Souad JIDOU

ELT Supervisor

LOCAL EXAM GUIDELINES

I. REFERENCE DOCUMENTS : GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Official Refernce documents
• Ministerial Decision 2384.06 (October 16th, 2006) on Junior high school Exams organization
• Circular 182-2010 (Continuous Assessmnt of foreign languages)
• The Pedagogical Guidelines of 3rd grade Junior high school (2009)
• The syllabus of the English language for Junior high school level (3rd grade)
• National Exam Specifications 2014- English subject.

2. General guidelines

The following requirements should be observed when preparing the local exams:

▪ Exam content should be neither dealt with in previous exams nor in class;
▪ Secrecy and confidentiality are highly recommended;
▪ References of texts should be mentiond for scientific integrity
▪ Rubrics should be
- designed following gradation in terms of difficulty;
- completely and clearly formulated;
- enumerated;
- linguistically and scientifically correct.
▪ Exam completion time should be appropriate with administartion time;
▪ Exams should be typed and aesthetically designed.

3. The Local Exam of English:

• is an achievement test that measures what learners can do in English;
• Is administered to all eligible candidates;
• should relate to the principles of validity, reliability, practicality, and efficiency ;
• reflects the approximate proportion of emphasis of the course;
• is constructed on the objectives of the course;
• is directly based on the curriculum and aims at assessing testees’ knowledge and skills in:
READING, VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR, FUNCTIONS AND WRITING.
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

4. Exam sections

Reading Writing
Language
comprehension

8 points:
7 3 for grammar 5 points
points 3 for vocabulary
2 for functions

II. READING COMPREHENSION SECTION

1. General guidelines
• The reading tasks must aim at testing comprehension and not word recognition per se;
• Questions must appear in textual order within the rubrics;
• The reading tasks must target different reading sub-skills;
• This section must include both receptive and productive items;
• Range of difficulty: the test must include easy as well as challenging items to ensure discrimination;
• For lexical inference, the relevant paragraph must be indicated (in case there is more than one paragraph),
• The total score of the section as well as the marking scale for each task must be provided;
• Test items should not be tricky as it should not require skills beyond learners’ level.

2. Texts types and topics

• Texts designed for testing reading comprehension:
• need to be of appropriate level of difficulty and length;
• should target stimulating issues related to the topics/themes dealt with in the currently
• used textbooks;
• should be rich enough to be appropriately exploited in tasks;
• should relate to students’ interest, age and tap their prior knowledge & experience
narrative-descriptive-informative

3. Target reading subskills

• read a text quickly to understand the main idea(s): skimming;
• scan a text for a specific information: scanning;
• use linguistic information in a text to infer word meanings;
• use information in a text to recognize referents.
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

4. Reading testing techniques

Different techniques must appear in the reading comprehension section to guarantee appropriate coverage of the reading
sub-skills.

• True/False with justification • Information transfer

• True/False without justification • Matching
• Wh-questions • Multiple choice
• Chart filling • Sentence completion
• Gap filling • Ordering

5. Reading comprehension rubrics

Rubrics are instructions that inform test-takers on how to perform test tasks. They also inform them about the scores. At
least three rubrics from the list below must be used to test reading comprehension:

• Answer these questions. • Fill in the blanks with words, phrases or

• Are these statements true or false? expressions from the text.
• Are these statements true or false? • Fill in the chart with the right information
Correct the false ones. from the text.
• Are these statements true or false? • Find in the text words, phrases or
Justify. expressions that mean the same as
• Choose the best title for the passage. • Find in the text words, phrases or
• Choose the right answer from the list expressions that mean the opposite of
given. • Match each idea with the corresponding
• Complete the following sentences with paragraph.
information from the text. • What do the underlined words in the text
refer to?

6. Comprehension Questions
a. True / false statements:

• Express each item simply & clearly in words whose meanings are definite & precise.
• Items should be entirely (not partially) true or false.
• Avoid repetition of text statements.
• The answers should not be obvious to students who do not know the material.
• Do not create false statements by inserting “not” into true statements.
• Include approximately equal number of true and false items.

b. Sentence completion

• Does the stem give sufficient information to help students supply the appropriate completion?
• Use your own words to write the stem – not statements straight out of the text.
e.g. My parents visit my grandparents every weekend because………………..….
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

c. Wh- Questions

• The questions must not be answered without recourse to the passage.

• There must be questions on every part of the text.
• The questions must not give away the answers to the other questions.
• The questions must be varied in type.
• The questions must not overlap.
• The questions must be written in simple language.

III. LANGUAGE SECTION

The language section comprises three content areas: Grammar, Vocabulary and Functions.

Grammar vocabulary Functions

3 points 3 points 2 points

1. General guidelines
This section aims at testing students’ ability to recognize and produce language items accurately and appropriately.

 Items testing vocabulary, grammar and functions should be contextualized.

 Items testing grammar may include affirmative, negative and interrogative forms.
 Items must be receptive and productive.
 The total score of the section as well as the marking scale for each task must be provided.
 Items testing vocabulary should be related to the TOPICS and THEMES in the SYLLABUS.
 A good stem is short, provides adequate context and uses simple vocabulary.
 Receptive gap-filling/multiple choice items must have the following number of alternatives:
o1 gap: 3 alternatives
o2 gaps: 5 alternatives
o3 gaps: 6 alternatives
 The key & distractors
o They should belong to the same part of speech;
o They should be of approximately same length and level of difficulty;
o They should be related to the same topic;
o Distractors should be absolutely incorrect; (mutually exclusive)
o All alternatives should seem plausible & attractive to the less knowledgeable student.
o A good key is unique. There can be only ONE.

