Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 842, Taking a Standardized Test.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 842.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
ESLPOD.com is the place to go for a learning guide to this episode.
You'll improve your English faster than you thought possible.
This episode is a dialogue between a father and his daughter Maria, about having to take certain kinds of tests in school, what are called standardized tests.
Let's get started.
It's time you start preparing for the Mikvel test.
Dad, that's 12 months away.
I don't need to start looking at test prep materials right now.
Yes, you do.
Like all high-stakes testing...
Familiarity with the types of questions you'll be asked will help you.
You need to score well on it if you want to be admitted to a good university.
The MICFL is only administered twice each year, so you'd better be prepared when the time comes.
It doesn't matter what you or your teacher believe.
Colleges consider test scores in admissions.
And that's what's important.
Let's start with some tips on answering multiple-choice and true-false questions.
I've been taking them every year at school, and I'm sick of them.
Put your name here.
Bubble in your answer there.
I'm sick to death of those tests.
Then you'll feel perfectly comfortable taking this one.
Bite your tongue.
Those would be much more difficult to study for.
Ready for question number one?
As ready as I'll ever be.
Dad begins by saying to Maria, It's time you start preparing for the Mikvel test.
MCFL, M-C-F-L, is not a real test.
It sounds a little like the TOEFL test, however.
Dad says it's time you start preparing.
You need to start preparing for or working on your MCFL test.
You have to get ready to take it.
Maria says, Dad, that's 12 months away.
That's 12 months from now when I'll have to actually take that test.
I don't need to start looking at test prep materials right now.
Test prep prep stands for preparation is time spent studying a subject that you are going to be tested on.
If you're going to take a math test, you might want to prepare by studying test prep materials about math.
Test prep usually refers to taking tests that are official examinations, tests that are, as we'll see in a moment, standardized.
Dad says, yes, you do.
Like all high stakes testing, familiarity with the types of questions you'll be asked will help you.
High stakes is an expression used for something that is very important depending on what happens.
If it goes one way, there will be major consequences.
It will have significant results.
High stakes testing is...
Testing that determines, for example, whether a student can go to college or not.
In some countries there are national examinations and all of the students who want to go to the university have to take an exam.
That's an example of a high stakes test.
We have similar exams here in the United States for college, the most popular being the SAT exam.
Dad says that familiarity with the types of questions you'll be asked will help you.
To be familiar, F-A-M-I-L-I-A-R, means to know about something.
So familiarity is describing how much you know about a certain thing, how much knowledge you have.
Dad is saying that if you understand the kinds of questions on the test you'll do better, which is generally true.
Dad says, you need to score well on it if you want to be admitted to a good university.
To score well means to do well on an examination.
I scored well on my math exam.
I got a good grade.
I got a good result.
The score can also mean to get more points in a game, an athletic competition, like a soccer game or a football game.
Maria needs to score well if she wants to be admitted to a good university.
To be admitted means to be invited to be a student there.
The MCFL is only administered twice each year, so you'd better be prepared when the time comes.
Administer means to, in this case, offer the examination.
It's a time when you can take the test.
The test will be administered at 4 o'clock in the auditorium. the big place where people meet.
That's where the test will be administered.
That's where it will be given.
Maria says, I don't really believe in standardized tests.
The word standardized is in the title of this episode and It refers to examinations that many different people have taken and that a statistical analysis has been made so that you know, generally speaking, what percentage of people score here, what percentage of people score with this amount of points, and so forth.
Standardized tests are tests that are developed, usually by special testing companies, and they make sure that the tests are all fair, that the tests will give you the same result if you take it on Monday versus if you take it on Friday.
They look at the questions of the tests to make sure that they're asking what they're supposed to be asking, and so forth.
That's a standardized test.
In the United States, we have lots of standardized tests in our schools.
The most popular one, as I mentioned before, is the SAT, the Scholastic Achievement Test, which helps determine whether you are going to go to a university or not.
Maria says, our teacher says that they, the standardized tests, don't really measure how well you do in college or in life.
