcoming Chinese examinations, you may be thinking about hiring a Chinese tutor. Well, there are other steps you can undertake before that.
To ace your O-Level Chinese, you must first comprehend its structure. Simply described, the Chinese test consists of the four components listed below:
- Paper 1
- Paper 2
- Listening comprehension
- Oral examination
Paper One: Composition or Situational Writing
Your Paper One will begin with Situational Writing or Composition. This represents roughly 20% of the overall exam. Therefore, you need to create something that can astound people who read it.
Even if writing written works isn’t your strong suit, you may still compose a winning composition if you have a strong grasp of the Chinese language.
Aside from that, having excellent imagination abilities that transport the reader into your world might assist you in creating outstanding written works. Of course, properly reading and comprehending the question before beginning your paper might also aid you in this area.
Paper 2: Comprehension
The exam’s Paper Two part is when the issue begins for most candidates since they will need to prove they can properly grasp the assigned content. Students must read various sections, examine the offered content, and ensure that their replies demonstrate that they have adequately grasped the essay.
In reality, their responses should be equally correct for both the fill-in-the-blank questions and the multiple-choice ones. Unfortunately, this can be tough to perform, especially with the provided time restriction and the fact that this paper accounts for 45% of the whole test.
You must thoroughly prepare for this paper by reading and comprehending Chinese materials. Reading the newspaper or Chinese storybooks is a beautiful place to start.
Paper Three: Listening and Speaking Comprehension
Lastly, you have the Paper Three segment, which contains the oral and listening comprehension element of the test. This accounts for 35% of the total exam score, so you must sufficiently prepare for and do well in this section as well, especially if the composition is not your strong suit.
Students will be required to demonstrate their verbal competency in the language by responding to a few questions based on a brief presentation. In this scenario, besides having command over Chinese, having appropriate confidence when presenting can also bolster your overall results.
To Conclude…
Of course, you will need to devote some of your time to practice in order to attain long-term success. So, to enhance your Chinese, remember to use additional resources such as Chinese publications and programmes, notably Chinese tuition.