Lab. Work 5.1
1.
You’ll hear five
speakers talking about problems they or their relatives face while studying.
Fill in the chart with the information given in the recording. Be especially
precise with the column “Your solution to the problem”; here, you’re supposed
to give your personal advice to avoid or ease the problems mentioned by the
speakers.
Speaker
|
Problem
|
Signs of the Problem
|
Your Solution to the Problem
|
1
|
examination
|
We need to assess the ability to learn: this type of exam or learning license would be more useful for
students, employers and society in general. It shows which candidates are good at, say, engineering, but it also
shows actually which can think as an
engineer.
|
Maybe the combining of traditional ways of assessment and this one will
be the best way to examine both theoretical knowledge and basic practical
skills, but personally I think that traditional way to examine is much more
effective.
|
2
|
father’s concerns about
his daughter’s study
|
Tired face, sleepless nights
etc.
The girl is studying for 3 levels preparing for medical school. She is
working hard. She works nights and weekends to prepare for her exams. She is
dedicated to her studies.
|
Of course, all parents worry about the study of their children. But
sometimes they press on their children too hard. They are to help them with the choice, but
not to be too exhausted. They become blind when seeing children’ exhausted
faces and behavior. I think that have to rely on our personal choices and
learn to make their own choices. Parents should just help and support them.
|
3
|
The person is too hard on himself trying to enter the university
(exhaustion during the preparation for entrance exams)
|
He lost his weight, he has big
black rings under his eyes. He sleeps
for 3 or 4 hours a day. He didn’t
sleep at all during the last 3 or 4 days.
|
Any exam is stress. Entrance exams are the hardest time in the life
of every student. Children need to spend more time walking and breathing fresh
air, also they need vitamins and ,of course, while they’re preparing for
exams they need to sleep at least 6-7 hours.
|
4
|
The lack of confidence while writing the exam.
|
He never thought of himself
like a highflyer, he never excepted such high results.
|
Many students are not sure of their future results as they lack
confidence and afraid to fail. So I think that we should be ready for the
worst, but should be ready for the best.
|
5
|
Using technology while conducting exams.
|
The results would be able to get much faster, 40% of all exams will
be conducting electronically in a
couple of years, online tests and
registration will follow.
|
Nowadays, it’s impossible to imagine a day without new technologies.
It can be very helpful during exams.
We can safe lot of time using it. I think that it is to be used in schools
and universities.
|
2.
Have you ever experienced
problems while studying? What were these problems like? How did you cope
with them?
The most
difficult problem for me is my nervousness, I can’t cope with it, I try to
organize my time, to think over everything, but I can’t cope with my emotions.
3.
What are other
difficulties that contemporary university students face while studying? When do
the problems usually occur? Are there special stresses that cause them? Do you agree
that the quality learning is “the travel of hardships”? Give account of about
100 words on the questions mentioned.
Studying in university at
modern times can be daunting and fun period of student life. I want to touch upon the more burning issues here.
First of all, modern day university students face financial problems. Students
in universities today have the greatest of responsibility of manage their
budget and plan whole year activities. Getting a part time job
at campus or outside campus is a better option for students. Another great concern to university students is
getting their desired course in universities. Friends and roommates are often
make the problems for each other. Students are living together in close
quarters and seeing each other each day, this is very difficult.
If conflicts do arise, it is best to get others involved so that the spirit of community,
unity, and peace at the college can continue to be upheld. I’am agree that learning is “the travel of hardships”,
because, there are lots of things which students need to concentrate of a
better and fruitful university life.
Lab. Work 5.2
Listen to a talk given by a university advisor to a
group of students and answer the following questions:
1. What is the standard grading
system in the USA?
Satisfactory and unsatisfactory grades. Academic grading in the
United States is a standard letter grading system of A, B, C, D, and F—A being the highest
and F - the lowest.
2. What are the ‘special grades’ that the speaker
mentions in the recording?
She mentions satisfactory (S) and unsatisfactory (U) grades, but it is
not taken for all the courses at the university, as the majority prefer the
standard letter grades.
3. Comment on the standard grading system in your
country?
There is a 5-grade system in Russia. The
mark 5 is excellent, 4-good, 3-satisfactory, 2 – unsatisfactory.
4. Do schools and colleges practice non-standard grading systems? What are
they?
In Russia, it becomes popular to give
marks in percents. In the British and American colleges, they may have credit –
non credit for some types of courses.
5. Give examples of other grading systems throughout the
world? Which of them do you think are efficient for the students’ academic
assessment?
Iran
Academic
grading in Iran
In
schools, grades are based on 20. Depending on the school and the grade of
study, a good mark varies, but in most occasions 16 or higher is considered to
be a good one.
This
system of grading based on 20 is also common in universities, but sometimes percent
scoring is also used in higher educational systems.
Grade Scale 1 Scale
2 Description
18-20 A+ 5 Excellent
16-17.99 A 4
Very Good
14-15.99 B 3
Good
12-13.99 C 2
Satisfactory
10-11.99 D 1Acceptable
(10 = Pass)
0-9.99 E/F 0 Fail
Denmark
In 2007, Denmark replaced its
age-old 13-scale grading system with a simpler, 7-step-scale system. They did
this to begin to conform to a European standard called the ECTS scale, but also
because, hey, 13 possible grades makes for a lot more work for teachers. Here’s
how the old 13-scale used to work:
13 – given for the exceptionally independent and excellent performance.
