Final Exam 2014

I am responsible to write, create and administer our Final Exam that will be measurable for Master’s Candidates and account for 40% of their final grade for this semester.  That seems like a pretty heavy responsibility.

I have been tasked this semester to prepare our Chinese Engineers to present in English their dissertation.  That part is the easy part; Chinese students are good at memorizing and reciting entire textbooks of information so a Master’s Dissertation isn’t such a big deal.  The hard part is preparing them to answer the English questions that will be directed to them from the committee and their peers.  They cannot be memorized and prepared in advance.  It is the unscripted English they really struggle with. 

We have spent a great deal of time in Oral English on many topics some prepared presentations and some impromptu, some timed in length and some a dialog of exchanges back and forth defending a position.  We have focused on narrative, compare and contrast, persuasion, political position papers, current events with the 5Ws,  negotiation techniques, we even spent time purchasing a hypothetical car! Our classes did everything I could think of that would push them to speak formally and informally in English. 

So now the Final Exam needs to reflect the skills they have acquired.  I have reverted to my Model United Nation experiences with students.  A simulation is always effective in demonstrating skills. So here it is The Spring Semester Final Exam for Oral English Master’s Candidates.

Students are divided into groups of five and each student has been assigned to do a five minute oral presentation on one of the candidate city/countries.  After each has been presented they will then have 30 minutes to discuss the options, negotiate and persuade the information they were given with their group.  They must come to a resolution of the problem and submit their choice of  one city/country of the five city/country candidates to the IOC Chairman. (That would be me) The IOC chairman reserves the right to ask any questions to the group regarding their decision or the process.  They are not allowed to finish early they must speak in English for 1 hour.

 

Which city/ country should host the 2022 Winter Olympics?

The Applicant Cities to host the 2022 Olympic Winter Games:

1. Krakow (Poland)

2. Oslo (Norway)

3. Almaty (Kazakhstan)

4. Lviv (Ukraine)

5. Beijing (China)

All met the 14 March 2014 deadline for submission to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of their Application Files.

1. Questionnaire

Theme 1 National, regional and Candidate City characteristics

Theme 2 Legal aspects

Theme 3 Customs and immigration formalities

Theme 4 Environmental protection and meteorology

Theme 5 Finance

Theme 6 Marketing

Theme 7 General sports concept

Theme 8 Sports

Theme 9 Paralympic Games

Theme 10 Olympic Village

Theme 11 Medical / Health services

Theme 12 Security

Theme 13 Accommodation

Theme 14 Transport

Theme 15 Technology

Theme 16 Communications and media services

Theme 17 Olympism and culture

Theme 18 Guarantees

Final Exam Rubric

1.    Key Points

2.    Eye Contact

3.    Clarity

4.    Speaking time

5.    Resolution Points

6.    20 points each=total of 100

Group assignment:

Topic assignment: Which city/country should host the 2022 Winter Olympics?

I will let you know how this all works after my six classes and Craig's six classes have completed the simulation. It should be a fun week for us.