Part 1: How to Succeed in Reading Part A of the OET Exam
Part A of the reading section of the OET exam can seem impossible to finish and many students dread this part of the test. Time seems to be everybody’s worst enemy as you only have 15 minutes to complete the section but fear not! I have compiled a number of tips that have significantly helped my students improve their score for Reading Part A:
- When you are given the paper do not waste time by trying to read each of the texts. You only have 15 minutes, do not waste time.
- Instead read and underline the headings of each text, but more specifically the key words. For example below are four titles of texts on vasectomy and I have underlined the key words:“Vasectomy: a patient’s story”
“A retrospective cohort study of vasectomy and the risk of prostate cancer”
“Vasectomy: procedure, cost and effectiveness”
“Fact sheet for patients undergoing a vasectomy”
Now that these key words are underlined, it will be easy for you to identify which text you need to skim through to find the answer for each blank space.
- Now the key is to try and MATCH each paragraph (with missing words) to one of the four texts. Go to the first paragraph and skim read only as much as you need to be able to identify which text you need to look at to find the answers. Generally each paragraph can be matched to a specific text and most of the answers to the blanks can be found in this text.
- However, sometimes one or two of the words you need for a particular paragraph will be in a different text to the one you have used to find most of the answers. Watch out for this and try and identify this as soon as possible so you do not waste time reading the same paragraph.
This concludes Part 1 of How to Succeed in Reading Part A. More tips can be found in Part 2 of How to Succeed in Reading Part A.
Hope you find this helpful and good luck!
Nadishi Athulathmudali, OET Tutor.
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは。
My Japanese classes/lessons included practices to develop skills of speaking, reading, listening, writing (including essays), interacting, and constructing/performing students’ own dialogues by pairs/groups or by oneself and learning Japanese used in travelling in Japan. Speaking practice sometimes used the pictures, concepts or topics from the brochures of the Japan National Tourism Organizations, Nichigo Press, Daily Telegraph etc. Also, understanding and analyzing Japanese culture are important part of the course.
My Intermediate 3 finished the course on 20 August. All the students expressed their wish to continue to go on to the next level after some break. (That is nice to hear!) By the end of Intermediate 3, they finished Unit 3, Japanese for Busy People Book 2. Also, I used a few units of a travel and life experiences orientated textbook, Real Life Japanese + cd (by C. Dibble & S. Matsumoto, 2001, UNICOM) and for application, the students were able to speak similar sentences introduced in the dialogues in that book (the same applies to the learning with Japanese for Busy People, Bk 2). In addition, they enjoyed Japanese traditional bon-odori, bon-dance with use of a cd of a collection of exciting and beautiful songs for bon-dance. (I taught this bon-dance with use of cd in other lesson too that was very useful and fun!)
As for my students for weekly tutorials, one of them, who is a busy company executive who is very committed in learning Japanese, finished Unit 3, Japanese for Everyone (he likes that book). Also, he studied up to the middle of Unit 4, Genki Book 1 (esp. for the preparation of taking a Japanese course for 2 weeks late September. I used a few units of above mentioned textbook/cd, Real Life Japanese.
Another tutorial student is currently studying early Unit 7, Genki Book 1 and a few practical units of Real Life Japanese. She is so active in thinking about the concepts of Japanese culture and she has many experiences with Japanese people. If I talk about something, her responses and analytical observations are sometimes thoughts-provoking and quite interesting. And she loves kimono! (So do I!)
Japanese Teacher, Toshiko Jackson
1.9.15
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