Analysis of the Bagrut ExamsJune 2010

Rina Akotonas,, Access Project DirectorAhuva Dotan, English Counselor

What did we choose to show?

• The complexity of certain Reading Passages• The complexity of certain questions : 1. the way they are formulated,2. the time the answers would take,3. the intellectual effort they demand.

MODULE C

http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/Mazkirut_Pedagogit/English/Bagrut/2010.htm

Title : students may not guess the implications easily.First Sentence – the topic becomes familiar.

Question 1. – TWO possible answersQuestion 2. – the key word is ‘persuaded’Question 3 . Teach the students that there are two answers ,one will appear at the beginning of the paragraph and one at the end.

Question 4 .ii and iv are confusing – the students tend to confuse how with why .

Question 7. It demands rewriting skills – must has been replaced with should ( Is it the same ? )

Question 8. No paragraph is mentioned , so the students have to scan the questions and the text , which may waste a lot of time. Teach them to leave this kind of question for the end.

MODULE D

http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/Mazkirut_Pedagogit/English/Bagrut/2010.htm

Reading PassageQuestion 2.Demands rewriting . Teach that skill in class.Question 3.Demands drawing conclusions and

complete a given sentence .Question 5. Demands working on two paragraphs’ main

idea and writing.

Writing

A Description is the most difficult skill in writing. Most teachers deal with writing an informal letter and dislike dealing with a description. We feel the students didn’t do well in writing because they haven’t been trained on describing.Please refer to the booklet developed by Access Teachers on Amal Site.

MODULE E

http://cms.education.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/74F75C10-3086-4030-9DBC-C5DCC66C294C/118203/D0161060610.pdf

Reading PassageThe title is familiar .Question 1. The word ‘explained ‘ needs to be clear.Question 6. Again the word ‘ understand ‘ may create a difficulty . Make sure the students control the key words in a question.

Question 8 . ‘convenience ‘ is a tricky word here.

Listening

http://cms.education.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/74F75C10-3086-4030-9DBC-C5DCC66C294C/118203/D0161060610.pdf