We are aware that the PMR examination has been replaced with School Based Assessment since 2012 and the first batch of the students has gone through two arduous years doing PBS assessments for all the subjects in school. Now the time has come for them to sit for the Centralised Assessment or known as 'Pentaksiran Pusat'. Most of us has been in the dark on how this assessment is going to be especially for the English language. I hope the information that is shared will shed some lights at the end of the tunnel.......
It is known as English Language Skills Acquisition (ELSA)
There will be three papers:
ELSA 1 - Paper 1 (Reading and Writing)
ELSA 2 - Paper 2 (Speaking)
ELSA 3 - Paper 3 (Listening)
Paper 1 (Reading and Writing)
The paper one consists of 4 sections as followed :
Section A – Error identification of a text -Identify and edit grammatical errors in a short written text
Section B – Comprehension -Non-linear text of about 150 – 200 words -Short response answers
Section C – Comprehension -Linear text of about 300 words
Section D – Writing -Two parts – Short and long writing tasks
For section D paper 1 there will be short and long writing tasks :
i ) Short writing task in about 100 words. Write in response to a stimulus
ii) Long writing tasks in about 150 – 200 words .Based on a given stimulus in the form of
recount, speech, article, letter, etc.
Total marks
Section A – 20 marks
Section B – 20 marks
Section C – 15 marks
Section D – 45 marks (15 from short task, 30 from long task)
Duration – 2 hours
Paper 2 (Speaking)
The paper 2 consists 2 sections as stated below :
Section A – Reading Aloud -Students will read from a contextualised reading text (about 200 words).
Section B – Spoken Interaction -Students will engage in interactions with two assessors from
different schools
Total marks
Section A – 10 marks
Section B – 20 marks
Duration – 10 minutes for each candidate, will take place in several sessions for groups of students.
Paper 3 (Listening)
The paper 3 consists of 2 sections as followed
Section A – Multiple-Choice Questions -Listen to recorded text twice -3-option or 4-option MCQ
Section B – Limited Response -Listen to extended recorded texts twice -10 limited response
questions
Total marks
Section A – 10 marks
Section B – 10 marks
Duration – 30 minutes
Some other information that we may need to know are :
- For all papers, the contents, the questions, structure are 'fluid'. It is flexible and may change from year to year. This is due to restrict publishers to come up with workbooks, or predictions to what may come out for the assessment.
- For this year, the HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) items are included, but not many, due to soft-landing the current Form 3 students into the new format. Over years, the number will increase.
- summary and literature components will not be included in the papers. But it does not mean we do not need to teach the students, since these items are assessed in School Assessment (Pentaksiran Sekolah).
- The assessors for speaking will be from different schools.
- It was informed that written assessment will take place in October, while oral/aural assessment will take place in August.
- Each paper is marked on its own. the marks will not be added together, averaged, or presented in the form of percentage. It will be represent by Grade A to E.
That's all for now. This info is subject to change since we all know that the current school based assessment are being revamped and new ideas or formats may be introduced, so just wait for the updates.....for now we have something to focus on after groping in the dark for the past two years.....
* If this is confirmed I will upload the samples that I have made for all the 3 components for
teachers and students to download. I have actually done the sample papers but I think it is too
soon to be shared here...keep your fingers crossed!!!!!