To measure M-E-A-S-U-R-E here means to determine how important something is, to determine the value of something.
Maria says that her teacher says that standardized tests don't really measure how well you'll do in college or in life.
Measure has a couple of other meanings in English as well.
Take a look at our learning guide for those.
Maria's father disagrees with Maria and her teacher.
He says, He says colleges consider test scores in admissions, and that's what's important.
The colleges and universities look at how well you do on these tests to decide if you are going to get into or be admitted to that college.
Dad says, let's start with some tips on answering multiple choice and true-false questions.
A tip, T-I-P, is a small piece of advice about something, how to do something better.
A multiple M-U-T-I-P-L-E choice C-H-O-I-C-E question is a question where you have two or more possible answers.
Possible options.
You have to select which one is correct.
Typically, there are four or five options on a multiple choice question.
With a true-false question, you have only two options.
Either the statement, the sentence, is true or it's false.
Minneapolis is the capital of Minnesota.
True or false?
False.
St.
Paul is the capital of Minnesota.
That's a true-false question.
Maria says, I know all about taking standardized tests, Dad.
I've been taking them every year at school, and I'm sick of them.
To be sick of something means you're tired of them.
You don't want to have any more.
Maria says, put your name here.
Bubble in your answer there.
I'm sick to death of those tests.
What Maria is doing is she's imitating the directions, the instructions you get when you take one of these exams.
Put your name here.
Write your name here.
Bubble in your answer there.
On many standardized tests, most perhaps all standardized tests.
Really, You answer the questions by filling in little circles with a pencil.
This is to bubble in.
It's kind of a weird expression.
Bubble, B-U-B-B-L-E, has some other meanings in English as well.
Take a look at our learning guide for those.
But to bubble in means to fill in the little circle that indicates what you think the correct answer is for that question.
Maria says, I'm sick to death of those tests.
To be sick to death means the same as to be sick of something.
It means you are tired of them.
You don't want to take them anymore.
Dad says, then you'll feel perfectly comfortable taking this one.
He's saying, well, if you're so familiar with these tests, this next test won't be any problem.
Maria says, why can't they give us open ended or essay questions?
An open-ended question is a question that doesn't have just one answer.
It's a question that may require a couple of sentences to answer and that could have a lot of different answers.
An essay, E-S-S-A-Y question, is a question that requires usually several paragraphs to answer.
Describe the three main causes of the Civil War in the United States.
Well, you can't answer that in a few words.
It would require several paragraphs at least.
That's an essay question.
Standardized tests often don't have these kinds of questions because a computer cannot easily score them.
A computer cannot easily determine which answers you got right or wrong.
Someone actually has to read the questions and read the answers, more importantly, in order to give you a score.
Dad says, bite your tongue.
To bite, B-I-T, your tongue, T-O-N-G-E, is simply an expression meaning to be quiet, to stop talking about this.
Dad says, Those would be much more difficult to study for.
Those meaning open-ended and essay questions.
Ready for question number one, Dad says?
Dad is going to prepare her for the test.
Maria says, as ready as I'll ever be.
This is a phrase we use when you are showing that you are willing to do something, but that you probably don't really want to do it and that you're not very well prepared to do it.
As ready as I'll ever be, Maria says.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
It's time you start preparing for the Mikvah test.
Dad, that's 12 months away.
I don't need to start looking at test prep materials right now.
Yes, you do.
Like all high-stakes testing, familiarity with the types of questions you'll be asked will help you.
You need to score well on it if you want to be admitted to a good university.
The MCVIL is only administered twice each year, so you'd better be prepared when the time comes.
I don't really believe in standardized tests.
Our teacher says that they don't really measure how well you'll do in college or in life.
It doesn't matter what you or your teacher believe.
Colleges consider test scores in admissions, and that's what's important.
Let's start with some tips on answering multiple-choice and true-false questions.
Then you'll feel perfectly comfortable taking this one.
Bite your tongue.
Those would be much more difficult to study for.
Ready for question number one?
As ready as I'll ever be.
Dr. Lucy Say is the best script writer in the world.
True or false?
True.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
