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O-Level is a graduation examination for secondary school students jointly organized by the Ministry of Education of Singapore and the Cambridge Examinations Department of the United Kingdom, and the results of the examination are recognized and accepted by Commonwealth countries. The exam lasts from the beginning of June to November, and the results are published in February of the following year, and the results are valid for 2 years, if candidates are not satisfied with the results of a subject, they can retake the exam the following year and apply to the school using the best of the two exams (the number of tests in a single subject is limited to two). Today, we will mainly introduce the general Chinese language test in the O-Level examination.
The object of the examination
Undergraduate examination papers are available for students taking the Secondary School Express Course; Students of general academic programs, if obtained
with the approval of the school, you can also choose the exam.
The objective of the examination
Be able to understand narrative, illustrative, argumentative and practical corpus appropriate to the degree
Be able to express opinions and feelings on more complex topics and communicate effectively with people
Be able to read narrative, expository, argumentative and practical corpus appropriate to the level, and be able to appreciate literature
Be able to write narratives, expository essays, argumentative essays and practical essays that are suitable for a certain degree, and be able to initially carry out simple literary creation
Assessment Abilities
Listening, conversation, word recognition and language application, reading comprehension, writing emails, or articles of different genres
Test Paper Format
Test Paper 1: Writing (60 marks)
The content generally includes practical writing and general composition. For practical writing, students are required to write an email, with a weightage of 10% and a minimum word count of 150. General composition requires writing a narrative, argumentative, or explanatory essay, with a weightage of 20% and a minimum word count of 300. The total marks for Test Paper 1 are 60, with a weightage of 30%.
Test Paper 2: Language Application and Reading Comprehension (70 marks)
The content usually consists of comprehensive fill-in-the-blank questions and two reading comprehension passages. The assessment methods include multiple-choice and free-response questions. The comprehensive fill-in-the-blank section typically presents a short passage with 10 multiple-choice questions, with a weightage of 5%. Reading Comprehension 1 also consists of multiple-choice questions, with 3 to 4 materials such as advertisements, leaflets, news reports, etc., and 10 questions, with a weightage of 10%. Reading Comprehension 2 is in a free-response format, with 2-3 short passages and 10 questions, carrying a weightage of 20%. The total marks for Test Paper 2 are 70, with a weightage of 35%.
Test Paper 3: Oral and Listening Comprehension (70 marks)
Test Paper 3 is divided into three parts: Reading Aloud, Conversation, and Listening Comprehension. For Reading Aloud, students are required to read a passage related to daily life, reviews, news, etc., with a weightage of 5%. In the Conversation section, students watch a video clip and engage in a dialogue with the examiner on topics related to daily life, with a weightage of 20%. In the Listening Comprehension part, students listen to recordings and answer multiple-choice questions on topics such as daily conversations, advertisements, instructions, stories, news reports, etc., with a weightage of 10%. The total marks for Test Paper 3 are 70, with a weightage of 35%.
Scoring Criteria
(Source of Information: Singapore Ministry of Education official website, English version not available at the moment)
That's all for today, we hope it can bring help to candidates who are about to take the Singapore O-Level Chinese exam, and wish all candidates good results!