This week we took essay exam on Tuesday and Listening test on Friday. Also, we did practice presentation twice on Monday and Friday.
The essay exam was most tiring for me. Last week, we did practice essay exam but I was not prepared enough. I did not understand how to make the structure of the essay in academic style exactly. From this experience, I studied again how to make each paragraphs such as introduction, main body and conclusion right way. So this time, I think I could include the right information for each paragraphs. However, there are issues that I need to fix. The most significant one was time management. I took too long time for planning and writing introduction so there was just 10 minutes left when I started writing conclusion. That was definitely not enough time to write good conclusion. Also, I did not know enough amount of expression, I used the same phrase many times. To improve my writing, I need to study more synonyms and phrases.
On Wednesday we watched the lecture and took notes, then we did the multiple choice questions on Friday. To prepare this test, I watched Ted talks on You Tube at my apartment. Because I wanted to be used to British accent, I watched videos of British speakers. This helped me feel familiar with the way of talking and speed. So I think I could understand the video mostly on Wednesday. However, I did not practice note taking so I could not make good note for the exam on Friday. Note taking is one of the most important ability for academic study because we need to remember what did we studied at the class until the exam. So, I think I need to practice note taking with watching Ted talks or some news radio which topic is not too casual but academic or official way of talking. I learned how preparation is important through these assessments.
Next week, we will have a reading exam on Tuesday and a independent presentation exam on Friday.
First, to prepare to the reading exam, I am going to read some articles on the coming weekend to get used to reading long articles . The tutor suggested us some sites which we can read the articles and answer the question so I am going to visit these sites. Also, to skim information, reading novels in English also seems to be a help. Reading this kind of general books seem not so stressful for me so doing both of them would be good preparation for the reading exam.
Second, we will have a presentation on Friday. We did practice group presentation twice this week. Despite there were group members, it made me so nervous to speak in front of the people. In this coming presentation, I am going have a lot more audience than practice presentation because I need to do by myself. I think the most important point to success is to have confident myself. To achieve this, I need to practice so many times. We will have three days to prepare so I think I need to finish making powerpoint in one day and I will spend two days for practice.