11 – given for the independent and excellent performance
10 – given for the excellent but not particularly independent performance
9 – given for the good performance, a little above average
8 – given for the average performance
7 – given for the mediocre performance, slightly below average
6 – given for the just acceptable performance
5 – given for the hesitant and not satisfactory performance
03 – given for the very hesitant, very insufficient and unsatisfactory
performance
00 – given for the completely unacceptable performance
Those gaps you see between 00 & 03, 03 & 5 and 11 & 13 help
signify variations between those grades. Anything under a 6 is a failing grade,
while a 13 is rarely given. 00 is just about impossible to achieve, reserved
for truly incompetent performance. At exams, 00 is given to students attending,
but who cannot answer a single question. According to this post, “one of the reasons why the
13 scale was replaced with the 7 scale was because of the grade 13. 13s are
only given to the students that have gone above and beyond the stated
curriculum. To gain it you needed to know more than what was taught in class.
It required truly independent study. As none other EU countries used grades
above perfect understanding of the curriculum, 13 were untranslatable to other
grading systems.”
Australia
In the land down under, many schools and universities use a “band” grading
system which looks like this:
90–99.95% BAND 6
80–89% BAND 5
70–79% BAND 4
60–69% BAND 3
50–59% BAND 20–49% BAND 1
http://www.worldsstrangest.com/mental-floss/plus-grading-systems/
Japan
In Japan,
most higher education institutions give grades on a scale from 0–100, but a few
universities apply letter grades. While for years an "A" grade range
was from 80 to 100 points, some schools (for example, at Kurume University)
have started to give the 90 to 100 point range a special grade to indicate
excellence. A failing grade is generally called an "E", though some
institutions use "F".
Scale Letter Grade
90-100 Excellent (AA, or T)
80-89 A
70-79 B
60-69 C
0-59 Fail (E or F)
Lab. Work 5.3
Listen to a talk by a student advisor on campus. Answer the
following questions.
1.
What are the rules
for dropping a course in the talk provided?
Sometimes students can drop the course within the
first three week of the semester. First, you need to get the signature of the
professor whose course you want to drop on the official drop card. Then you
need to go to a student advisor on campus to get the signature of your adviser.
2.
What warnings does
the student advisor give?
Students can’t
officially drop the course after the first three weeks of the semester or your
grades can suffer. You need to take the signature of the professor. If students
have problems in a course and they decide to let it run if they want to drop
the course – it is impossible to do so. Second, if students stop attending a
course without going through the official drop procedures, the course will
remain on your schedule and you will receive a failing grade.
3.
How can you avoid
getting a failing grade, according to the recording?
It is important to
understand these procedures and follow them. If you do so, you will not have
any problems.
4.
What are the
official drop procedures for the elective courses in your country?
To drop a course students in Russia need to have special
permission from the professor or they need to have a sick voucher.
Lab. Work 5.4
Listen to a talk given on a college
campus.
1. What
are the places of a college campus that the speaker mentions in the recording?
The Library
The Students’
Center: bookstore, post office, a bank, a theatre, a coffee shop, a travel
agency, bowling alley
The
Administration complex: offices of the university administrators, the students’
records office
2. Can
you find the similar campus places in your college/university? What are other
places that are worth mentioning? Characterize them briefly.
I can find some similar campus places in our
institute. However, there is no bank, theatre, travel agency and bowling
alley.
Reading room
In
the Library we can find has a quiet room.
Here we can use computers and the Internet, photocopier, colour printing, can
take some books, etc.
Parking
Near
the Institute, we have parking, but it’s limited and can be difficult to
obtain. The institut recommends using public transportation whenever
possible. If traveling by car, please be aware that the University does
not offer any public parking, and street parking is limited by meters.
Cafeterias
There
are some food-service areas: a major cafeteria (ground floor) and a smaller
deli (first floor). There is also a little shop where students can buy some
snack.
Hall of residence
A house
for students who live far away from the institute.
The college copy center
Often
students are required to provide multiple copies of an assignment for a class
or other documents.
A place where
students have discos and little performances.
The big concert hall
A place for
important events and activities
3. Pick
out the places from the previous task and make a similar tour around your
college/university to inform the freshmen about the campus.
Firstly,
it may seem to you that you can get lost, there so many corridors and rooms,
but you’ll adapt. There's the residence hall, the nearest dining center, and many
classrooms.
Parking
is located near our institute, it is limited and can be difficult to
obtain. It’ll be better for you to use public transport.
On
the territory of campus there are two halls of residence for the students who
live far away from the institute, for instance in other towns and cities.
There
is also the big concert hall for important events, shows and
activities.
If you need a
quiet place for studying go to reading room. There
you can use computers with access to the Internet, a photocopier, color
printing and much more.
Often
students are required to provide multiple copies of an assignment for a class
or other documents. In this case, you should go to the college copy center.
There is the bookstore in the institute, there you
can buy there all necessary books and can order the books, that they have no at
the moment.
In the Institute, we have two food-service areas: a dining hall and a small cafeteria.
There also some small shops, there students can buy some food and drinks.
Finally, don’t be afraid of being a student. Welcome to our Institute!
