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National exams run smoothly despite hiccups

Indah Setiawati and Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Tangerang | Jakarta | Tue, April 15 2014, 10:44 AM

The first day of national examinations for high school students in Jakarta and Tangerang in Banten ran smoothly, although there were reports of technical glitches and circulating answer keys. 

Jakarta Education Agency head Lasro Marbun said he visited eight high schools in the capital and monitored reports from his subordinates on Monday. 

“I received no reports of questions being leaked to students or circulating answer keys. Some schools saw an excess of question sheets and some damaged question sheets. They were able to handle the problems with the stock,” he told The Jakarta Post over the phone. 

On the other hand, Federation for Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) secretary-general Retno Listyarti said her organization had received a number of reports of misconduct during the first day of the exams. 

“We received reports indicating that answer keys were being sold in Garut, Indramayu and Jakarta. The supervisors found the answer keys in students’ cell phones. They sent the evidence to us via email,” she told the Post over the phone on Monday. 

Retno said that answer keys were seen circulating during the Geography exam in a school in Jakarta and Indonesian language exam in a school in Garut as well as Indramayu.  

She said her organization would not report the cases to the police because she believed that both teachers and students were victims of the unfair policy of the exams, which is used to determine graduation and to judge schools’ quality. 

“As long as the government uses the exams to determine whether a student graduates, many students will try to pass the exams by any means,” she said. 

The Jakarta Education Agency recorded that 119,879 high school and vocational school students would sit the exams from April 14 until April 16. In Tangerang, the exams also commenced smoothly. 

Tangerang Regent Ahmed Zaki Iskandar, who visited a number of schools in the regency on Monday morning, said he was relieved to see that the exams were running smoother than last year. 

“Based on our observations, everything ran as expected. Hopefully, technical glitches such as delayed distribution of exam materials, shortages and wrong addresses will not occur again this year,” he said. 

Zaki said he was upbeat that the graduation rate in his regency would reach the targeted 100 percent because he believed that schools had prepared their students.  

According to the Tangerang Regency Education Agency, this year’s exams are being administered at 29 state high schools, 96 private high schools, eight state vocational schools and 120 private vocational schools. 

SMA 10 Tangerang principal Lili Kusmaya said all students arrived on time to take the exams and that there were no reports of sick students or damaged question sheets. 

Meanwhile, there was a shortage of question sheets at SMA Santa Ursula in Tangerang city, resulting in a late start for many students. 

“The language class did not receive their Indonesian language question sheets and got the question sheets for the science and social science classes instead,” Yayan Sopian, a supervising coordinator from Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, said. 

He said the Tangerang city Education Agency had to go to the Pahoa school in Tangerang regency to copy the question sheets because there was no other nearby schools that had language classes.

THE COMMENT  

Government education departments in preparation for the national exam should be better because many schools were damaged sheet exam questions and there is also a question of excess sheet , especially schools in the area outlying experiencing such events . The government should pay attention to the distribution of the national exam in the area outlying not only in the Greater Jakarta area alone . 

Distribution sheet for the national exam questions for the area outlying is often too late , it is in because by various factors , especially poor weather factors , this resulted in the delay distribution . The school is experiencing these problems exist that can not be overcome and some are able to handle it .

Government education departments should improve the distribution of the national examination system so that next year's national exams is no longer a matter of question sheets were lacking, excess or damaged and national exams can run smoothly and safely .
For the answer key outstanding issue was just a , it is expected that students do not trust the answer key outstanding at the time of the exam . The students should be confident in its ability to answer the national exam answer keys do not rely on the outstanding key is not necessarily the correct answer outstanding . 

The school should provide guidance for their students not to believe that the answer key outstanding and provide support for the student ready to face national exam .
The problem is less the question sheet , excess or damaged and the answer key outstanding common during the national exams in previous years and years now . Government education departments must improve return on national exam exam that is held just 3 days that determine student graduation .

Should that determines the graduation of students from the school because the school more aware of their students instead of the national exams that give students at school graduation . It is less effective done by government education departments that conduct national examinations as determining student graduation .

STRATEGY LISTENING COMPREHENSION IN TOEFL

The first in TOEFL listening section, tests the ability of a student, especially a non-native English speaker, to understand spoken English (accentuated) in educational setting. Listening is an important skill to understand the concepts and ideas. Only when the concepts are understood completely it becomes a lighter task to score in the listening section of TOEFL test. In order to develop the listening skills for TOEFL, there are certain set of listening strategies or steps. They are explained in detail given below.

GENERAL STRATEGIES

1. Be familiar with the directions.
2. Listen carefully to the conversations and talks.
3. Know where the easier and more difficult questions are generally found.
4. Never leave any answers blank on your answer sheet.
5. Use any remaining time to look ahead at the answer to the questions that follow.

