English Placement Test IIUM/UIAM

Assalamualaikum brothers and sisters, there's one major thing y'all need to know before being an International Islamic University Malaysia or in short IIUM student, that's y'all need to sit for quite a number of tests like English Placement Test, Arabic Placement Test, FKT (can't recall the full name but it basically tests your understanding about the fundamentals of Islamic teachings), Tilawah Proficiency Test, etc.

I'm not trying to frighten you, but it's the fact. But then again, who doesn't want to be a product of IIUM at the end of the day?

Okay, let's go back to the main agenda. I'd like to put a greater emphasis on English Placement Test or whatchamacallit EPT. Basically, what I'm gonna tell you is exactly based on my experience answering the test recently. First of all, why on earth I'm so excited to explain this to y'all? Because all of the Kuliyyahs (for eg, TESL, ENGIN, ECON, etc) except the ones that use Arabic as the medium of instruction (for eg, BARB, IRK, etc) have to score at least a Band 6in order to exit to the respective Kuliyyah.

Basically, the test consists of two parts; Reading Comprehension and Writing. Both of the parts are equally important for you to answer, but my advice would be - focus more on the writing part because it's a so-called major 'yardstick' to the university to assess your English proficiency. Let's say you got a Band 7 for your Reading Comprehension and a Band 5.5 for your Writing, do you think you're exempted and can exit to your Kuliyyah? The answer is NO! You've to score at least a Band 6 for your Writing in order for you to exit to your respective Kuliyyah. Actually it's not difficult for you to score an overall Band 6 for both of the papers, you only have to follow the right format for the academic writing and you're definitely safe from the game!

Y'all must be wondering why I keep on saying you can't exit to your Kuliyyah if you got below than 6. There is a reason why. If you scored a Band 6 for your writing and reading, then you're safe. If you scored a Band 6 for your reading and a Band 5 for your writing, then you're unsafe! Because you'll need to extend another one semester just to learn the English language and at the end of the semester you'll sit for the same test again and you must score a Band 6 for your writing and reading if you wish to exit to your Kuliyyah. If not, you'll be rotting up yourself at Centre for Languages and Pre-University Academic Development (CELPAD) until you master the language.

BEAR IN MIND THAT THE ESSAY WRITING WOULD BE AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY!

WRITING: QUESTION 2 (4 Paragraphs)

1) INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

• Background of the topic

• Status quo (what's happening in our society)

• Statistics

• Examples (but not too much)

• Thesis statement (VERY IMPORTANT, it's a statement where you put at the end of the paragraph that tells the readers what are you going to talk in your body paragraphs)

2) BODY PARAGRAPHS (2nd and 3rd paragraphs)

• Topic sentence (a sentence that generalizes the idea of your paragraph)

• Supporting details

• Elaborations of your supporting details (give examples to support your arguments, second them by facts and you'll possibly score a higher mark)

• Concluding sentence

3) CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

• Narrow statement (for e.g. your topic is about pollution and the narrow statement would possible be "In a nutshell, there are many factors that contribute to environmental pollution."

• Then, summarize your body paragraphs (summarize from the 3rd paragraph to the 2nd paragraph)

• Suggestion (what's your suggestion for the betterment of the topic being argued)

GOOD LUCK!

SAMPLE QUESTIONS:

READING COMPREHENSION

WRITING: QUESTION 1

WRITING: QUESTION 2

[taken from CLICK HERE]