2. Grammar

a. Grammar points
• Imperative; • Demonstratives
• To be in present simple: • Indefinite/ definite articles
affirmative/negative/ interrogative) • Simple present simple: affirmative/
• Possessive adjectives/ genitive negative/ interrogative;
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

• Countable /non-countable nouns; • Can/ can't / may/ may not/ must/ mustn't/
• Have got / has got should / shouldn’t
• There is / there are: some/ any • to make and respond to suggestions using
• Adverbs of frequency : Let’s/Let’s not.
• Present continuous: affirmative / • Prepositions
negative/ interrogative
• of place and time.

b. Grammar testing techniques

Receptive technique Productive techniques

Multiple choice Item transformation

Gap filling Gap filling
Matching Sentence completion
Error recognition Error correction

e.g.

TASK 1 : Fill in the gap with the appropriate word from the list→RECEPTIVE
TASK 2 : Put the verb between brackets in the correct form→PRODUCTIVE

c. Grammar rubrics
• Fill in the gaps with appropriate words from • Complete the following sentences correctly
the list. • Correct the errors in these sentences. There
• Put the verbs in brackets in the correct is one error in each sentence.
tense. • Correct the underlined mistakes.
• Write the correct forms of the words in • There are x errors in this paragraph. Correct
brackets them.
• Match these phrases to make good
sentences.

3. Vocabulary

▪ Hello/greetings ▪ Food and drinks

▪ At school ▪ Transport
▪ Family ▪ Sports
▪ Home ▪ Hobbies
▪ Clothes ▪ Health

a. Vocabulary testing techniques

Receptive technique Productive techniques

Multiple choice Gap filling

Gap filling Changing word forms
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

Matching Error correction

Chart filling Cloze procedure with list or with first letter given

e.g.

TASK 1 : Match the words to their opposites→RECEPTIVE

TASK 2 : Give the correct form of the words in brackets→PRODUCTIVE

b. Vocabulary rubrics
 Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words  Match the words with the appropriate
 Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words or defintions/synonyms/antonyms
expressions from the list  Provide the appropriate word for each of the following
 Give the correct forms of the words in brackets definitions
 Match the words that go together to make the  Replace the underlined words with appropriate
appropriate expressions synonyms

4. Functions

▪ Greetings and introducing ▪ Making and responding to suggestions

▪ Asking for and giving information ▪ Expressing ability
▪ Describing (i) people, (ii)things and (iii) ▪ Accepting and refusing offer
places ▪ Asking for and giving advice
▪ Expressing likes and dislikes ▪ Expressing obligation
▪ Asking for and telling the time ▪ Apologizing
▪ Asking for and giving permission

a. Functions testing techniques

Receptive technique Productive techniques

Multiple choice Gap filling

Gap filling Completing dialogues
Matching Responding to situations
Error correction

e.g.

• TASK 1 : Match the expressions with their functions →RECEPTIVE

• TASK 2 : Respond to the following situation appropriately→PRODUCTIVE

b. Functions rubrics

▪ Choose the right answer ▪ Complete the following

dialogues/exchanges appropriately
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

▪ Correct the respnses in the following ▪ Match the exchange(s) with the
situations to make them appropriate appropriate function(s)
▪ Match each expression with its ▪ What does each sentence express?
appropriate function/response ▪ Write an appropriate response to the
following situation

IV. WRITING SECTION

The writing section assesses students’ writing skill and provides an indication of how well learners communicate in the
written language.
Topics designed for testing writing will be related to the themes familiar to the students and/or dealt with in the
textbooks.

Writing tasks should be well defined; i.e. students know exactly what they are supposed to write.
The writing task should clearly specify the following elements:
✓ Situation/context
✓ Target audience: friends, peers, teachers, family, etc.
✓ Topic
✓ Format/genre: paragraph, e-mail, letter, etc.

e.g.

Your British friend, Nicole, asks you to send her an e-mail and talk about your family and school.
Write an e-mail to Nicole giving information about:
 Your family: their names, age, job, hobbies
 Your school name
 Subjects you like
 Subjects you do not like

1. Writing subskills
 adequate and relevant content;  correct use of mechanics (spelling,
 appropriate text structure according to punctuation, capitalization);
the targeted format ;  appropriate structures and vocabulary to
 appropriate style according to audience; get the message across;
 cohesive devices and transitions to  Effective use of simple sentence
organize their writing; structures.

2. Writing tasks

 writing a single paragraph with a topic sentence that expresses a basic idea, with several
sentences that develop or support the main idea;
 writing a single paragraph describing a person, a place, or a thing
 writing a personal letter or an email to give information;
 writing a simple conversation or dialogue;
 Souad JIDOU
ELT Supervisor

 Transferring information (from a chart to a paragraph);

 Completing a paragraph/ a dialogue.

3. Suggested checklist for scoring criteria

Criteria Scoring

Relevance to the task 2

Appropriate paragraphing 1
& organization

Appropriateness & variety of 1

vocabulary

Accurate use of language and 1

mechanics

Final tips

✓ Teach as you test and test as you teach.

✓ Make use of the data you draw from assessment to improve your teaching as well as learners’
learning.
✓ Your assessment should be mainly criterion-referenced; that is, scores should provide
information about what testees know and can do with English.
✓ Inform students about how you assess and about your assessment methods and when.
✓ Provide your students with specific training to help them be familiar with your test content and
format.

A suggested layout of the Local Exam sheet