There are three parts in the Listening Comprehension section of the TOEFL test:

1. Part A consists of thirty short conversations, each followed by a question. You must choose the best answer to each question from the four choices in your test book. 
2. Part B consists of two long conversations, each followed by a number questions. You must choose the best answer to each question from the four choices in your text book.
3. Part C There are three conversation, each of them following by  some question. 

Part A: SHORT CONVERSATION

There are 30 shorts conversation, every conversation following by question.You must choose the best answer for every question which are mentioned by the speaker. As for the keys that you can use in the face of Listening Comprehension Part A is as follows:

1. As you listen to each short conversation, focus on the second line of the conversation.
2. Choose answer with synonyms. Keep in mind that the correct answer is probably a restatement of a key word or idea in the second line of the conversation. Keep in mind that certain structures and expressions are tested regularly in Listening part A. Listen for these structures and expressions:

·        Structures (passive, negatives, wishes, conditions)

·        Functional expressions (agreement, uncertainty, suggestion, surprise)

·        Idiomatic expressions (two-part verbs, three-part verbs, idioms)

·        If you know a few words, choose the answer that contains s restatement

·        If you didn’t understand anything at all in the second line, choose the answer that sounds the most different from what you heard.

·        Never choose an answer because it sounds like what you heard in the conversation

1. Keep in mind that these questions generally progress from easy to difficult.
2. Read the answers and choose the best answer to each question.
3. Even if you do not understand the complete conversation, you can find the correct answer.

Example : 
He                   : hi, how are you today ?                                                                                 

She                : i’m fine                                                                                                     
 Narrator          : what does she feel today in dialogue ?

                A.    Sad

                B.    Angry

                C.    Good

                D.    Hungry 

You only need to remember the word "today" and "fine". Questions were asked only a restatement. So you will understand the purpose of the second speaker that she feel today is fine good. So you choose the answer (C).

Part B: LONGER CONVERSATION

There are two long conversation, each of them following by some question. So, in one conversation contain the information to answers some question( 2 or 3) question.

STRATEGIES FOR THE LISTENING PART B QUESTIONS

    1.     If you have time, preview the answers to the Listening Part B questions. While you are looking at the answers, you should try to do the following:

·       Anticipate the topics of the conversations you will hear.

·       Anticipate the questions for each of the groups of answers.

   2.     Listen carefully to the first line of the conversation. The first line of the conversation often contains the main idea, subject, or topic of the conversation, and you will often be asked to answer such questions.

   3.     As you listen to the conversation, draw conclusions about the situation of the conversation: who is talking, where the conversation takes place, or when it takes place. You will often be asked to make such inferences about the conversation.

  4.     As you listen to the conversation, follow along with the answers in your test book and try to determine the correct answers. Detail questions are generally answered in order in the conversation, and the answers often sound the same as what is said in the recording program.

   5.     You should guess even if you are not sure. Never leave any answers blank.

   6.     Use any remaining time to look ahead at the answers to the questions that follow.

Example          :
Narrator          :           Question 1 through 3. Listen to a conversation between two people.       
A                :           welcome in anna shoes store, may i help you ?                                    
 B                     :           i will buy a shoes                                                                                
 A                     :           let’s go to the corner. You can see our newest collections               
 B                     :           i choose this shoes, how much is it ?                                                 
 A                     :           thirty five dollars, madame                                                                
 B                     :           right, i buy this shoes in cash                                                             
 A                     :           thank you, madame

The questions :

    1.     Narrator          :           what does she buy ?

Answer options :

A.    Cake

B.    Bag

C.    Shoes

D.    Clothes

   2.     Narrator          :           what the name of the store in dialogue ?

Answer options :

A.    Anna shoes store

B.    Shoes store

C.    Cake store

D.    Bags

   3.     Narrator          :           what the price of shoes ?

Answer options :

A.    Twenty five dollars

B.    Thirty five dollars

C.    One hundred dollars

D.    Two hundred dollars

Part C: Talks

consists of three talks, each followed by a number of questions. You must choose the best answer to each question from the four choices in your test book.

ANTICIPATE THE TOPIC

It is very helpful to your overall comprehension if you know what topics to expect in Listening Part C. You should therefore try to anticipate the topic that you will be hearing. (as you did in Listening Part B). For example, are the talks about American history, or literature, or some aspect of school life? A helpful strategy is therefore to look briefly at the answers in the test book, before you actually to hear the talks on the tape, and try to determine the topics of the talks that you will hear.

ANTICIPATE THE QUESTIONS       

It is very helpful to your ability to answer individual questions in Listening Part C if you can anticipate what the questions will be and listen specifically for the answer to those questions (as you did in Listening Part B).

Sumber           :

http://ueu6938.weblog.esaunggul.ac.id

http://srilestari3101.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/toefl-listening-comprehension-strategies/