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Lucb1e Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

English exams in the Netherlands

Hello everyone,

I'm new here so please excuse any mistakes I make. Reading the other boards/subforums' descriptions this seems like the most appropriate place to post this, but I'm not sure.

Last weeks there were the final exams of secondary school here. I haven't personally made them, but a good friend of mine has. The exercises with answers are available online (published after the exams, of course), and making a few myself they seem very doable, only some multiple choice questions are dubious.

My idea was that if native English speakers who also happen to hang out on English forums can't score at least 90–95%, it's not reasonable to require us to do any better. Therefore I wanted to ask you if you could answer 6 questions about a text (it's "fill the word in on the gap", with 3 or 4 possible words on each question). I estimate it will take about 5 to 10 minutes.

The text is unfortunately an image, so I'll have to link you to it:
Page 1:
Page 2:

For the questions, the ones belonging to "Tekst 4" (means "text 4") are also on two pages, numbered 6 through 11:
Page 1:
Page 2:

I'd be very grateful if you could reply or otherwise send me your answers (and confirm you're a native English speaker if it's not filled in on your profile).

What I would have answered is (please don't peek before making up your own answers!):
6: D
7: B
8: A
9: C
10: A
11: A

The correct answers are:
6: D
7: B
8: A
9: D
10: A
11: C

That's 2/6 wrong or 66% correct, while I think I understand the text very good. Especially the last 3 seem a bit doubtful to me... On number 9 and 11 I can see why the right answer is right, for 10 I can imagine C being filled in too, and on 6 I think both B and D could be correct. The telegram (on 6) may be unsolicited, but the text somewhat focuses on that it is in the late evening and the recipient suspects something bad to have happened.

What do you think? Or rather, how many did you get right?

Thanks Emotion: smile

Luc
  

Top answer

Hi, What do you think? I think they gave you quite a difficult test. Or rather, how many did you get right?

  • Hi, What do you think?
  • I think they gave you quite a difficult test.
  • Or rather, how many did you get right?
  • 6 Clive
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6 Answers
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Hi,

What do you think? I think they gave you quite a difficult test.

Or rather, how many did you get right? 6

Clive
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Thanks for your reply Emotion: smile
You don't find any of the questions having multiple right answers?

PS. To others: I'd still like
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Hi,

In such tests, you are usually asked to pick not just correct grammar, but the most suitable and likely answer...

Clive
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Yes, that's what I mean. They all are spelled right, but I think in some places another answer would fit too. Don't you think so?
In the topicstart I gave some examples which questions I think might have multiple possible answers.
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Hi,

Even if they all are possible, the point of such tests is to choose the answer that the examiner thinks is the most suitable.

Clive
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And that's kind of my point: I think there shouldn't be multiple possible answers if only one will be counted as correct. But perhaps I should just read more English texts, since you got all 6 right I guess they are doable, though I can't be sure whether you're very good or if any native English speaker could do it.

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