Guidelines for the home exam in ARA1030
Date: 25th of November 2020
Platform: Inspera
What to review for the exam:
Lessons 1–9, esp. L6–9, in Al-Kitaab – Part One + the Quizlet sets + Quiz 1 + Canvas videos and worksheets + PDFs of the grammar lessons.
Duration: 4 hours.
Before the examination day of the home examination on 25th of November:
Please make sure that you have installed Arabic Keyboard on your computer/laptop and have familiarized yourself with its use.
Please carefully read the Exam Office's instructions regarding uploading pictures of handwriting and submitting an audio recording.
The digital examination
This final assessment aims to test your ability to use language that has been learned and practiced within familiar contexts. We want you to remember that success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, and, most of all, love what you are doing or learning to do. We want you to be your true authentic selves and try to complete your home exam without any external resources or aids. Keep in mind that any attempt in cheating will have severe consequences—most severe perhaps: if you are cheating, you are cheating yourself, and the effects of this will show after Corona.
The exam will have three major components: I Listening, II Vocabulary, III Grammar
For listening
You will have to listen to an Arabic audio/video three times. You decide the pause time between each listening. Then, you will have to answer some questions related to the audio/video, using complete sentences in Arabic.
Strategies to remember:
-Read the questions first so that you know what to focus on while listening.
-In the first listening be quick and take as many notes as you can; then, in the following listening you can add the important ideas.
-You need to answer in full, short, clear, and correct sentences.
For the vocabulary and grammar
You will have to complete different types of questions, such as “Fill in the blanks” and “text entry”.
Strategies to remember
-Take your time to make sure you understand exactly what you have to do. Always read the questions carefully.
-When you fill a blank, you should read everything first to get an idea about the context. Then focus on the sentence around the blank to decide which type of word you are going to use.
-Important grammatical categories to keep in mind while answering:
- using ??? or not for nouns and adjectives
- noun-adjective agreement
- subject-verb agreement
- feminine and masculine (?????? ???????)
- plural (sound / broken)
- tense (present / past)
- the root system, extended verb forms (II, III, IV, V, VIII), incl. verbal noun (??????)
- the register (formal / informal) (????? / ????)
Tell a story (written text)
You will be asked to write a short story based on a sequence of pictures. You have two ways to do that in Inspera:
1.Write your story with your own hand on a sheet of paper, then take a picture with your mobile phone and upload the picture to Inspera. (Please check the instructions sent by the Exam Office)
2.Type the story first on your laptop, and when you are sure that you have the final version, save it as PDF and upload it to Inspera. (Please check the instructions sent by the Exam Office)
Tell a story (oral text)
You will be asked to record a short text, using your own voice. To do this in Inspera,
-first, read the task carefully;
-then, make a draft containing the key points you want to make in your recording;
-go back to the task and make sure that your draft addresses the points you are asked to say something about.
-then record your statement, following the instructions listed in the Exam Office email.
-feel free to use ????? or ???? , but try to be as truthful as possible to the register you choose, i.e., stick to the formal or informal level you choose, both with regard to vocabulary and grammar;
-while recording, do not be afraid to make mistakes – this is only natural! Simply correct yourself as soon as you notice that something wasn’t correct. The correction will show us that you are aware of how it should be. J
-use the vocabulary of Al-Kitaab.
Key Note to keep in mind:
Besides each task, we will mention if you need to write directly in Inspera, upload pictures, or upload audio.
You need to achieve 50% of each of the three components to pass the exam.